Telephone and Internet from aboard

Telephone and Internet from aboard

In former days in the Caribbean there was only the monopoly of Cable&Wireless: Unbelievably expensive, per begun minute up to 6 US $ mobile and up to 5 US $ from a public phone. After Cable&Wireless had lost its monopoly by numerous court decisions and other societies had to become certified, the telephone prices dropped down more than 90%. Since providers, prices and conditions on this market change particularly fast, please call before each decision the web pages of the providers. Dramatic changes are possible within a few weeks:

In 2000 Orange (available only on French Islands ! ) had the most modern and most inexpensive mobile net of the Eastern Caribbean. Orange in Martinique became even more inexpensive by using the call back procedures: to call Europe for 75 minutes was not more than 10 €. The "Millennium Card" does not exist any longer, but other phone cards offer the call back procedures on the back of their cards again and again. Please be informed !

Digicell has now by far the most modern net with attractive prices and genuine Internet access from aboard. Orange on the other hand today seems to be old fashioned and expensive, compared with Digicel.

Situation:

Who brings along his GSM Handy from home and is calling by roaming, has hardly problems between the Virgin Islands and Trinidad, but high costs.

Alternative:

Buy on an island a pre-paid SIM card or a handy (supplied inclusive SIM card), buy calling cards for loading yor telephone account (they are offered everywhere) and call home to local telephone tariffs. Whether it is worthwhile and on which islands, can not generally be answered.

Here the overview about the GMS covered islands:

GSM provider

runs GSM net in

SIM costs

GPRS

Internet

AT&T
www.attwireless.com

St. Lucia to Grenada

SIM only with telephone
Telephone only to locals

Cable&Wireless
www.cwmobile.com

all islands Virgin Islands to Trinidad

except:	US Virgin Islands
	ABC islands
	french islands

SIM Card 25 EC$ with 10 EC$ start credit

yes

Digicel
www.digiceljamaica.com
www.digicelgrenada.com
www.digicelstvincent.com
www.digicelstlucia.com
www.digicelbarbados.com

Aruba, Cayman Islands, Barbados, Jamaica, St. Lucia to Grenada

Digicell St. Lucia:
SIM Card 25 EC$ with 10 EC$ start credit

yes

Digicel France

only french islands, does not work with Digicel SIM card from the former British islands

SIM 20 € including 5 € start credit

yes

LeaderPrice

only french islands

SIM 15 € including 15 € start credit

Orange
www.orangecaraibe.com

only french islands

SIM 35 € wincluding 15 € start credit

yes

Attention !!

It is understandable,

that Digicel St. Lucia and Digicel St. Vincent are selling GSM telephones only to residents, because they are strongly subsidized for the local market. In the past, foreigners had bought hundreds of those telephones and took them out of the country for reselling reason.

It is not understandable,

that SIM cards also with foreigners become invalid already after 3 months without having been reloaded: The foreigners come for 2-4 weeks into hotels or on charter ships. There they telephone much with Europe or the USA, but afterwards they fly home again and return only one year later. So they must buy a new SIM card and log on each year . It would be much simpler, if the SIM card would be valid for 15 or at least 12 months, as it is usual in Europe, Asia or otherwise in the world. Then the foreigners could use the SIM cards with the same telephone number also with their Caribbean vacation in the next year further on, without new accumulate costs of the registration of a new SIM card.

With the prices is to be considered:

Digicel

only offers 1 number for all islands, on which Digicell is represented, without additional roaming costs. Who is registered thus with Digicel St. Lucia, has service e.g. in St. Vincent or Grenada without roaming costs. All other societies require additionally roaming costs when change from the homeland island to other islands.

Digicel appears also out this view as the by far most favorable provider, even if Digicel on some islands with the sales of the SIM cards and technical support has still organizational problems. Best organized is Grenada. Digicell operates on each island with its own society, e.g. www.digicelgrenada.com for Grenada. The user notices nothing of it. All societies are organized under the roof of Digicell Jamaica.

