vB Easy Archive - Moving to Guam, which provider?

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Moving to Guam, which provider?
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Posted by: another lance

I live in NM and am moving to Guam. which cell company can I go with to not get charged international roaming or long distance? basically what I want is one that I can use in guam and just get charged my minutes? also if I can get a guam number assigned that would be a bonus

Posted by: DRNewcomb

So you want to be able to use your phone in both Guam and the mainland without paying roaming fees in either place? Hmmm... Have you checked with Sprint? I think they have a license in Guam but I'm not sure if they provide service there.

Posted by: another lance

well sprint does not have service in guam, and I can't click on their roaming section on the website to find out if I can get one before going and use it

Posted by: another lance

found this on sprints site:

Certain service plans, including Sprint PCS Fair & Flexible AmericaSM For Families, allow you to enjoy no additional charges for roaming in this expanded coverage area, reaching more than 280 million people, as long as less than half of your monthly call time is used while roaming.

sounds like if I move there and use my phone, im getting charged because more than half will be roaming.

Posted by: TriBand81

Guam has 2 active GSM providers and 2 in the planning stage:

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_gu.shtml

You might want to check out one of the 2 active ones.

Posted by: DRNewcomb

Looking at various websites, it looks like all the carriers in Guam are not directly affiliated with any mainland US carriers. So, I don’t think you can have one phone that works for the same low price in both Guam and the States. Here is a recommendation. It’s a tad complicated:

1. Before you move to Guam do three things. Get an unlocked quad-band GSM phone and a T-Mobile prepaid SIM card. Add $100 onto the prepaid so you get “Gold Rewards” status. This will keep your line active for 365 days. After that all you have to do is add $10/year to keep the phone active. You can do this online with a US-based credit/debit card.

2. Get a VOIP virtual phone number from a service like VoiceStick.com which allows you to forward incoming calls to any phone in the world. This will become your primary stateside phone line.

3. When you get to Guam, pick a local carrier (one of the GSM ones may be best for you) based on their coverage, price, features and off-island roaming capability. Get either prepaid or contract depending on what works best for you. If a CDMA carrier works best for you on Guam, that’s not a problem. (http://www.cellular-news.com/coverage/guam.php)

4. Forward the VOIP number from 2 above to the phone in 3 when in Guam and to the T-Mobile prepaid when in the US.

5. If you plan to visit other islands/countries around the West Pacific area, you might want to look into a good international roaming prepaid GSM SIM card. For this information check www.prepaidgsm.net. This sort of depends on the international roaming rates you have with your Guam carrier.

I recommend GSM because one phone will work in almost any country in the world (except Japan and Korea). So, you can buy one good one and not have to change phones all the time. In Japan and Korea you can still roam with GSM, you just need a special phone.