peace brother,
wes

But congratulations just the same. Nice to find out some folks I know win things once and a while. I agree cell phones have their uses, roadside emergencies and such, it’s just that things have gotten way out of hand. You will hopefully see some sort of project from me on this topic in the future.

Forward me the new number for my files so I can wake you up in the middle of the night to ask you what time it is.

My old cell phone was from Startec, which turned into EC Comm a couple years ago. They basically resold the GTA Cellular service, and I was not pleased with it. I had/have a contract for 30 minutes a month, plus free nights and weekends. That sucked about $60 out of my wallet every month for something I rarely used. So I am going with prepaid this time around, I figure it is more cost effective for light users like me.

Guamcell, formerly Guam Cellular and Paging, is the big dog in wireless service on Guam. They market heavily (so does #2 IT&E), and from what I hear they are servicable. I’ve never used them, though I do call people with Guamcell numbers fairly often.

GTA is rolling out their new cellular plans these days, with promises to move their current CDMA system to GSM by this summer. GSM is that world mobile standard – think T-Mobile or Vodaphone. One phone, usable around the world, it’s an attractive idea. That’s what I was thinking about switching to in a few months.

Smaller cellular players on island include Hafatel, EC Comm, Verizon and iConnect. Like I said, EC Comm resells the GTA service. Cellular doesn’t seem to be a focus for them though, they’re more into long distance and data services. I don’t know a thing about Verizon’s cellular plans or service. Hafatel sells prepaid GSM phones, which are cool, but they suffer from a miniscule coverage area. My friend Reiner’s Hafatel phone is nearly useless here in Yoña. iConnect pioneered those push-to-talk radio phones on Guam and Saipan. We used them at work for several years, and I had no complaints. Of course I never used them outside of Tamuning/Tumon/Tiyan. Guamcell and IT&E both introduced push-to-talk radio phones last year and work switched over to Guamcell from iConnect. I don’t have one of these new radio phones, but the scuttlebutt is they suck – or at least the radio feature does.

Obviously cellular phones are a booming business on Guam, I know I didn’t get all of them. Island Fone – is that still around? There are plenty of choices on the island for cellular service, and competition generally means lower prices and more features. So shop around Merm, see what you can find.

I just within the last year or so got myself a cell phone. I was one of those last hold outs. Just figured if I really needed to call someone I could find a phone somewhere. Trouble was pretty soon I was thinking about asking others to use their cell phones. Not cool. So, I thought time to get my own. Anyway, I also didn’t want to join some ridiculous plan where you had to sign up for a year or two’s worth of payments for lousy service. So I got what around here is probably considered a kids’ plan. Virgin Mobile. This pre-pay plan (sans contract) works well enough, but I think it’s probably more expensive than the regular plans with contract. But worth it to me when I don’t have any obligations with it (or huge surprises at the end of the month).

So I was thinking about when I got to Guam. It would be time for me to break down and get a real cell phone. I want my kids to be able to get in touch with me when they need to even if GTA is down. It seems like every other time I call my mother, I can’t get through. By the way, it wasn’t this way ten or fifteen years ago. The phone system was pretty reliable back then (unless a typhoon had just hit).

So, what would you recommend as a good wireless service there, that would be good for local and stateside calls…