Cellular Service

sibercor

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Nov 1, 2004
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I would like to purchase a cellular telephone for a resident in the Dominican Republic. However, I need to know what service providers are there so I can l determine what type of phone to buy here in the USA.

Thanks for your help.

Darryl
 

ricktoronto

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Jan 9, 2002
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Are you going to go there with the phone vs. mail it? If so just buy one from Verizon or Orange for guaranteed compatibility and they will activate it and so forth - they are as low as $20 US for a perfectly good phone. You can be in and out in 30 minutes at an Orange shop with a new phone. While other people will tell you this or that GSM phone will work, some are locked and most if not all cost more (without a contract/commitment) anyway so why have the hassle?
 

sweetdbt

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Sep 17, 2004
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sibercor said:
I would like to purchase a cellular telephone for a resident in the Dominican Republic. However, I need to know what service providers are there so I can l determine what type of phone to buy here in the USA.

Thanks for your help.

Darryl

There are 2 major carriers in the DR; Verizon and Orange. Verizon operates on CDMA, which as the same as US Verizon, Sprint, Altel and many others. Orange is a GSM carrier, so AT&T wireless, and I believe Nextel phones will work with them.

You should definately consider buying in the DR, as any phone you bring down, you will have to pay at least for activation, and if it isn't unlocked you'll pay more for that. Cost of phones in the DR has gone down dramatically in the last couple of years. Both Verizon and Orange will sell you a basic full-function dual-band tri-mode phone (nokia, Qualcom or Kyocera) with activation for under 30 dollars. A motorola Startac flipfone at Verizon is about 80.
 

sweetdbt

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ride2hard said:
just curious, what model fones can be purchased for US$30?

I can't remember the model number of the Qualcom I bought. These are basic phones, but mine works great and gets better reception than a much more expensive one I brought from the states before. If (as I suspect) this is to be a gift for a young female, I would advise spending a bit more for a flip-phone or something smaller and "sexier". Fashion is often more important than function in that "market".
 

sibercor

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Nov 1, 2004
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sweetdbt said:
There are 2 major carriers in the DR; Verizon and Orange. Verizon operates on CDMA, which as the same as US Verizon, Sprint, Altel and many others. Orange is a GSM carrier, so AT&T wireless, and I believe Nextel phones will work with them.

You should definately consider buying in the DR, as any phone you bring down, you will have to pay at least for activation, and if it isn't unlocked you'll pay more for that. Cost of phones in the DR has gone down dramatically in the last couple of years. Both Verizon and Orange will sell you a basic full-function dual-band tri-mode phone (nokia, Qualcom or Kyocera) with activation for under 30 dollars. A motorola Startac flipfone at Verizon is about 80.

Can you Please send a contact number for Verizon? My friend lives in Sosua.
Are phones that take photos available?

Thanks. Darryl
 

sibercor

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sweetdbt said:
I can't remember the model number of the Qualcom I bought. These are basic phones, but mine works great and gets better reception than a much more expensive one I brought from the states before. If (as I suspect) this is to be a gift for a young female, I would advise spending a bit more for a flip-phone or something smaller and "sexier". Fashion is often more important than function in that "market".

Are photo phones available? If so what is approximate cost?
 

sweetdbt

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sibercor said:
Are photo phones available? If so what is approximate cost?

Yes they are, although of course you are talking about a lot more money. Probably about US200 plus for something with picture-taking capabilities. remember that these are straight-out purchases with no contract obligations.
 

sibercor

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ricktoronto said:
Are you going to go there with the phone vs. mail it? If so just buy one from Verizon or Orange for guaranteed compatibility and they will activate it and so forth - they are as low as $20 US for a perfectly good phone. You can be in and out in 30 minutes at an Orange shop with a new phone. While other people will tell you this or that GSM phone will work, some are locked and most if not all cost more (without a contract/commitment) anyway so why have the hassle?

Can you send a contact numer for Verizon in DR?
 

ricktoronto

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Jan 9, 2002
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sibercor said:
Can you send a contact numer for Verizon in DR?

Why do you need a contact #? There are more cellular stores than you can shake a stick at - aligned with Verizon or Orange and you go in, pick a cheap phone ( like the Qualcomm 2760 for about $30 or a basic Nokia at Orange for about $25) and in 10 mintues they activate it, often with a RD$100 card , and hand it back.

If you pick Orange and don't have good Spanish, they will set the phone up with the menus in English and when you call in the voice prompts are in English as well. Not that the numbers they tell you actually line up with the choices but you soon figure out which is which.
 

ricktoronto

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Honest just go into the store(s). I doubt from the USA you can buy anything. It takes no time at all and is quite competitive if you check a few stores.
 

baileyboy

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Jun 27, 2004
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Hey Darryl--
I am from Cda, and I have a motorola c331 and I have it activated here in Cda with rogers. And I went to the DR last week, they sent my phone to Santiago and had it unlocked, I got a new SIM card for the DR, and got a phone card in pesos for my phone, for like $40 Cdn. So when I go down to the Dr I just put that SIM card in, and I have my DR phone. When I come home I take that card out leave it with my boyfriend. And I put my Cdn SIM card in and I'm back on with my Canadian phone.

