myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

We will be in Tobago staying near Charlottesville from March 23-30th and are in needing of a portable wifi device with unlimited data. Does anyone know where I can rent something like this on the Island? Or have it delivered to our cottage?

Hi Jan

Welcome aboard!

I am not aware of anywhere that you can rent Wi-Fi devices on Tobago.

Although broadband access has improved dramatically on the island in recent years, reception and speed is still erratic and unreliable. I have no personal experience of Wi-Fi in the Charlotteville area, but the landline infrastructure is pretty atrocious and cellular reception erratic.

Your first port of call should be the owner of wherever you are staying. The vast majority of rental properties and guest houses now provide complimentary Wi-Fi access - but be prepared for erratic performance and slow speeds. The owner will/should be able to tell you whether cellular reception is any good in that area. If the property doesn't have Wi-Fi, then if cellular reception is okay you might want to approach Digiceltt.com or bmobile.co.tt, the two cellular services operating on the island, to see about buying a Wi-Fi dongle.

I would be most interested to hear from you when you find a solution as this is something that will be of interest to a lot of users - including myself.

Landline, dial up , is unreliable but the Blink box arrangement we have is better than the Talk Talk at home! Castara has a central wifi hub to which all the Blink boxes link. Reception is really good even without 'line of sight' .We have had it for several years so hopefully Charlotteville has it ?
Check to see what set up the property has. Very few people are still on the old system.
You really do not want to spend a whole day travelling to and from Scarborough and sitting in the phone company office trying to get a dongle! Always call first to see if they have any available. Years ago we did get a dongle in the phone shop across from the arrivals at the airport.
Do not be tempted to leave your smartphone on roaming ..... The bill will be frightening!

Hi All,
We purchased a Digicel dongle several years ago from a small computer shop (we have used this company for a long time) in Scarborough and then pay them a monthly fee to handle our account with Digicel. I do not know if you can deal directly with Bmobile or Digicel nor would you wish to...their customer service leaves a lot to be desired! Unfortunately erratic and slow doesn't even describe our connection at times; want to cry in frustration! We're in the Studley Park area.
Plan to check out Blink sometime in the next month...thought you need a landline to use? Will post info as we explore options to improve our internet connection.
Cheers,
Carol

Hi
You can get Bmobile connection via TSTT in Scarborough, via a separate mobilphone, but it's SLOW, the maximum I've seen so far is 460kBIT! It's like being back to the early 90's.

You do not need a landline for Blinkbox connection!
Just checked Download 713.82 and Upload 558.58 and looking around that is with 2 guests online as well as me. I guess if you are streaming tennis, ( God help you ) or rugby / cricket ( God please help the English team )you may need something faster but we do alright with it as it is. "0odd years ago this village did not have electricity now we are complaining about the speed of the internet! My nephew's iphone was confiscated upon arrival by his wife so he could not contact his office and vice versa!

Hi Chris

I agree, the Blinkbox is by far the best way - but as far as I know, they are only available on a minimum of 12 months contract and, I believe, you have to be a T&T resident or have a permanent local address. They are not available for visitors.

And they do not currently have any in stock in Scarborough! Somebody up in Charlotteville must be on blinkbox?

Hi All,

Thanks so much for the feedback and suggestions. We decided to rent a MIFI from http://www.cellomobile.com/. It will cost us about $150 for the duration of our trip. They will ship it to our home before we leave. It is unlmited data/no overage charges and up to 5 people can connect at once. They guarantee that it will work on the island, so I'm really hoping that is the case. I will post again after my trip to give you all an update.


Thanks again,
Jan