cell phone inquiries

[Cindy W]

Hi,

We will be leaving for Tobago in about 3 weeks. Does anyone know of anywhere that rents cell phones on Tobago? We have a business back home and a disabled son so I need to occasionally call the U.S. and visa versa.

Or I can buy a sim card for my global phone but I'm not sure if the rates I found are correct and it is the weekend and they are closed.

Does anyone know what Digicel rates are for cell phones making calls to the U.S. If I'm reading their website correct it looks like $1.30 per minute. That is pretty expensive.

http://www.digiceltt.com/en/prepaid/prepaid_tariffs

I have sim cards for BVI's and St. Vincent and Lime only charges about .30 to call the U.S. . . .

I am thinking about either renting a cell phone to avoid buying another sim card @$40.00 for my global phone or using Telna that has a wifi calling feature where you can make calls when hooked up to a wifi connection for free, but would rather be able to call when I want.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

[David Watkins]

Cindy,it depends where you are staying some places provide a mobile phone on loan you just have to load it with $$$$$
The prices quoted on the Digicel site are TT dollar not US.Also you can buy a Digicel mobile phone for about USD 10
(sorry for mobile read cell ).
David

[Cindy W]

I would prefer to use my own mobile phone because i also have an option if i'm connected to a wifi the calls are free with the service I have at home. I chatted online with a bmobile person and she said they sell sim cards at the trinidad airport and "cut" them to be the micro sim card size; and the $ amounts on their website were also in TT. So if i'm calculating right 1.30 would work out to be about .22 cents per minute to call the U.S? that sounds better. Would this be correct?

[Carol G]

Hi Cindy,
Yes, David is correct the prices on the website are in TT...BTW, VAT is 15%
I was going to suggest just buying a cheap phone (100-120TT) and buy a top up card; can do just about anywhere. I call my kids in Canada periodically and it's never costs and arm and a leg....otherwise we use email.
But since you want to use your own phone...sometime to think about. What time are you arriving in Port of Spain?... we arrived before 6:00am and no one seemed to know when the only phone store in the airport would be open. There are a number of Digicel stores in Tobago. I would however, be a little leery of "cut" the SIM card and have you absolutely confirmed with your provider you will not be hit with roaming charges?
Cheers,
Carol

[Cindy W]

I should have explained a little more. We have an unlocked global phone from Verizon. It has a vodaphone sim card in it for Verizon usage in the U.S. We can take out the sim card and put another card in it from wherever we travel to for local rates. We will be arriving in POS at noon I think. There will be no roaming charges because I will be using a Digicel or Bmobile sim card when I get there (hopefully); not my U.S. cell phone company. I guess it is just now boiling down to finding a Digicel or Bmobile store that sells these sim cards; and I'm finding out they are everywhere.

Yes the "cutting" of the card did throw me off a bit, but she explained there is a device specifically for this to make a regular sim card a mini sim card; we'll see on that as well.

Alibaba's said they have a cell phone we can use for free (we pay top ups) when we get there. We will not be there until the last 6 days of our trip though. That is pretty neat of them.

[Andy K]

Cindy,

i always buy my (unlocked) phones overseas and push a BMOBILE or DIGICEL sim into it. Works fine.
A sim at DIGICEL is TT$ 100.00 and you get TT$ 30.00 airtime credit with it. So the sim costs you actually
TT$ 70.00. I recommend DIGICEL for your purpose.
I am not too sure where DIGICEL stores are in Tobago because i do those transactions in Trinidad.
One store i know about is in Lowlands (Gulf City) Mall.

[Cindy W]

thanks for the specific money amounts

[Ronald]

Added to Andy´s answer..

Sometimes the store in Lowlands Mall doesn´t have everything one need, if so, than you have to go to Scarborough. The staff at Lowlands Mall can point out the shop if you have a map or they can explan in words of course.

[Chris]

i don't want to open a new thread, so here is my question:

i'm going to visit Tobago and do i understand right that it is possible to buy a prepaid SIM card for mobile cell phones? so i don't need my own card which wouldn't work in T&T at all.

thanks
chris

[Cindy W]

We just came from Tobago. Yes it is possible. But 1st your cell phone has to be unlocked and a gsm phone, check with your carrier. I am assuming you have an android smartphone. Do not know anything regarding IPhone issues. Then the only place that I found to purchase the card was at the Lowlands Mall there is a Digicel store. The card only cost about $7US and then you add money to it, make sure you ask them how to add the money to it because I thought they automatically did it when I purchased an additional $25 but you have to punch in some codes that are on your receipt into the phone after the sim card is installed, ask them nicely to do it for you and they will. At first I had no idea what she was telling me. One girl was impatient with me and one was nice enough to understand that I did not understand and she just did it for me. Any more questions, please ask. The other alternative is to purchase one from www.mrsimcard.com before you go, but he charges about $40US.

[Chris]

perfect, the card from this store seems to be exactly what i need thank you very much, that helps a lot!

[Frank and Mina]

Just arrived home after 3 weeks of sunshine and carnival in T and T.

To our great surprise none of our older UK phones connected any more in Tobago. Usually one gets bombarded with welcoming texts from Bmobile and invitations to sign up for rip off roaming from our UK providers.

Our Bmobile SIM worked fine in Min'as 4G phone.

Enquiries drew a blank other than one shop where we were told "Dem changed the system last May".

About two days before we left Tobago I got a message from a friend who had been looking into it that Bmobile and Digicel now don't use the 1800 MHz band. Our older UK phones are dual band but evidentally not the right bands any more.

Coincidentally, whilst walking past the cell mast at Breeze Hall the day before I read the message, I noticed a set of aerial arrays with chopped off cable lying on the ground below. Presumably for the band which has been taken out of service.

So if you are thinking of taking an older phone with you, be warned, it might no longer work, even with your Tobago SIM.


Frank

[Andy K]

Older phones with just 1800 / 900 MHz transceivers don't work in T&T anymore.
You need to bring a quad-band phone.
The information you got in the store that "they took it off in May" is correct.

[Frank and Mina]

Hi Andy

Thanks for that confirmation.

I had a feeling that you would be the person most likely to come up with an accurate answer on the forum!

I guess those redundant aerials will lie on the ground until they corrode from the effects of 'sea blast'.

I'm already looking out for a fairly basic and cheap uncomplicated quad band phone to bring next time. Mina's 4G smartphone worked fine but I wouldn't know where to start finding my way around its menus!

Most up to date users will have compatible phones already so only us antique 'dumbphone' users are affected by the change.


Frank

[Andy K]

Frank,

dual band phones are really outdated and i wonder why yours is still working
BMOBILE offered their affected customers some months before May 2012 the option
to exchange the phone to a newer model for small money.
And the aerials are still there, nobody dismatled them

Now, as for DIGICEL pre-paid SIMcards, the DIGICEL outlets are mostly "out of stock".
They rather want to sell such a card with a new phone.
But don't be discouraged, usually RADIO SHACK at Lowlands Mall and other free phone outlets
carry DIGICEL pre-paid SIMs.
Actual price is TT$ 50.00 including TT$ 20.00 in airtime credit.
You need to carry your phone to the shop when you purchase the SIM.