I have an ATT one rate cell phone. I heard rumors (maybe on this thread) that ATT bought the Bahamas cell phone system (Batelnet). I called ATT and they wouldn't say, however they did say my phone will now work in Bahamas @ $.65 per minute. They say my phone will ring in Bahamas when my number is called stateside, and I can call out by dialing as normal? I'm heading over in a couple of weeks...so we'll see. Bob Whicher -----Original Message----- From: David A. Stahl [mailto:david@kennett.net] Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 1:44 PM To: trawler-world-list@samurai.com Subject: TWL: Wireless Data There have been several long threads dealing with wireless communications for cruisers. I thought the list may be interested in our experiences. We have been researching ways to stay in touch from Skooch as we hop around the USVIs and hopefully work our way thru the Bahamas and home. That is . . . without buying a huge sat dish and paying $3/minute. So far we have purchased a motorola data phone and set up an account with Cingular. We picked them because we can set up national long distance roaming and 500 minutes for @$60.00/month. Coverage charts indicate they have the best data coverage on the east coast and best areas for long distance coverage. Bahamas and Virgins. Results are in for St Croix: No long distance charges to call my ISP in Philadelphia and the signal is digital, good to about 6 nm out. Rest of USVI: No long distance charges, all digital and reception was great as long as there wasn't a mountain (Island) between us and St Thomas where they've stuck the cell tower. We ran offshore one day till we could see St Thomas, so my wife could call her office. Puerto Rica was the same at the airport. I was tempted to leave the phone on as the flight was vectored all over the island in bad weather, but the admiral wouldn't let me. Next step is the computer and data adapter. This works great at home and gets up to 19.5KBPS. The boat just got a 9db cell phone antenna from defender, which should we hope will boost the range considerably. We are open to all sugestions, questions and advice on this subject. Usual Disclaimers David Stahl ************************************************************** Kennett Internet Services, 112 S. Union Street, Kennett Square, PA 19348 610-444-9008 Visit our web site at http://www.kennett.net