Phone service in Panama

[MARION WIMBERLEY]

We are on the way to Panama as I write this. I bought an unlocked IPhone before we left. We will be traveling throughout Panama for the next five months. We have a Panama cell phone from previous visits. I have read that cell service in Panama varies with the provider and your location. Which provider(s) do you recommend if we will be going from PC to Boquete and points in between? Thanks for any help and guidance.
Dale

[COUNTRY EXPERT- JESSICA RAMESCH]

Dear Dale and/or Marion,
Movistar and Cable & Wireless have been around the longest and thus have the most extensive coverage. Aside from Sora, I have never had any trouble with cell phone coverage in Panama (my cell phone contract is with Movistar). Hope this helps and have a great trip!

[CHRISTOPHER LAW]

Does anyone have specific recommendations re: type phone and calling card/plan for someone who will be spending three months in Panama? I will be calling numbers within Panama and to the USA. Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

[COUNTRY EXPERT- JESSICA RAMESCH]

Dear Christopher,

You can buy a cheap cell phone for as little as $20 and get it set up quickly for pay-as-you-go, the local companies are Movistar, Cable & Wireless, Digicel, and Claro. You’d have to ask them each what they charge for international calls but it may not make a huge difference which one you go with if you will only be here for three months. Digicel and Claro are newer and the others may have better nationwide coverage. Alternatively, you can get a sim card for your own cell phone from one of these providers.

If you have an android phone you can use services like Skype to call for free or for very little money, using your smart phone’s wifi and not data or roaming.

Regards,

Jessica

[AMY TUSO]

Jessica, you say that you can use your smart phone’s wifi for Skype and not be charged? Double checking as I’ll be at the conference in January and am unsure of connecting to the US while there.
thanks,
Amy

[COUNTRY EXPERT- JESSICA RAMESCH]

Yes Amy: Skype is free if you’re calling to another person’s skype. If you want to use skype to call a cell phone number, you can do that, too, but you’ll need to buy Skype credit. It’s really cheap. As for using wifi on your phone, be careful to turn off roaming or you can accumulate unwanted roaming/data charges. Basically, you want to make sure you are using wifi and not your home data plan. Contact your provider to ask about roaming charges before you travel.
Hope that helps.
Regards,

[Author]

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