Lets see....

If youre going to get a family shared minute plan, then you'll be paying for one line at around $50 and then every other line is either $10-20 (i dont remember offhand)....which is your second best option to getting a pay-as-you-go phone as you'll only be paying an extra $10-20 a month instead of a standalone price of $50-60 for a non-family shared plan.

In terms of calling your family from here with your cell phone, there is no cheap option. You'd have to use bmobile or digicel here and those arent cheap in terms of calling back home. I couldnt really think of how youd use a phone that still has a tmobile or at&t sim card in it here (unless it has roaming capabilities and your carrier knows your overseas - if you did, expect to pay somewhere bewteen $1-3 per minute). So having unlimited mobile-to-mobile has no impact at all - its actually useless for you while youre down here.

I think you have two options:

1. Switch you family over to tmobile but dont get a rate plan yourself (ie. you dont switch over and instead cancel). What you will do is get a cheap pay-as-you-go phone and get it unlocked (PM me about that if ya want) and use it down here without worrying about a contract
2. Switch everyone over to tmo (or at&t depending on whats the best service near you) and get your phone unlocked by the carrier themselves. Most carriers will unlock your phone for you after 90days, and some may even do it sooner. While you'll be paying for the second line (yours) while youre in GND, you will at least still have the same number (if you decide to port) and you will be able to utilize the minutes when you go back home.

Let me know if you've got any other q's....hope that helps

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Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That is why it's called the present.

I wouldn't think that you could still use the family plan down in grenada. You get charged a lot of roaming fees I think. If you are with T-mobile it may be different. I am on verizon and my phone didn't even get signal down there. I just bouhgt a cheap phone from B-mobile on the island and paid as I went. I think i paid 20EC for the phone and put 100EC worth of minutes on it. I topped up once to 100EC again. That is all I used for the entire semester, and I text message A LOT!

Just used skype to call home. However if anyone wanted to call me from the US it was free. so if someone wnats to just call you when you aren't near your comp it only charges them...not you.

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B. Seay, MPH

"Forget regret, or life is your's to miss"

hi guys,

my aunt and uncle bought me an iphone for christmas, and i am planning on bringing it dwon to grenada in aug. i'm not sure, but i believe iphone doesn't use interexchangable sim cards like normal phones
(i could be wrong ). there is an international plan...but i am up for any suggestions you guys have for me!!

To the OP, you can choose to keep your line on the family plan, and you'll be paying a flat $10 a month, and then you can use it whenever you come back home.

Blake, the iphone does have a sim card - theres a little pin hole, i believe at the top, that you put a paperclip through and pop out the sim card.

What you'll have to do though is unlock and jailbreak your iphone. Here is one link that I trust (although there are thousands of others detailing how to do this) How To: Jailbreak Your iPhone or iPod Touch with One Click

Beware, if youre waiting to utilize the app store from apple or download the 2.0 firmware, your phone may become locked to apple again - but im sure theyll break the final 2.0 firmware as well.

DO NOT get the international plan - the data rates and voice rates for that are absurd...

Best bet, follow the link (its a very simple procedure) jailbreak and unlock your iphone, come down here, buy a sim card, pop out your AT&T one and use either bmobile's or digicel's....

I have at least two friends who are using their iphones down here without any problems

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Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That is why it's called the present.

Verizon and Sprint work on the archaic technology called CDMA, whereas the rest of the world uses GSM (AT&T and T-Mobile in the US). That's why your Verizon phone doesn't work in Grenada. To put this in perspective: people with verizon and sprint have horrible service in some parts of the US, yet my cheap GSM digicel phone from St. Vincent worked on top of Mt. Soufrie (I know I spelled that wrong), an active volcano 4,000+ feet. I called my family at the top of the volcano near the edge of the crater and they could hear me perfectly.

I wouldn't call CDMA archaic; GSM technology is actually older and was deployed first. CDMA is annoying in that you can't hop from network to network like you can by changing your SIM card with GSM phones, but there are some definite advantages, like having less radiation going into your brain and testicles (when the phone's in your pocket, unless you're really flexible).

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Washington: How do you ever get anything done if all you ever do is argue with each other?
Church: We don't! That's part of our charm!

SGU '12, Specialization in the Care and Feeding of Trolls.

Honestly, CDMA will be nearing its end in the next 10years (give or take). With the increase of 3G and even the beginnings of 4G (for GSM) as well as LTE (the next step past CDMA), we'll see an end to CDMA frequency usage overall.