My boyfriend will have to put a few pesos on to the phone card atleast once a month to keep it active, so he'll just put the SIM card in his phone to do that, and it's all good. So any GSM phone with Rogers will work, but you'll need to ahve it unlocked. You can get some good deals on ebay to!
lisa
 

ricktoronto

Grande Pollo en Boca Chica
Jan 9, 2002
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A perfect example of what is fundamentally wrong with the idea of bringing vs. buying - $40 CDN ($32 US) and sending a phone to Santiago or wherever is a lot of effort if someone wants to spend less and not send an existing phone away to do this vs. spending the $32 and having 2 phones as a result.

I don't disagree that some (not all) phones can be activated or used with a different SIM card and CDMA don't have SIM cards so there goes one provider, unless you can unlock the phone and figure out dual NAM's. Not all phones can be unlocked if they are under the original commitment. But as this example shows the hassle may outweigh the apparent utility not that that is all that evident.

I have helped/shown many tourists how to just go to Orange (or Verizon and before Tricom) and get a phone and be happy as clams in a half hour walk - I would not recommend the other practice as an alternative.
 

ride2hard

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Feb 11, 2004
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sweetdbt said:
Is this a customer service # where you can actually order a phone?


THAT IS THE BEST PLACE TO BUY THE PHONE, they service ANYWHERE ON THE NORTH COAST.

809 571 3438
 

Thebes

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Jun 18, 2004
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sibercor said:
Are photo phones available? If so what is approximate cost?

I've been looking for one in Sosua for a few days. The only one I found was a Sanyo, new, asking price $9,000 pesos. He eventually offered a 10% discount. This is a phone that would have been maybe $160 in the US, not a really nice one. He said a computer cable would take him at least 3 weeks to get, if he could, so you have to use the service to email yourself the pictures. He said he could probably find a used one for about $5000 pesos if given a few weeks.

I asked there (he does Verizon) and he said they could do a GSM phone at 800 or 1900 mhz (800 is 850, they are the same)

Orange said they could do them on 1900 mhz.

Do be sure that the phone is unlocked for any GSM provider. You will most likely need to buy a SIM card from the Orange or Verizon dealer too.

If you are looking for a nice camera phone you might consider importing it. Otherwise there are plently of phones ranging from cheap to nice at prices that are better than the States. I checked three other shops and the Sanyo was the only camera phone I could find in Sosua. I found dozens of nice cheap phones though.

Hope this helps.
 

ricktoronto

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Jan 9, 2002
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A Tip

Use a phone to call people on other phones. Buy a digital camera to take pictures. The degree of compromise for the crummy picture quality for these camera phones is not worth the additional cost. I rue the day we have the combo phone/camera/MP3 player/toaster/blender (careful how close you hold that to your head).
 

jcarn

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Jun 28, 2004
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Thebes said:
I've been looking for one in Sosua for a few days. The only one I found was a Sanyo, new, asking price $9,000 pesos. He eventually offered a 10% discount. This is a phone that would have been maybe $160 in the US, not a really nice one. He said a computer cable would take him at least 3 weeks to get, if he could, so you have to use the service to email yourself the pictures. He said he could probably find a used one for about $5000 pesos if given a few weeks.

I asked there (he does Verizon) and he said they could do a GSM phone at 800 or 1900 mhz (800 is 850, they are the same)

Orange said they could do them on 1900 mhz.

Do be sure that the phone is unlocked for any GSM provider. You will most likely need to buy a SIM card from the Orange or Verizon dealer too.

If you are looking for a nice camera phone you might consider importing it. Otherwise there are plently of phones ranging from cheap to nice at prices that are better than the States. I checked three other shops and the Sanyo was the only camera phone I could find in Sosua. I found dozens of nice cheap phones though.

Hope this helps.

a few problems....

first, verizon uses cdma NOT GSM.

second, $9000 pesos = rougly $242 @ todays exchange rate which is more than the $160 you say it's worth in the states.

while I must admit that I'm not an expert on dominican cellphone companies or anything like that, the one thing I have noticed is that verizon doesnt appear to be selling camerphones (or at least they dont have cameraphones listed @ verizon.com.do). Also, I dont think that sanyo makes a gsm camerphone either (although I could be wrong on that one.).

Most likely what is happening is that you are being overcharged on as a 'new' item that in actuality is a used sprint cellphone from the u.s. which has been reprogrammed to use verizon in DR. I personally used one of them (non camera tho) when I was in DR and I must say that the reprogramming was impressive. Although it said sprint on the outside it was all reprogrammed in spanish on the phone software itself.

if you really want to find a cellphone for cheap your best bet would be to either use ebay or that site which is the dominican equivalent of ebay (i forget the actual url, can somebody post it?)