mobile coverage - east coast

[rogerleslie]

AT&T offers what they call "marine coverage". Is anyone formiliar with this or any other cellular coverage for voice and email along the east coast?

Are there providers which extend their coverage to the Bahamas, keys, caribbean areas?

[halyardz]

Roger, wish I could help. I use a Tracfone and it seems like the actual supplier is Verizon and had no trouble on land in FL. But I have heard that AT&T is the way to go in the Bahamas due to lousey Batelco service.

[jwewing]

Roger,

I think AT&T marine coverage is what they used to call their high seas coverage accessed through an SSB. Cellular coverage can be spotty depending on how far away from 1) a city and 2) I-95 you are. I use Sprint PCS with a laptop connection and it''s OK for e-mail if I can get coverage. The only roaming coverage I know that goes to the Bahamas is Bellsouth (now Cingular) but haven''t heard many good things about roaming there (you''re still on Batelco and it''s EXPENSIVE). The best way for contacting the US from the Bahamas and Caribbean is an AT&T prepaid card for voice and PocketMail for e-mail. That ends up costing about 40 cents/min for voice/e-mail.

Jim
"Esmeral"

[el]

I''m not familiar with Pocket Mail. Can you elaborate?

[elfexor]

Info on Pocket Mail can be found at www.pocketmail.com -- I have two brothers, 1 in the Bahamas and the other in SW Fla and atay in touch with both with pocket mail - you cannot send attachments, but it works fine with text. Hand held unit retails for about $150, but you can find them cheaper and the monthly service (unlimited) costs about $10 usd. Hope this info of some use --

[elfexor]

Info on Pocket Mail can be found at www.pocketmail.com -- I have two brothers, 1 in the Bahamas and the other in SW Fla and stay in touch with both with pocket mail - you cannot send attachments, but it works fine with text. Hand held unit retails for about $150, but you can find them cheaper and the monthly service (unlimited) costs about $10 usd. Hope this info of some use --

[capndeb]

I use SprintPCS along with the connection to my laptop. It worked great while traveling out through the Keys. Coverage of course, seems to follow Interstate Highways so I would have to imagine that it is good most the way up the east coast. I heard that Sprint was expanding their service to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands with the Eastern Caribbean soon to follow. Unfortunately nothing seems to work well in the Bahamas. The locals use their VHF''s. The best way to go is with pocketmail there.

[hoggard]

can pocketmail be used with a cellular
phone ? are special connectors needed ?

[bobneidhardt]

hoggard,

My Pocketmail can only be used with cell phones that have an analog cell connection. I don''t know how to make mine manually search for an analog link - its almost always digital. Therefore, mine doesn''t work with my cell phone. It will work from pay phones and almost any other phone on land. It has no wires, you hold it up to the phone. I''ll date myself here, but it uses an acoustic coupler.

Bob N