These days no one goes anywhere without out their cell phone but do cell phones on Harbour Islands Bahamas get service? The answer is yes, and no. Most CDMA carrier’s such as MetroPCS, Verizon & Sprint will not work on the island but carriers with a GSM network like AT&T and T-Mobile should have coverage. However, even for those US carriers that have coverage, the cell service on Harbour Island can sometimes be unreliable.

• A&T cell service on Harbour Island Bahamas works well however standard international roaming charges for a call is $3.00 a minute. Or, for unlimited free calls you can buy AT&T’s International Day Pass which is $10 a day.

• T-Mobile has good cellular coverage on Harbour Island and if you have the T-Mobile ONE or Simple Choice North America plan you get unlimited data and texting at no extra charge. Calls are only 0.20 cents per minute. You can’t get better than T-Mobile’s cell service on Harbour Island Bahamas.

• Verizon Wireless service is mostly unreliable on Harbour Island. However, if you are using a Verizon “global ready” phone your network will automatically switch from CDMA to GSM and you will have service anywhere a local cell phone works. Still, the standard roaming fees for calls can be anywhere from $1.00 to $2.99 per minute unless you use Verizon’s ‘Travelpass’ which like AT&T charges $10 a day for unlimited free calls.

If you absolutely need to have reliable cell service 100% of the time you should purchase a BTC SIM card. Batelco (BTC) is the cell phone carrier in the Bahamas. Their SIM cards will work in most unlocked cell phones. If you don’t have an unlocked phone and are planning to stay for more than a few days you may want to purchase a BTC cell phone for as low as $50. You can also rent a cell phone at the Batelco store which is located on Colbrook Street in Harbour Island.

SIM Cards and Cell Phone Rentals

These are the two closest BTC locations:

Batelco
Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera
Located across from the Globe Princess Theater on Queen’s Hwy
Hours: Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 4:30 pm

Batelco
Colbrook Street in Harbour Island
Hours: Monday – Friday 9:00 am- 4:00 pm