Hi, Just wondering what everyone is doing about the phone situation. I am going to download skype and understand that you can get a cell phone for local calls in grenada. I read in the "welcome to grenada book" on the page in the link here... Getting a Phone Welcome to Grenada
that you can get a dual-band gsm phone with two sim cards, one for US and one for Grenada. But my main concern is using the cell phone to call the US. Any advice?

We had sprint and looked into getting a SIM card but decided against it. I was glad I didn't get one because the 2 large cell phone companies are on campus the week of orientation and it was cheaper to pay-as-you-go than paying for our monthly sprint plan. You can buy your phone right there (and they have promotions, so you can double your minutes or get the phone free etc) and the rates for local calls are fine but for long distance, you really want to use Skype or something else, because its like 90c EC a minute which is around 30c US a minute. I haven't checked the rates in a while since I use Skype but those were the rates when I bought my phone in Jan. Before I had Skype down here (maybe the 1st 3 weeks of class), I put like 300 EC on the phone to call home. Once I got Skype, its free.

Cost for phones was variable - 50 EC up to 100s if you wanted to. Most of the phones are pay-as-you-go, and not pre-paid plans, so you just put 100 EC on the phone when you get it and then you can use it till it runs out and there are "top off" places everywhere that you can add money to the phone when you run out of minutes. Then you can also sell your phone once you leave because it is not tied to pre-paid plan and there are no penalties or whatever.

So, I guess my advice would be to get Skype for long distance and not try to use a cell phone to call the US.

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~~SGU M1~~
Class of 2012

thanks a lot, that was very helpful! so NO calling the US with the cell phones i guess, skype only. i was thinking of doing the 2 sim card thing with a US plan through cingular/at&t though only so that I have a phone for local calls in grenada and a phone for home. do you think that is ok or a waste?

I guess check with your plan. I also found though our Sprint plan that I had to pay for international calls - they were not included in my existing plan so I either had to update to a more expensive plan (which as you know with Sprint, means another 2 years of being tied to them or pay a hefty fee) or keep the one I had and pay for each US call.

I think it would be more convenient to have 1 phone but I talk to my family a lot, so I knew after a couple weeks of paying 300 EC (about $112 US) to talk to them, that I needed to get Skype. If I had had Sprint, my bill would have been much higher. Maybe cingular has a better deal?

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~~SGU M1~~
Class of 2012

I also still pay for my Sprint plan but its on "hold"- about $12 US a month for 2 lines - to keep it going so when I get home in a couple days (woo-hoo) I have a phone I can use.

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~~SGU M1~~
Class of 2012

If you have AT&T or T-Mobile, and have been with them for 90days or more (and sometimes that doesnt even matter), you can call them and ask them to unlock your phone. What this does, for those who are unaware, is it allows you to use your phone with other wireless carriers. It does not affect your account with AT&T or TMobile. Sprint and Verizon customers (unless you have the world blackberry from Verizon) do not have this option as those two carriers use a different technology, CDMA.

AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM network which is also used in Grenada. However, I would suggest making sure that your phone has all 4 bands available, as BMobile and Digicell, the two wireless carriers in Grenada, use specific bands (900 and 1800 for Digicell and 850 and 1900 for BMobile).

The easiest way of determining what bands your phone has is to type the model of the phone along with the word "specs" into google and making sure that it shows GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (or some variation) in one of the links you'd click on. While you could bring down a two band or triband phone, it may limit you on your choices.

Then, all you'd have to do in August, is simply purchase a sim card and some minutes when you get down here.

The reason I suggest this method, is because I've seen the selection of phones down here, and honestly, they are not worth the money (albeit you're spending little). IMHO, if possible, bring your current phone down, or if not, purchase a decent cheap phone in the States, unlock it, and bring it down. Unlocking is simple - put the phone model into google along with the words "unlock" and in most instances (but not all) there is a string of characters and numbers you have to enter to manually unlock a phone.

Any questions, feel free to PM me.

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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 forgot to mention...

In terms of calling back home, nut was right - you dont really want to use your cell phone to call home - its ridiculously expensive. And as for having a phone with two sim cards - I have yet to see one that works the way everyone expects...usually, you have to set the phone to accept calls only from one sim card at a time.

Good suggestion is to get either a good headset and microphone (unless its already built into your laptop) for Skype or even get a cordless one like this one, which I personally use and have found to be awesome...

Linksys.com - Products/Wireless/Voice & iPhone Products/iPhone Products/CIT300

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

Thanks a lot for your advice epijunky, I really appreciate it. So, should I get a plan at home before I go or not? (I don't have a plan now) Just a little bit confused.

No - just get a pay-as-you-go phone from either AT&T or T-Mobile. Both offer phones without contracts and most are cheap (between $20-$50). No need to get a plan in the U.S. right now since you'll be here for 2yrs...Check out AT&T, like the Samsung A117. I'm using that down here right now and its great. You can unlock it by searching for unlock a117 into google and getting the directions.

Let me know if you have any other questions...

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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 there.... I thought I had a question on cell phones, and found this thread through a search.

Here's my situation.... I very likely will matriculate at SGU this coming January (2009). I currently use a sprint phone (and have a family plan with my parents and sister). However, our phone contract is expiring very soon, so we are going to change providers (as my family is unhappy with Sprint). Instead, we are planning to switch to Tmobile. Since I still have 6 months before starting school, what should I do? Can I request a pay-as-you-go for my phone only (even though the rest of my family will have a minute plan)? This doesn't seem likely (since minutes are shared). However, if we sign up for a family plan with one phone for each person... and the contracts are a few years.... then I don't want to still be paying for minutes I wasn't using.

For any of you on a 'family plan' with family still living in the US, do you still get free mobile-to-mobile minutes with your family (even though you are in Grenada and they are there)? I was planning to follow the above advice and just change my SIM card/unlock the phone once I got to Grenada.... but I'm just wondering if I could still call my family at low cost if we all have the same shared plan.

Advice would be most appreciated! Thanks

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Formerly known as "rkaz".