Being 1,000’s of miles away from your family and friends is hard, especially when your phone plan does not work aboard!
There are options to get a phone and plan locally; however, it is not very cost efficient. In addition to this, you must “jail break”/unlock your phone to use it locally which voids any insurance or Apple Care you have on your device.
You can get an international plan on your phone; however, the data is usually limited (mine is 200MG/month). I personally have a low-cost international plan ($40/month) from AT&T in the case of emergency, and I need to call in absence of WIFI. Here is the link to international phone:
The best plan is to live off of the WIFI at school/home/restaurants. The downside to this, per school policy, you can only have one device connected to the internet at a time. Due to this, it has become popular for students to purchase a hot spot and a plan from T-mobile prior to arriving on the island. T-mobile allows students to be able to connect to the internet internationally for no extra charge.
Example Cost:
T-mobile device: $70-80 (One time fee…they will split the payment of the device on your monthly bills)
Data Plan: I get 10GB of data for $50/month. The plans and rates vary among what promotions are going on.
Note: T-mobile works in Anguilla, but does not have towers in St. Martin.
Saint James School of Medicine 