Just some thoughts on phones and phone numbers and etc.
The Dutch side has Telem - they provide land lines, prepaid cell phone service (TelCell) and are also an internet provider (TelNet). To get a land line you must provide some ID and if you are not a St. Maarten resident you will pay a massive deposit as proof against your long distance bill, which can of course be refunded to you when you close your account. Occasionally there is also the option of just paying some guy a large portion of that deposit to do it on the sly, however that is not refundable, and maybe Telem is cracking down on that you never know.
There is also UTS, which you can choose as your long distance provider for your land line - they also provide cell phone service (Chippie) and internet.
Phones for these prepaid services must be unlocked GSM, quad band is best, I am told the bands are as follows: 900 here in SXM, 1900 in the US, 1800 in Europe, 850 in parts of the Caribbean.
East Caribbean Cellular (ECC) is a cell phone provider. You can set up a monthly account with them for a fee.
The French side is more of a mystery to me. France Telecom is the traditional land line provider. You must give a DNA sample to get a phone line, I think.
There are also a few cellular providers like Orange and Dauphin - I think Orange is the biggest.
To save on long distance calls, Skype and Vonage are wondrous.
Here are what the phone numbers look like:
54x-xxxx is a land line. After a while you start to recognize the exchanges:
544-xxxx Pelican/Simpson Bay
545-xxxx Beacon Hill/Maho/Cupecoy
546-xxxx new Airport
542-xxxx Philipsburg
543-xxxx Dawn Beach/Oyster Pond
If you see an old sign which only has a phone number with 5 numbers in it, that is because 8 or so years ago we still had only 5 digit land line numbers - just add a 54 to the front to get the number. Thats why a lot of Dutch side land line numbers are written as 54-xxxxx instead of 54x-xxxx. Example of an old sign with 5 digit number:
Telcell (cell provider) numbers and UTS (cell provider) numbers look different but I don't know the rules. A lot of TelCell numbers are 522-xxxx and 523-xxxx where UTS numbers are 559-xxxx. ECC (cell provider) numbers start with 557-xxxx.
Why does this matter you ask? As far as I know, you cannot text message between services. TelCell cannot text message to UTS and vice versa. ECC phones have never heard of text messaging as far as I know.
French side land line numbers look like this:
0590.xx.xx.xx
If someone gives you a cell number it will look like this:
0690.xx.xx.xx
If I want to call a land line from the Dutch side I have to dial (long distance):
00590.590.xx.xx.xx
Ditto with Cell phone:
00590.690.xx.xx.xx
To call from the US you subsitute the 00 for an 011.
I don't know about texting capabilities of French cell phones.
Phew! That was boring but perhaps it'll come in useful sometime somewhere! Anyone have any addendums or different info? Let me know.
The Dutch side has Telem - they provide land lines, prepaid cell phone service (TelCell) and are also an internet provider (TelNet). To get a land line you must provide some ID and if you are not a St. Maarten resident you will pay a massive deposit as proof against your long distance bill, which can of course be refunded to you when you close your account. Occasionally there is also the option of just paying some guy a large portion of that deposit to do it on the sly, however that is not refundable, and maybe Telem is cracking down on that you never know.
There is also UTS, which you can choose as your long distance provider for your land line - they also provide cell phone service (Chippie) and internet.
Phones for these prepaid services must be unlocked GSM, quad band is best, I am told the bands are as follows: 900 here in SXM, 1900 in the US, 1800 in Europe, 850 in parts of the Caribbean.
East Caribbean Cellular (ECC) is a cell phone provider. You can set up a monthly account with them for a fee.
The French side is more of a mystery to me. France Telecom is the traditional land line provider. You must give a DNA sample to get a phone line, I think.
There are also a few cellular providers like Orange and Dauphin - I think Orange is the biggest.
To save on long distance calls, Skype and Vonage are wondrous.
Here are what the phone numbers look like:
54x-xxxx is a land line. After a while you start to recognize the exchanges:
544-xxxx Pelican/Simpson Bay
545-xxxx Beacon Hill/Maho/Cupecoy
546-xxxx new Airport
542-xxxx Philipsburg
543-xxxx Dawn Beach/Oyster Pond
If you see an old sign which only has a phone number with 5 numbers in it, that is because 8 or so years ago we still had only 5 digit land line numbers - just add a 54 to the front to get the number. Thats why a lot of Dutch side land line numbers are written as 54-xxxxx instead of 54x-xxxx. Example of an old sign with 5 digit number:
Telcell (cell provider) numbers and UTS (cell provider) numbers look different but I don't know the rules. A lot of TelCell numbers are 522-xxxx and 523-xxxx where UTS numbers are 559-xxxx. ECC (cell provider) numbers start with 557-xxxx.
Why does this matter you ask? As far as I know, you cannot text message between services. TelCell cannot text message to UTS and vice versa. ECC phones have never heard of text messaging as far as I know.
French side land line numbers look like this:
0590.xx.xx.xx
If someone gives you a cell number it will look like this:
0690.xx.xx.xx
If I want to call a land line from the Dutch side I have to dial (long distance):
00590.590.xx.xx.xx
Ditto with Cell phone:
00590.690.xx.xx.xx
To call from the US you subsitute the 00 for an 011.
I don't know about texting capabilities of French cell phones.
Phew! That was boring but perhaps it'll come in useful sometime somewhere! Anyone have any addendums or different info? Let me know.
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