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Using Phone in Puerto Rico/St. Thomas questions..

CruiseAdict218

By CruiseAdict218,
in St. Thomas/St. John

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Pia1913

Pia1913

Posted
Posted
If I have unlimted Texting/Internet on my phone will I get charged anything extra in these two islands? We have Verizon by the way. I don't plan on using my phone in Antigua or Bermuda.

 

No knowledge of Verizon, but I have Sprint and usage from both these places is like being at home. No extra charges.

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Pia1913

Pia1913

Posted
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Can't speak for St. Thomas, but Puerto Rico is US territory and so there are no additional charges....just like home on Verizon!

 

St Thomas the same: US Virgin Islands. If it's free in PR, it should be the same in ST.

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ikey78

ikey78

Posted
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We were in St. Thomas recently. My Verizon Droid X was in roam mode meaning you have to pay extra for everything including texting. AT&T on my wife's iPhone was not roaming and there were no extra charges.

 

I believe Verizon used to be included in the US plans but this changed sometime in the last 2 years. Not sure if the same applies to Puerto Rico.

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more cruises

more cruises

Posted
Posted

I didn't think this was such a tough question until i started looking into it. When I upgraded my Verizon phone in January I got all the new coverage maps. It clearly shows PR and USVI so I assumed both were covered. Since you got conflicting answers I checked the web site. It looks like PR is same as domestic and St Thomas is $1.99 pr minute but texting is same as domestic.

 

Go to Verizonwireless.com and put in St Thomas in the search field. The more I looked the more confusing it got. I'm sure I had my smartphone on in St Thomas but I don't see any extra charges on the bill.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what other answers you get.

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cruiseron36

cruiseron36

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I didn't think this was such a tough question until i started looking into it. When I upgraded my Verizon phone in January I got all the new coverage maps. It clearly shows PR and USVI so I assumed both were covered. Since you got conflicting answers I checked the web site. It looks like PR is same as domestic and St Thomas is $1.99 pr minute but texting is same as domestic.

 

Go to Verizonwireless.com and put in St Thomas in the search field. The more I looked the more confusing it got. I'm sure I had my smartphone on in St Thomas but I don't see any extra charges on the bill.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what other answers you get.

 

If you type PR in it also says there is a roaming charge??? It is very confusing. Don't call them because they don't know either. We need someone with Verizon who has recently been to St Thomas. Their coverage map shows a big red dot on Charlotte Amakie, which is in St Thomas. They also show another small island off the southeast coast of PR as red.

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Laurab23

Laurab23

Posted
Posted
If you want to know for sure, turn off the roaming capability and if the call goes through, it's free.

 

I have a droid with verizon.How do I thurn off the roaming capability?

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Pia1913

Pia1913

Posted
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I have a droid with verizon.How do I thurn off the roaming capability?

 

On my phone (old kind; Sprint/Sanyo) I go to settings, then to Other and then to Roaming. There is an option that says SET MODE and there are two options: Automatic or Sprint Only. I choose Sprint and that's it.

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cruisinreunion

cruisinreunion

Posted
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I have verizon too, and as you are probably in bed getting ready for tomorrow, as I should be too, I don't know if you will get this message in time or not. I called verizon, I have a Druid and this is what they told me to do.. You need to put your phone in airplane mode when you get there..it will not allow any roaming etc when you don't want it, but you will need to turn it back on when you want to send a text. You need to go into settings, then click on Date Delivery and then uncheck Date Roaming button. This way you will not be charged for roaming time

 

We have unlimited texting on the phone and that is free in PR and St T, but not for Antigua or Bermuda. You are still charged to make phone calls... 69cents per minute in PR and 1.99 per minute on the other islands...you probably will not want to pay the charge to use on the ship. Texting in Antigua or Bermuda is fifty cents per sent text and five cents for received texts.

 

 

Hope this helps!:)

 

See you at Sail a Way

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kilili

kilili

Posted
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ATT and Sprint will definitely not charge you as they are considered domestic and we have the same plans nationwide.

 

Verizon is another story. Verizon wireless in Puerto Rico was bought by Claro, which runs their latin american subdivision. When that happened, the reciprocity with Verizon was lost (ie. free phone to phone, etc.). One of the reasons that the iPhone got here after most of the world. Claro was claiming rights to it because they were the ones distributing it in Latin America. But ATT was claiming it because they had exclusive rights to the iPhone in the US, and PR is a US territory. In the end, ATT won.

 

I am not a Verizon customer, but I know my when my friends switched over to Claro, they could no longer call their Verizon friends in the US and it be considered free phone to phone. And we no longer have Verizon here. Not sure about St. Thomas.

 

Hope this helps some.

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derdejoh

derdejoh

Posted
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If you type PR in it also says there is a roaming charge??? It is very confusing. Don't call them because they don't know either. We need someone with Verizon who has recently been to St Thomas. Their coverage map shows a big red dot on Charlotte Amakie, which is in St Thomas. They also show another small island off the southeast coast of PR as red.

 

The Verizon website for PR identifies the standard roaming charge -- but under the "Additional Roaming Details," it notes that most of PR is part of the Nationwide or America's Choice plans (and therefore no roaming unless you move out of a coverage area). I'm pretty sure the big dot over Charlotte Amalie is just identifying the location of the city (like the big dot over San Juan on PR) and not an indication of coverage.

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cruiseron36

cruiseron36

Posted
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The Verizon website for PR identifies the standard roaming charge -- but under the "Additional Roaming Details," it notes that most of PR is part of the Nationwide or America's Choice plans (and therefore no roaming unless you move out of a coverage area). I'm pretty sure the big dot over Charlotte Amalie is just identifying the location of the city (like the big dot over San Juan on PR) and not an indication of coverage.

 

In the past I have used my verizon in PR and St Thomas with no roaming charges. I have not used it recently so they may have changed. I should add that I still have an alltel plan but am billed by verizon.

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