Cable&Wireless

iis present on many islands (Anguilla, Antigua&Barbuda, Aruba, Cayman Iceland, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts&Nevis, St. Lucia to Grenada, Turcs&Caicos), however a special Sim Card is requires for each island. Otherwise roaming costs are to be paid:

locally: plus 1,29 EC $/minute
Caribbean: plus 1,99 EC $/minute

Prices (please absolutely double check):

GSM provider	per second	currency	local	Caribbean	France	USA Canada England	World
AT&T	from 2. minute	EC $	0.90	0.90		1.32	1.32
Cable&Wireless	no	EC $	0.75	0.99		1.65 / 0.99	1.65 / 1.25
Digicell	yes	EC $	0.85	0.85		1.30 / 0.95	1.30
Orange	from 2. minute	€	0.59	1.13		1.65	1.65
LeaderPrice		€	0.37	1.20	0.37	1.65	1.65

Only Digicell and Cable&Wireless offer at present in addition GPRS and genuine Internet on board with up to 28.800 Baud (indication seems to us very exaggerated) by infrared / data cable.

Who has a GPRS - able handy and wants to use GPRS with Digicel, the salesman of the SIM card must create a data account via Digicel . That is done within 10 minutes. One receives the new data settings on its telephone, also done by the salesman. Afterwards one can call WAP sites.

Who has its notebook thereby, can surf in the Internet by Digicel. The telephone works then as modem by infrared or data cable.

Prices Internet (please absolutely double check):

Digicel

from	to	EC$ per Mb	EC$ per Kb
0 Mb	1 Mb	5.50	0.01
1 Mb	2 Mb	4.50	0.01
2 Mb	10 Mb	3.50	0.01
10 Mb	25 Mb	1.75	0.003
25 Mb	+	1.12	0.002

Here the settings by the example of a Sony Ericsson T 310 color display telephone with icon control:

GPRS SETTINGS

Step 1:

HOW TO START

Buy a handy or a SIM card for your handy and let him create a GPRS account on your phone. This will be done by phone form the Digicel headquarter St. Lucia. Let them send the GPRS settings to your phone and have them installed after that. Your daeler will do that for you.

Step 2:

HOW TO CREATE A NEW GPRS CONNECTIONON ON YOUR GPRS HANDY

e.g. Sony-Ericsson T 310

Check with your phone:
1. icon "connect" - yes
2. Data comm. - yes
3. Data accounts - yes

Normally you see there:

Add account?
Digicel
MMS

That means, you have 2 accounts:
Digicel and MMS.
Add a 3. one for GPRS: DigiWeb

4. Add account? yes
5. GPRS data - yes
6. Name - yes
7. Insert (DigiWeb) or anything else. - yes
8. APN - yes
9. Insert (web.digiceloecs.com) - yes
10. user id - yes
11. Insert (wapoecs)
12. password - yes
13. Insert wap03oecs - yes
14. save

go back to start
Check again with your phone:
icon "connect" - yes
Data comm. - yes
Data accounts - yes
Then you should have one more account than you had before.

That means, you have now 3 accounts:
Digicel and MMS and DigiWeb

If not, go back to step 2 and try again.

Count the stored accounts beginning from the top of the list, skipping the line "Add account?".

Normally:

Before step 2 you had 2 accounts, MMS and Digicel. After step 2 you should have 1 more, makes 3 accounts, MMS, Digicel and DigiWeb.

Step 3:

HOW TO CREATE A NEW GPRS CONNECTIONON ON YOUR LAPTOP

Windows XP

1. Click start -> settings -> Network & Dial Up connections -> Data -> Make new connection
2. Select option 1 (Dial up to the internet)
3. Select option 2 {I want to set up my internet connection manually}
4. Select option 1 (I connect through a phone line and modem}
5. Insert name of the connection: DigiWeb
6. Insert (*99***x#) number as required.
7. Insert username: wapuser
8. NO password
9. Icon on desktop, yes, then click finish

number *99***x# means:

(x) Represents the CID number of the Data account.
To find the CID number:

Go back to start in your phone.
icon "connect" - yes
Data comm. - yes
Data accounts - yes
DigiWeb - yes
See option 3:

CID = ??, in this example CID = 3

So insert (*99***3#) number as required, NOT (*99***x#).

Step 4:

HOW TO DIAL:
Place your phone next to your laptop, infrared port facing infrared port
Double click on the new desktop item DigiWeb.
A new window will appear: "Set up connection with Digiweb"

Proof or insert settings:
1. username: wapoecs
2. password: leave this empty
3. Dial: *99***x#

Then click on properties. On page 1 (general) you will see under "Set up connection with" your computer modem. Go back. Switch your phone on an set its infrared connection to "on". Then click on properties again. On page 1 you see now 2 modems, your computer modem and your phone, working as a modem. Deactivate your computer modem and activate your phone modem.Save the settings. Dial.