Dominican Respublic Pre-paid sims?

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LEM - 14 Feb 2004 21:49 GMT

Hello folks!

I will be traveling to Dominican Republic in 2 weeks (Punta Cana area). I
pocked Google a bit, and it appears that there is a decent coverage by
Orange in the area.

Since T-mobile is charging $1.99/minute for roaming, I think I may save a
bundle by going pre-paid (my phone is unlocked). Going back to Google, some
posts dating a year or two back suggest that it should be pretty cheap to
get pre-paid SIM once there, but no details...

Here come my questions:
1. Where can I buy a pre-paid SIM? Airport? Hotel? Malls/Shopping centers?
2. Does the SIM come with some minutes to use or I have to also buy a pre-
paid card and charge it? Where to buy one?
3. Will I be getting a local phone number for incoming calls, or it is
limited to dial-out only?
4. What are the rates for: a. SIM card/initial setup; b. Local calls; c.
Calls to US; d. Incoming calls (including calls from US)?
5. Are there any set-up instructions in English available? I guess I can
always ask a concierge in a hotel to translate, but if I buy all this stuff
at the Airport, I'd like to be able to set all up right there, before I
leave the vendor.

I've tried to look for answers on http://www.orange.com.do/ -- but
unfortunately my Spanish is not up to the level :-/... If I understand
correctly the AltaVista translation, the rates are something like RD$6.85
per minute, which would be... 15c/minute and rates to US are same as
domestic??? That sounds a little too good to be true, so I'd like to hear
from anybody who've been there, or who speaks Spanish, and can read the
above named web site in original...

Thanks for your answers!

LEM
(remove all digits from e-mail to reply in private)

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Your translation is correct. My wife was there last year. It was 15c/min in
DR, and to US. Incoming calls in DR & from US are free. Same like in Europe -
you don't use your minutes.

I do not know where you can buy the SIM cards. Ask when you get there. She
got hers from a cousin so she didn't have to buy it. You can buy prepaid SIM
with minutes, and then later just buy refills. Refills they have in malls. Ask
there for a initial SIM prepaid package.

It works great. She had unlocked T-Mobile phone and I called her without any
problems from US.

Good luck.

|Hello folks!
|
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
|LEM
|(remove all digits from e-mail to reply in private)

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Stuart Friedman - 15 Feb 2004 16:17 GMT

Just a tip: 1016868 is US$0.19 a minute to the Dominican Republic. If
people need to call you down there on a prepaid, that is a pretty good price
that requires no commitment beyond the price of that single phone call.
Obviously, you can beat the price for higher volume callers.

Stu

Your translation is correct. My wife was there last year. It was 15c/min in
DR, and to US. Incoming calls in DR & from US are free. Same like in
Europe -
you don't use your minutes.

I do not know where you can buy the SIM cards. Ask when you get there. She
got hers from a cousin so she didn't have to buy it. You can buy prepaid SIM
with minutes, and then later just buy refills. Refills they have in malls.
Ask
there for a initial SIM prepaid package.

It works great. She had unlocked T-Mobile phone and I called her without any
problems from US.

Good luck.

|Hello folks!
|
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
|LEM
|(remove all digits from e-mail to reply in private)

Reply to this Message

LEM - 16 Feb 2004 01:10 GMT

> Hello folks!
>
> I will be traveling to Dominican Republic in 2 weeks (Punta Cana
> area). I pocked Google a bit, and it appears that there is a decent
> coverage by Orange in the area.

Thank you all who replied!
I will try to get the SIM at the airport, or otherwise, there is supposed
to be a shopping center not far from where I will be staying. Just in
case, I registered my phone for WorldClass roaming, as a backup...

Will also check the LD rates from US to DR. My parents (they will
probably be the ones calling me the most) use some cheap-o-card service
to make international calls (they make a lot). If their's over 19c/min
I'll let them know about 1016868. By the way I used them (and something
else, 1010811, I thik) sometime in 1990's when I was in college, and they
had really good rates as compared to my regular LD. I think one of them
charged 5 or 10 minutes minimum per call, but I usually went way over
that :-/. I wish they had unlimited mobile-to-mobile family plan back
then....

LEM.
(to send me anything other than spam, remove all digits from address)

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Stuart Friedman - 18 Feb 2004 20:57 GMT

It is a dime a minute from one suite (onesuite.com), but you need to buy a
prepaid card. Figure out your own break even point.

Stu

> > Hello folks!
> >
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> LEM.
> (to send me anything other than spam, remove all digits from address)

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