TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Pocket wifi

Has anyone used a pocket wifi in St. Maarten if so what brand did you use and how was the reception.

Thank you

Never heard of this, what is it??

I wouldn't take the chance. 3G is unreliable on Island and 4G is not available. I have a SIM card with Dauphin (French Cell that switches to TellCell for Dutch side) and sometimes get 3G on French side, but never on the Dutch side. I wouldn't chance it if you were counting on connectivity via 3G. Wifi is available at most places on the Island.

UTS now has 4G on the island. Rolled out last November and is available to both UTS Post-Paid and Pre-Paid Chippie service.

It sounds like a personal hotspot that uses cell towers to connect to the internet. In other words, your wifi device connects to the pocket wifi and in turn that connects to the cell network. I had a personal hotspot that my wife used in our car to connect to the internet while on the road. We eventually gave it up because we didn't use it enough to justify the monthly cost. I once saw a family about to use one at Mullet beach because they thought that it would be free(they had the little wifi icon on their phone)until I told them that they would be charged for roaming because it really uses cell time. They were hesitant to believe me until a woman sitting next to them confirmed what I said.

Got it! I have to stay connected - 10 bucks a day through Verizon I find well worth the expense. Phone works the same as it does back in the states.

I purchased a Skyroam unit for about $100 and it came with 5 free day passes which each pass once you start it last 24 hours. Extra day passes are $8 per day.

I just recently used it in Cabo and it worked pretty good, sometimes tough inside our hotel room but if I put it near the patio it worked better. I could walk around town and be connected and when we drove to Todos Santos it worked almost the entire trip which allowed us to use google maps for the best route (north Cabo to find the main road is a lot easier with mapping, as is the way back through there).

I got it with the idea that I am going to India in October and then possibly will use on SXM in November. It states that it works in both.

The best you get is 3g, but that worked fine and you can have up to 4 devices connected at the same time. I am pretty happy with it so far.

Cheers,
T

Can u give me a link. Thanks

Tried my Verizon mifi many times on island, does not work!

You're lucky it didn't, as you would have been hit with some serious roaming charged if it had.

If your referring to Verizon - I was not hit with ANY additional fees except for the 10.00 per 24 hour period on each phone that I set up for the Verizon International service. Zero roaming charges or data overages. My phone worked and acted exactly like it does in the states. I still have my phone from Sharon for calling numbers on the island which worked great.

The Verizon MiFi works differently, if I'm not mistaken.

Ha - just put my glasses on!! Yes MiFi is different - whoops!! We did look into it and knew the 10 a day was a guarantee to work. Verizon tried to tell us there were hotspots in the island as well - NOT!!

Just to clarify, are you able to use your Verizon phone with the International plan to make local calls on island, or is a phone from Sharon still needed for local calls? Thanks.

I use from Sharon as i don't have international dialing on my phone. That's too expensive!!!!

Thanks so much, Kim, for the info.

I noticed someone used SkyRoam which we recently used in Malaysia. Has anyone used XCom Global International for pocket wifi?

Unfortunately SkyRoam has limited service areas in the Caribbean.

Hi, I'm not a techy, so I really don't know much about all the gadgets you all talk about. I do know one thing...not many of them work in St. Martin. When wifi is working (on again, off again), I use FaceTime, Skype, Netflix etc. When it's not, (limited service in SXM is an understatement). it doesn't really matter because, you can go to the beach. Most of the phone companies in the States will tell you they all work in SXM...they don't or it costs you more than they tell you. If you absolutely have to make a call just stop and get some lunch on the beach somewhere, use their wifi, make the call, then relax and enjoy a stress free holiday. Don't waste your vacation money on gadgets that you (most likely) disappointed with or are unreliable. The easiest thing to do is rent a phone from Sharon or buy a sim for $25 and use the gadget you already have. Buy a few bucks worth of minutes on Bla Bla or any other card, have the same phone # year after year, have the same sim year after year, no fuss. I've used the same cheap Nokia phone, Dauphin sim and Tel # for 20 years. Total dollar amount invested.....$50 in 1996 + $5 (per yr) call minutes. OK, done rambling. Enjoy.

Simply put its a router you can carry in your pocket which allow you to get on the internet anywhere

What is pocket wifi? You guys talking about making your phone a hotspot so you can log on with a tablet or laptop?
???????
irina

Similar, but it is a small device that works off of the cell networks that allows WiFi. Not something that I will use in the US but for $8 a day in Mexico I had WiFi about everywhere I went.

Google Sky roaming.
Cheers, Todd

But why not just use your phone as hotspot instead of carrying something else? What's the upside?
Thanks
irina

In order to use your phone as a hotspot you must go to your cell phone carrier and subscribe for one. Basically you are, in effect, getting another phone line and you will pay a monthly charge for it.

Not sure what kind of phone you have, but I have an iPhone 6 with Verizon and you can make it a "personal hotspot" instantly. No extra charges. Which is exactly what I did in SXM at the beach for my son to do some homework. No extra charges

I don't have to worry about data use, and I have not used it in SXM but have in Mexico and it worked great. I tried it there before going to India in the fall.

If you are on say Verizon, for $25 you get 100 MB of Data. I believe you can also do $10 a day that gives you a Travel Pass that works off your existing plan. It is not free. Mobile Hot Spot in the US uses a bunch of data, especially if you have several people using it. Skyroam gives you use of 4 devices.

I am not an expert on data use, but I have paid overages noting that I own a company with 10 Verizon phones on one contract.

Cheers,
T

Yes you can turn your iphone 6 into a personal hotspot but your phone will still be using the cell network. What I was talking about was a device that becomes a personal hotspot but is faster. Your iphone merely connects your device, e.g. computer to it and then sends all data over the cell network. Your computer is NOT actually hooked up to any other wifi.

Maybe it's because I have a business account. 12 lines and 43 mb of data. But we just used the 10.00/24 hour period. Data usage wasn't any different than at home. And hotspot was simple for son as I wasn't giving him the usage pass!!!

Todd, I don't see on their website that it works in St Maarten/Martin.

Is that based on Netherlands/France coverage?

There is currently a $25 off offer for purchase.

gary

$25 discount code is EM25, if anyone is interested.

gary

After my post to Todd, above, I fired off an inquiry to SkyRoam. Caribbean and specifically St Maarten/Martin.

Just got a response. (Great customer service!!!!).

Hi Gary,

Thank you for your inquiry. Unfortunately, we don't currently have coverage in the region you asked about. You can check out the list of countries under our coverage here:

www.skyroam.com/coverage

We're working on having it covered! Feel free to sign up with our newsletter on our home page to get updates on coverage. Let us know if you have more questions about our coverage, more than happy to answer them!


gary