An update to something I discovered my last trip to happy land relative to telephone issues in the DR.
I have two iphones that I use while in the DR
One has a claro sim and I buy prepaid minutes to make calls and texts etc while in the DR. I use callingmart.com to add time to the account. If you do it every sixty days you will not loose your accumulated time or your number.
The other is an AT and T IPhone.
I have an international calling plan that let's me make calls for a stick it up your ass 1.69 per minute.
My texts coming in are free but cost me .50 per text for each one sent.
I don't buy a international data plan and keep data turned off. (You get a real nasty surprise if you leave your data turned on)
Problem
Every call coming in even if I don't answer it cost me 1.69 per minute.
I normally wouldn't answer than would check my voicemail a couple of times daily at 1.69 per minute cost.
if I needed to make a call to US I would use Vonage mobile on wifi for no cost.
So over 7-10 days it will still add up with calls coming in and a few texts sent
With data turned off the visual voicemail does not work.
My Solution
I figured out that if I put my phone into airplane mode it will stop the calls coming in.
Any calls to my phone go directly to voicemail.
One advantage of this is that the caller does not get the message in spanish before having a chance to leave a message.
I find the Spanish message sometimes tends to confuse some callers who don't know you are out of the country plus it solves the problem for those who don't want the caller to know you are out of the country.
Now granted I don't know if I have received a call.
Than I use Vonage mobile app on wifi and call my own cell number.
This takes me directly to my voicemail where I can enter my security code and listen to my messages.
This method brings my cost of telephone calls to and from the US from 1.69 per minute to zero
and no questions about where you are.
Also, with wifi the imessage system still works on wifi so you can still text back and forth to anyone using imessage with no cost.
You can use whatsapp or textplus to send sms messages to others not on the imessage system through wifi.
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