Changes: Guam

Revision as of 10:21, 15 December 2017

Basics

Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are territories of the United States that are not part of the 50 core states. They share some things with the mainland like the country code +1 and their currency is US$. But they also have some significant differences with the mainland, such as having additional visa waiver countries, and more importantly their own independent cellphone networks.

Download (20) — Flag of the Northern Mariana Islands

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (in short CNMI) is connected to Guam and mostly the same cellular networks operate here. Major US network operators such as AT&T or T-Mobile have no operations here, and consider these islands to be "international" with high roaming charges, or no roaming at all.

Instead, there are 4 GSM operators available on prepaid:

DoCoMo Pacific (owned by NTT DoCoMo in Japan)
GTA Teleguam
iConnect Advanced
IT&E (mostly CDMA)

Cellular coverage is on US-American frequencies: 2G on 1900 MHz, 3G on 850 and 1900 MHz and LTE has started on 700 (bands 12 and 17) and 1700 MHz (AWS). CDMA and GSM systems co-exist like in the US.

DoCoMo Pacific

DoCoMo Pacific (formerly called Guam Wireless) offers 2G service on 1900 MHz, 3G/UTMS on 850 MHz, and 4G/LTE on 700 MHz (band 17). Coverage is on Guam, Saipan, Rota, and Tinian: Coverage map.

Availability

Their prepaid SIM cards are sold in DoCoMo stores (locations) as part of a starter kit for $19.95 which includes $10 credit.

Top-up vouchers can be bought in increments of $5, $10, and $20, and top-ups can be done by credit card as well. To load a prepaid recharge card, type *111*<PIN>#. To check balance, enter *112*# to get a SMS.

Data rates

Default data rate is $0.10 per MB. Plans called "Unli! prepaid plans" are offered for short-term visitors and billed by the day (24-hour period):

Time	Local calling, texts, data	Data only
1 day	$ 2.95	$ 1.95
3 days	$ 8.00	$ 5.50
5 days	$ 13.00	$ 9.00

All plans include "unlimited" local calls, texts or data. "Unlimited" data appears subject to an unclear fair use policy, with throttling to 256 kbps on "excessive use" which seems to be several GBs. For 4G/LTE you may need to text 'LTE' to 3282.

For activation text the word 'UNLI' to 8654. After receiving the welcome message, reply with your service of choice by sending "3" for data-only, or “4” for all. Reply to next message confirming the number of days you want to go UNLI with your service of choice: "1" for one day, "2" for three days or "3" for five days.

12 hours prior to expiration of selected service, you will receive a message: "Your subscription to [service] will expire in 12 hours. If you do not wish to auto-renew your subscription at that time, please reply with "NO" now."

In addition, there is a $1 monthly "E911" fee to be deducted from the balance. Service is deactivated when reaching $0 balance, so better to keep a dollar or two on the account to prevent this.

More info

APN: internet
Website: http://www.docomopacific.com

GTA Teleguam

GTA Teleguam was formerly called Pulse Mobile. They cover only the island of Guam and not Saipan or elsewhere; Coverage Map, but are planning to cover the CNMI soon too. In 2015 they were sold to Indonesian Telkom.

They offer 2G and 3G/HSPA on 850 and 1900 MHz and since 2013 4G/LTE on 1700 MHz (band 4). Coverage on Guam is considered to be on par with DoCoMo with 95% covered by LTE in Guam.

Availability

Their SIM starter kits provide 3-in-1 (mini-SIM with removable micro-SIM and nano-SIM) and top-ups are sold at official GTA stores in populated areas (locator) and also on the US Air Force and Naval bases. In almost every town they are sold at most markets and also some other retail stores. Typical start-up costs are around $15-20, but come loaded with "5 days free" usage. Sometimes these starter kits can be obtained for a discount when loaded immediately.

To check balance, type *488# and choose 1 on menu. Credit expires soon after top-up unless extended by another top-up, which extends the validity of all credit: $0.01 - $9.00 for 15 days, $9.01 - $19.00 for 30 days, and $19.01 and up for 60 days. Top-ups can be bought as vouchers of size $5, $10, $20 or $50; or via credit card by *488# choosing 2 on menu.

Data rates

Default data rate is $0.10 per MB. Daily and monthly plans are also offered with few data options as most plans are differentiated by their voice and SMS provided.

A $3 daily plan gives "unlimited" (with an unclear FUP) data for 24 hours.

