Great cellular rates in DR.

I was just in centennial phone company's office in santiago to see if they had any new plans for local calls.
here is what I found:
if you activate your cell phone with a calling card then you would pay only 3.70 / min with-in DR and the same rate applies for calling USA and puerto rico. This is from monday thru friday. Now on weekend, you pay only 1.85 / min (I think, but not sure of the exact number, but its less than 2 pesos) from 11pm friday till 8 am on monday.
This is the best calling card plan you will see in DR at this time.
Codetel charges about 6.90 pesos / min and tricom charges some where near that amount.
In addition to the above calling plan, now if you buy 500 pesos of a calling card through Centennial, they will give you a 220 pesos card free.
Centennial covers all the major cities in DR and has a good signal (if you're within the major cities ex: santo domingo, santiago, puerto plata, la romana, la vega, bonao etc etc).
Activation is free.
have fun.

Tricom, codetel and centennial use only CDMA system phones. tricom and codetel are dual band which means they interact in both digital and in analog modes. Centennial is only digital. So if you can only bring in a digital phone, you are still ok. Hardly anyone uses analog mode anymore.
The one phone that works for sure is the sprint phone. Any sprint phone will do. All you have to do is to take a disconnected sprint phone from USA or canada and take it to a small phone shop. This is a private vender of cell phones with a repair shop in the back. You will find many of them on every major street in DR. make sure that shop is not a Orange phone dealer. remember, Orange phone only uses GSM system. This is a very different phone from what I have listed above. Besides, I don't like orange phone as 50% of the times the call doesn't go through to the phone you dial.
Back to centennial:
Get a sprint phone and take it to a private phone dealer. Pay 300 pesos and have that phone unlocked (reprogamed). They will give you a 6 digit programing code. make sure you don't lose that code number because it is the only way your phone can be activated by the major phone company in DR. I would always write that code inside the battery compartment. This way the number doesn't get erased by accident.
Now you take that phone to centennial and have it activated for free and all you do is buy a card and you are in business.
So if you are like Jazzcom who comes here often. Just buy a card for 220 pesos and you get 60 mins to call anywhere in DR or in USA (same price). The phone will stay activated for 2 months if you don't buy another card to put in. In other words, you get incoming calls but you can't make an out going call because you just don't have the minutes remaining.
But if you plan on staying out of DR for a longer period of time. No problem, just let the phone get disconnected and when you come back to DR, have it reactivated for free and simply buy a new card. You lose nothing except the old phone number.
You can also leave the phone with a trusting friend who won't give it away to a hooker friend in exchange for sex. Relax, its a joke. He can use the phone until you return and you will still keep the old number.
In any case, you decide what is in the best interest for you.
If you end up in santiago, I will lend you a phone (activated) at no cost. all you have to do is to be nice and return it upon departure. Deal?
Bugsey, centennial has a new store in the plaza of supermercado Victoria (27 de febrero).
Jazzcom, I am not sure if Centennial has a good enough signal in sosua or in cabarete. You should check to see if centennial is available there or not.

I know for fact that sprint phones are good here. I am sure that all sprint phones are PCS digital CDMA. Even if I am wrong, the PCS system works here.
Tell me what brands of sprint phones you have there? prices etc.
I like the new samsung x400 (?). the slim flip phone in silver color with a battery life of 5 days.
I have the samsung 8500 but samsung 3500 work fine too.
Motorola 7867W is a popular model along with the timeport and other models work fine here. All sprint PCS digital phones are prefered.
Let me know if you can get me a phone at a goooood price ex: the new samsung X400. I am not sure if that is the right model number but its something 400, a small tiny silver color flip phone with a battery life of 5 days. Its the new model after the 8500.

Jazzcom, all the sprint phones I see in this country are all CDMA. CDMA is the prefered phone in DR.
If you had a varizon CDMA phone and were rejected by codetel because you didn't have the 6 digit unlocking code. Like I said before, you must take the phone to a local cell repair shop and have it programmed for 300 pesos. then you will be given a 6 digit code. Now you are all set with codetel or with tricom and centennial.
By the way, centennial does serve sosua area.