Cell Phone Question.

[San Diego]

When I arrive in Cebu. What is the best thing to do about cell service? I have a iPhone. Should I use it or buy a cheap phone there? I will be there for 7 weeks. Which cell service is the best?

I appreciate any info.you can help me with..

[Jollygoodfellow]

7 minutes ago, San Diego said:

When I arrive in Cebu. What is the best thing to do about cell service? I have a iPhone. Should I use it or buy a cheap phone there? I will be there for 7 weeks. Which cell service is the best?

I appreciate any info.you can help me with..

You can just buy a sim card for about 30 peso and then buy load. Depending where you will be in Cebu, city or province can make a difference as to which is the best provider. Many people have iphones these days but still you need to be careful that it does not go missing. Maybe buy a cheap phone here and if you do get a dual sim so you can have two providers such as smart and globe or even sun. if you're traveling a lot 2 si cards would be best. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

17 minutes ago, San Diego said:

I have a iPhone. Should I use it or buy a cheap phone there? I will be there for 7 weeks. Which cell service is the best?

If your IPhone is locked to your US provider it would be wise to buy a cheap phone here.  IMHO Smart is the best service in urban areas and Globe is best in rural areas but most filipinas have cells from TM or Sun or whatever the deal of the week is.  Thus, IMO, there is no "best" cell service but Prepaid Globe or Smart are the normal sims to buy.

[Gary D]

My phone is now out of contract so had it unkocked and just buy a phil sim when we land, Smart is good in our area but it varies from area to area so need to find the best for the area you are going to spend most of your time in. If your phone is single sim just carry the opposing sim and slip it in when needed.

[Gator]

Even if under contract to a US provider you can have your phone unlocked. Just need to call them and tell them you’ll be traveling internationally. It only takes a few minutes.

As others have said, Smart offers the best service in and around metro Cebu City as well as most of the island and most of Bohol too (at least in the tourist areas). I think the best plan to use is their Mega 250. 30 days of unlimited texting to all networks, 180 minutes talk time to Smart, Sun and TNT and 100mb of data for 250 pesos. Simply buy a 300 peso load card (they don’t sell a 250 peso load card) load your phone (instructions are on the back of the load card) and then text MEGA250 to 2200.

Keep in mind that most ppl here text and do not call each other. Mainly because the call quality usually isn’t good and often there’s a lot of background noise (roosters, load music, tRaPPik, etc). 

 Very important - Be sure to turn off your cellular data when not using it. Every few minutes your phone pings the server, so even when not actively using data it is being consumed.  Your load or any remaining balance will get eaten and the next time you load your phone the balance due (from “over use” of data) may get taken right away. 

For Internet you may want to consider picking up a pocket WiFi device here. I’d recommend one that can be used with any provider you want. Not one that is locked into a specific carrier - like a “Smart Bro Stick” (USB type device). Pricing for unli data (LTE) between the two majors - Smart and Globe - is similar. About 1,000 pesos for 30 days, 300 pesos for 7 days and 50 pesos for one day (SurfMax on both; throttled back daily to 2G/3G after 800 mb consumed). 

You can also use one of the SurfMax plans (SurfMaxPlus for Smart) on your iPhone at the same time as the Mega250 plan and use your phone as a hotspot as well. The only drawback is if you’re in an area where say Globe has better data service, then you can’t swap out SIM cards (well you can - but you’d have to have both regular cell and data loaded on both Sims if you want to text and use the net at the same time). And that can happen even within Cebu City. I was just renting a place near the Capital building. Both Smart and Globe had a good cell signal, but only Smart’s data service worked well. Likely due to their tower being only a few hundred meters away.  

And btw, you can get Sim and load cards at the airport when you arrive. But if your flight arrives in the wee hours the shops might be closed. You can also pay a little more (typically about 5 USD) and get a SIM card and possibly even a load card on eBay before you leave the USA. Just don’t install the Sim until you get here (while in the air a little before you land) as it won’t work US and may want to roam (unless set up you’ll be charged for it - whatever load is included on the Sim may get eaten).

In any event - welcome to the forum and hope you have a good trip.