These monthly plans are sold with data,some local minutes and unlimited local texts:

Price	Data	local calls
$ 25	500 MB	200 mins
$ 35	500 MB	500 mins
$ 45	5 GB	500 mins
$ 60	1 GB	unlimited
$ 70	3 GB	unlimited

To activate a plan, call *488# and choose 3 on menu. After quota has been consumed, default rate applies.

More info

APN: mpulse.GTA.net
Website: http://www.gta.net

iConnect Advanced

iConnect took over Motorola's mobile radio network in Guam and Saipan and later added Tinian and Rota to the network. Compared to DoCoMo or GTA it still has a more limited network and no 2G coverage and runs an incompatible iDEN network instead. Its GSM-based 3G/HSPA+ is on 1900 MHz 3G coverage map. 4G/LTE started in 2014 on 700 MHz in Guam (band 17) 4G coverage map.

Availability

Their triple-cut SIM card called iConnect Advanced 4G SIM is sold in their stores (locator) for $15 with a minimal balance. You can top-up by credit card or vouchers. Expiry dates for the load cards are 30 days for $10 and $20, and 15 days for $5 from the day you reload your SIM Card. Service shall be permanently disconnected if the subscriber fails to load within 90 days after the last card balance is consumed.

When a subscriber’s balance falls below $0.50, he/she will not be able to make or receive cellular calls except 911 emergency calls, until such time that the subscriber successfully loads an iConnect prepaid Load Card before permanent disconnection.

Data rates

They offer a daily plan for $2.25 with "unlimited" local calls and texts and 4G data. To subscribe text 'ALLIN ON' to 500. It will auto-renew every night at 3am. To stop, text 'ALLIN OFF' to 500. The FUP is not specified.

For data only, they offer these packages to be booked on their prepaid plan:

$ 1.50: DATADAY - "unlimited" data for 1 day until 3am
$ 10: DATAWEEK - "unlimited" data for 7 days
$ 35: DATAMONTH - "unlimited" data for 30 days

Data on 4G/LTE is up to 21 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload. To activate text "<NAME> ON" to 500. The daily pack auto-renews at 3am until stopped by "DATADAY OFF" to 500. The weekly and monthly packages don't auto-renew and you'll get a message 2 days prior to expiration.

All "unlimited" data use is subject to their "acceptable use policy", that is not specified, but gives at least some GBs of data without restrictions.

More info

APN: ican /or/ internet
Website: http://www.iconnectguam.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/iconnectguam
Their products are sold to be delivered to your hotel by 'Guam Prepaid' for a steep surcharge: http://www.guamprepaid.com

IT&E Wireless

IT&E Wireless is a cellular company, that started in the CNMI as MTC and on Guam as PTI. It also runs the submarine cable between these islands and cellular networks on Guam, Saipan, Tinian and Rota.

For now their network is mostly on CDMA-standard which is not compatible to GSM devices, while they have some GSM coverage too. It can't be recommended for 2G/3G GSM, but is an option if you come from the US and want to activate your CDMA device in Guam or have a hybrid CDMA/GSM device. In 2014 they started a 4G/LTE coverage on 700 MHz (band 17) available for both systems.

Availability

You can get the CDMA activation or the GSM 4G SIM card in one of their stores (locations). The IT&E SIM is $19.95 with a free $10 load. Top-up is made by credit and debit cards online. Check balance by *87

Data rates

Their mobile broadband data packages are called "Motion Broadband":

500 MB for 7 days: $ 5
1 GB for 7 days: $ 10
3 GB for 7 days: $ 20
10 GB for 14 days: $ 50

Activation and management is online through mydata.ite.net Data will be shut off when depleted or elapsed.

More info

APN for prepaid: prepaid.ite.net
APN for mobile broadband: internet.ite.net
Website: http://www2.ite.net/

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 == '''Basics''' ==
-'''Guam''' and the '''Northern Mariana Islands''' are US territories of the that are not part of the 50 core states. They share some things with the mainland like the country code +1 and their currency is US$. But they also have some significant differences with the mainland, such as having additional visa waiver countries, and more importantly their own independent cellphone networks.
+'''Guam''' and the '''Northern Mariana Islands''' are territories of the '''[http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/United_States United States]''' that are not part of the 50 core states. They share some things with the mainland like the country code +1 and their currency is US$. But they also have some significant differences with the mainland, such as having additional visa waiver countries, and more importantly their own independent cellphone networks.
 [[File:Download (20).png|thumb|220x220px|Flag of the Northern Mariana Islands]]
 The '''Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands''' (in short CNMI) is connected to Guam and mostly the same cellular networks operate here. Major US network operators such as AT&T or T-Mobile have no operations here, and consider these islands to be "international" with high roaming charges, or no roaming at all.