BEC vs. BTC

[dp]

When we got in last week, half the power was out at our house. That is, one of the two 110 vac lines was out, so we had no 220v service (stove, water heater, A/C!). The house was stifling hot! So, on July 4, at 5PM, without much hope, we called BEC's (Bahamas Electricity) "emergency" line and got a polite, intelligent gentleman who said they would fix it that day. Well, we were doubtful because there wasn't much left of that day, but, amazingly, about 8PM, a crew headed up by Mr. Knowles showed up with a bucket truck. They re-attached a line to its transformer out front on a pole and bingo!....Instant A/C! It would be hard to get that level of service in the US. Thank you, BEC.

On the other hand, Batelco (BTC) displayed its usual level of "customer service." Our land phone is so noisy you can scarcely hear the other party....has been like that for years in spite of continuous requests for repair. So we depend on the internet. When we got in, our DSL connection didn't work. In brief, we made numerous calls and personal trips to Batelco, with no results for 8 DAYS and gave up. We borrowed email service from friends.

As for cell phones, over many years we tried them all. Recently, we heard AT&T (Cing) was working. Since that's what we have anyway, we brought them along and found that indeed, they did work, but only inward. That is, we could not call out. We were told that we had to arrange with AT&T in the US, then submit to some procedure at Batelco in MHH, then pay fat prices to them, as usual. Having the inward access is useful for emergencies, I guess, but not for trivia or wrong numbers. I don't know what Batelco charges for such received calls, but I am certain it is expensive. We did without cell phones, as usual... :mad:

[Fancy Free]

We are able to make and receive calls with our Cingular (AT&T) cell phone without any extra effort. However, you need to make sure that your cell phone is enabled for international service - the Bahamas, specifically - or your phone won't work down there. Call your service provider, tell them that you need to be able to make calls from the Bahamas, and ask them to enable international service for the Bahamas on your phone. You should be fine then.

[Shelby]

Fancy Free is right. When we bought my phone last year, we specifically went with Cingular and chose a phone that was compatible with BTC's service.

However, when I got to Abaco last November, I could only receive calls in. My husband, who was back at home, called Cingular. They said that for whatever reason, international calling had not been activated on the phone. Unfortunately, they couldn't do it while I was out of my local calling area. But as soon as I got back home, I got a txt message from them, saying int'l calling had been activated.

Sure enough, when we went to Abaco in May, my Cingular phone worked just fine! I didn't have to do anything at all with Batelco. We just landed, and when I switched my phone on, it came up showing BTC on the screen.

[greenebud]

Just remember the rates quoted by cingular for calls and text messages do not include the batelco charges. Even on the international plan my calls ran about 3 bucks a minute.

[island daze]

Batelco sucks and if ou do have a reliable line it is like talking over a tin cup.Go vonaage or skype.This is from years of experience by the way.

[Cathy Arizona]

Have you checked Vonage for your house? The house we rented this last trip to Abaco had Vonage for long distance and it was great. . . and no charge to us to call home. The house had a Batelco phone for local calls.

[dp]

Many who live in Abaco now use Vonage for ALL calls, including local. Seems silly to use all that technology just to call down the street, doesn't it? But it usually works much better than Batelco land lines. If possible, rent a place with Vonage and forget about $3/minute cell calls!

[Fancy Free]

Just remember the rates quoted by cingular for calls and text messages do not include the batelco charges. Even on the international plan my calls ran about 3 bucks a minute.We are charged $1.99/minute with Cingular's international plan. Maybe Batelco's charges are wrapped into that, don't know. But that's the full charge that shows up our bill.

[islandgator]

Thats the catch with Batelco. The $1.99 charge from Cingular does not include the $1.00 charge from Batelco. Also if anyone takes their PDA or text messages from the Bahamas has a charge of $.02/megabyte. Does not sound like a lot, but I had one email that cost $379.00!!! There is no International Plan for the Bahamas from Cingular/ATT. Fortunately, someone was very understanding and I got some forgiveness for the bill.

There are plenty of phones available for public use, HHL, Green Turtle Club, Seaspray, Abaco Inn etc., and using a MCI credit card my cost is $.25/minute.

Enjoy!!

[wbruce53]

Sometimes it helps to show your gratification for service in memorable fashion.

[marc]

we have T-mobile and if you activate international roaming it works great from green turtle cay to manjack, the only areas that we have used it this year.
marc

[Fancy Free]

Many who live in Abaco now use Vonage for ALL calls, including local. Seems silly to use all that technology just to call down the street, doesn't it? But it usually works much better than Batelco land lines. If possible, rent a place with Vonage and forget about $3/minute cell calls!
Another VOIP choice is Skype, which works better than Vonage in many cases (Skype's bandwidth reqs are lower). Plus, you can make and receive calls right from your computer. All you need is a highspeed Internet connection.

The Skype software is a free download, and you can IM other Skype users as well as talk on the phone free. You can even do conference calls. If you are calling a non-Skype person, the per/minute charge for outbound calls is quite low, and you can purchase a phone number for a year for a low cost for inbound calls.

[tweety]

My advice for the cell situation would be to make sure your stateside cell is UNLOCKED the next time you go over...then head over to BTC and purchase a GSM chip for $50 and you will have a Bahamian number. Just pop the chip into your stateside cell then when you head back to the U.S ...take it out,store it somewhere safe and put your regular chip back in. The rates are very affordable as well. But remember...make sure you get the phone UNLOCKED before you buy the chip!