Audiovox Access in Jamaica »
Prior to leaving on our trip, I checked the AT&T WorldConnect site - which actually appears pretty useful - to see if I'd be able to use my phone there. The list is actually pretty exhaustive, and their little flash tool told me that I'd be able to use my phone in some locations - with Cable & Wireless.
That's okay, but the C&W maps weren't particularly impressive (once I finally dug them up somewhere). Digicel seemed to have much better coverage. According to AT&T, the problem was that my phone didn't support GSM 900 (which, so far as I can tell, it doesn't), yet the Digicel network in Jamaica uses GSM 900. So imagine my surprise when I fired up the phone in Montego Bay, only to find it report Digicel as the carrier.
Now I don't know if there has been some form of merger action going on, and Digicel actually took over (or has always operated) the C&W network. But every time I tried my phone, it seemed to work fine (except inside immigration at the MBJ airport), and the carrier was consistently reported as Digicel. I dunno. I'm just glad it worked so well.
Update: That is to say, it worked well for making calls. I was on vacation, so I didn't leave it on long enough to receive calls. I did receive one IM, however. And checking voice mail internationally didn't work well at all. I was finally able to get into the mailbox, but couldn't do anything to the messages (specifically, I was unable to delete them).
