Receiving Mobile Calls in the Caribbean

theGrinch

My mother will be away on holiday for a break in the Caribbean.

She has never had a mobile (yes hardcore old school) and I am not very techy (though I have an Android phone myself).

The main thing is I want to be able to call her from the UK to a mobile and check all is ok.

Not sure if I need a special SIM card or phone for her where to start.

Any advice helpful.

Neil49

Just got back from the Caribbean. She will need a quad band mobile phone and it typically costs around £1.50 per minute to receive calls, more if she phones the UK with operators such as EE or 3.

Text messages are about 35p for her to send a standard message to the UK but free to receive.

theGrinch

Neil, many thanks.

So I can purchase this phone in the UK and top it up here with say £50 and when I make calls to it I pay and her phone too?

Sorry, but Im quite slow with the workings of it all

grumbler

Neil49 wrote: »

Just got back from the Caribbean. She will need a quad band mobile phone

Why quad-band?
I checked randomly:
Dominican Republic: GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900
UK two-band phones have 900 and 1800. Indeed, they don't work, say, in USA where only 850 and 1900 are available.

>> Coverage

LycaMobile charge ~£1 in Dominican Rep. for receiving calls, but I think cheaper options can be found.

ETA: http://www.togglemobile.co.uk/tariffs/en 19p for incoming calls, but the minimum topup is £25 when ordering a SIM.

johno51

I have used an old two band samsung sgh-600 in Barbados with no problems on O2 PAYG

System

It varies with some islands using the European bands and some using the American bands - plus some using a mix of the two such as Trinidad and Tobago.

Text messaging plus wifi when on land are probably the most cost effective.

mrcamp

Yes, it varies by island as Heng Leng mentioned. My suggestion would be to just use text. Those roaming charges can add up very quickly. Most phones are quadband GSM these days, however, if you mention the exact island in the Caribbean she is heading to, we can let you know if an old 2 band phone with 900/1800 will do just fine.

grumbler

mrcamp wrote: »

...Most phones are quadband GSM these days....

The word 'smart' is missing in this statement.

Most UK non-smart phones are two-band actually. New phones, not old only.

And receiving a call for 19p/min can be cheaper and more informative than sending a text for ~50p.

mrcamp

That's correct grumbler. Are non-smartphones still sold these days. :-)

grumbler

Plenty, and pretty good ones.
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/handset-only/deal-finder?intcmp=SIMFREE_Viewall_211113
Sort by price.
You can find even clamshell:
but this one is quad-band and even has GPRS (2.5G)

theGrinch

Its St Lucia for the record