This is mainly due to a shift towards increased bandwidth usage due to internet usage, videos, and even TV on cell phones - CDMA, even Rev A or C, just cant handle these heavy loads.

Plus, dont forget, CDMA carriers lock their phones to their network (although they are beginining to move from that avenue) and lack sim cards (most). Thats another turn off to consumers who wish to take their phones with them from carrier to carrier.

The iphone has really made a huge shift for people as well as carriers - almost every cell phone provider is putting out some sort of "iphone killer" like the LG Glide or the Samsung Instinct, and even a new blackberry thats coming out around november thats supposed to be touchscreen (huge blackberry afficianado)...with this shift comes this increased bandwidth usage and so you'll need better networks, and thus, CDMA begins its slow death...but it'll still be used in certain places that dont want high testicular radiation...ha!

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Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That is why it's called the present.

Hey thanks so much for the great advice here!

There are a few questions I still have, if anyone knows the answer...

1. So if I buy a Grenada SIM card... that's just for local Grenada calls, right? Are those also prepaid cards? Does it cost much to call locally in Grenada? Also, if I buy a Grenada SIM card, does it change my US number to a Grenada number (while I'm using the Grenada SIM card) so that people locally in Grenada can call me without paying international fees?

2. If I have the Grenada SIM card in my phone, can someone calling my cell phone (on the US number) still reach me? Conversely, when I have my US SIM card in, can someone calling me locally in Grenada still get in touch over the phone?

3. If I still have the same SIM card from the US, then how does the phone 'know' that I'm not in the US? I'm just trying to understand why my family plan wouldn't work if I'm in Grenada, since I'm assuming I'd still have a US number and a US SIM card.

4. Are prepaid (pay-as-you-go) rates LOWER than international plans? I went to Tmobile's website, and it says that calls from Grenada to the US are about $1.69 for BOTH incoming and outgoing calls. (In this case, I'd wonder if mobile-to-mobile I didn't see any international plans listed on the Tmobile website, so I wasn't sure if this was a plan rate or the pay-as-you-go rate (though I think it's the latter). I can't imagine how much more expensive a plan might be. Does $1.69 seem excessive to all of you? Are there any cheaper alternatives on the cell-phone besides skype?

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Formerly known as "rkaz".

Yes - you're getting a cell phone number that is for Grenada. This has nothing to do with your U.S. number as they are separate sim cards. It is prepaid and I think is between 20-40EC Cents per minute (depends on what youre calling, landline, other cell, other cell on the same provider, and depends on what time, day, weeknight, weekend). Here's an easy to way to think of it, the same way you have a phone number in the U.S. is the same here. Everyone can call you and you can call everyone. Outbound calls on prepaid phones always cost. By the way, you CAN call the U.S. from your grenada cell phone, its just that it costs significantly more per minute...

No. Sim cards assign a specific number to your phone and only that number. If you have your grenada sim card in, then only your grenada number will be available (your U.S. phone number will go direct to voicemail) and vice versa.

Because you will be, whats considered, roaming. The phone companies are aware when you are using their cell towers and when you are using others. Furthermore, they will know that you are international because of the same reason and other reasons that I dont remember right now. While you'll still MAY be able to use your phone down here (as long as its AT&T or Tmobile (GSM) since Sprint and Verizon are CDMA), again, its at a significantly higher cost per minute even though you have a family share plan.

Sorry, but your question is kinda convoluted. Pay-as-you-go rates for the states and prepaid here in grenada are at different costs and offer different features. In the U.S., you may get free mobile to mobile on their network and only pay, lets say, 15-20cents per minute with free nights and weekends. Here in Grenada, you really dont get much of that but the calls are usually 20-30EC cents which is somewhere around 15cents U.S.

As for the tmobile rate you saw, look at it this way, if you were to have a 20min conversation with someone, which isnt that long depending on your phone habits, you'd be paying $34 US per conversation. Plus god knows how many 1-2-5 min conversations youd have with classmates etc. It adds up. This is truly not an option unless you dont care about money. That rate, im almost positive is ON TOP of what you'd be paying for the pay as you go rate as well. So figure somewhere around $2 a minute...steep.

Nearly everyone here does the following:

Gets either a new phone with a prepaid plan here from one of the two carriers....or
Brings their unlocked phone down and buys a sim card with a prepaid plan.

As for calling home, nearly everyone utilizes mainly skype - ive seen a couple use vonage, which is more expensive. Which is better? I dont really know since I've only used skype, and I'm getting great service (much better than last august).

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Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That is why it's called the present.