Making phone calls in Dominican Republic

Most don't have a land line here as they are expensive and sort of old school.  We all have cell phones.  Even the poorest of the poor have their I-phones.

The can be relatively cheap if on a plan ($15-40 USD) a month depending on how much data you use.  Buying minutes at a time can be a bit expensive.  Most locals have a purchase minutes as needed.  The kicker is that there is no charge for incoming calls. So a favorite thing for the local Dominicans to do is call you and hang up before you answer then they wait for you to call them back...so no charge for them.

Bob K

This is a good topic for a thread as it really has not been covered.

Bob is right,  this country  pretty much skipped land lines and went straight to mobile.  Everyone has their mobile and not just a mobile an iphone or a samsun galaxy whatever or the latest whatever. They cannot afford a data plan but damn they have the phone.

Landlines -  are expensive.  We pay per minute for all outgoing calls except if you have a special plan set up and many do not.   The good news is calls to most anywhere in the world are the same price as a local call. 

Mobiles are the same -  you pay by the minute (or second) for outgoing calls.  You need to shop around for both mobile plans and landlines as they carriers and coverage is different depending where you settle.

AND you must check your bills!  Do not rely on the company to get it right, they won't.   Do not leave an open landline  available to anyone in your house - they will use it! 

And yes the "beeper" phenomenon.  They call you and hang up - so you can call them back and incur the costs. Really common.

very interesting... we will shop for a mobile plan once we get there.. As expats. do you have an international plan to call outside of the DR? We need to be able to call the US and France
.And I was thinking of another question.. when you moved to the DR, did you keep your cell phone from your country of origin or did you buy a new cell phone?

MAGIC JACK !! Takes care of all long distance calls !! Could be purchased online ivery effective !!

Yes we use magic jack and have for years.  WE even take it with us when we travel. Just used it all over eastern Europe last month.

Your local DR plans will charge you the same rate to call the US or Canada as calling your next door neighbor.  WE call all the time on our DR cell to the US

If you phone is unlocked then bring it with you.  If not it may not pay to get it unlocked but rather just get a phone here with your plan. 

Bob K

What Bob said!!!! 

Thanks for the info ! Magic jack ? I never heard of it but will research it today.
Bob, if you can call the US with your DR phone, what is the purpose of the Magic jack ?
I am going to stop by the Apple store to see if they can unlock my I phone otherwise, we will just buy new phones once we arrive.

If you have an iPhone ! Download VIBER or Whatsup applications to call anywhere in the world ! Ah but the other end must also heve installed !! Magic Jack is worldwide !! The best !!

IF you want a specific smart phone you may be better to buy it there, unlocked or unlock it here.  Things like smart phones are ridiculously expensive here compared to there!  AND you may not want to lock yourself into a plan (and some carriers won't let you)  Until you decide which carrier and plan is better for you, leave your options open.

Agree with the planner on the phone purchase here. We buy our phones online and unlocked already. If you bring yours, they can unlock it here easy and for cheap, or you can buy the unlock code online and do it yourselves as we did it few times. As for the phone plans, apparently there is a new law (couple months ago) in DR, the phone providers are not allowed to lock you into any plans. Not sure if they follow this yet 

It is true, not too many people use the land line, but if you want to have internet at home, you have to have land line to get it (at least the plan we had with Claro before). If you will have internet only on your phone, no land line is needed.

There are few providers with different prices, so you have to see which one you like when you arrive. Just my observation between our friends and people we know, most people on the north use Orange, most people here on the south use Claro.

For the long distance we use Skype or Hangouts, both for free the same like WhatsApp, as long as you have internet connection and the other party uses the same. If they don't you can call phones from Skype for cheap.

Well, I guess I am the lucky one here!
My lovely wife, Catalina deals with Claro.
4-5 cell phones, wi-fi at the casa/office, all
internet & 99 tv channels with dish, & a land line.
FREE calls to Canada & elsewhere from the landline.
All this for avg. 3000 pesos/month.

We used to have the same (minus the dish because we had cable TV, but some areas have to have a dish), but realized we don't watch TV at all, so no need to pay for it. We watch all on Netflix, You Tube or directly online though Chromecast.

That sounds like a hell of a deal.  I am spending 1400 RD a month just for phone, texting and some download capabilities. 

What has happened to the days when a phone was just a phone????

Bob K

Demi note that some phones cannot be unlocked here without incurring huge expense.  My new Samsung (claro) was going to cost $50US to unlock as a special program had to be purchased.

We too buy our phones on line for the  most part as well as in other countries.  My wife got a steal on a dual card Samsung in Hungary for about $150 US.

Bob K

WOW, nice deal Bob. Yep, I've heard some unlocks might be expensive to do here. We purchased our unlocks online couple / few times and it was always 10 USD or so. But like you said, it depends on the phone.

All good info.  One thing not mentioned is the magicjack allows for unlimited North American calling for free from the DR or anywhere else in the world.  Also for free magicjack to magicjack.  For cheap you can purchase minutes to call other places.  An internet connection is needed and the latest model of magicjack plugs directly into you router so no need for a computer like the older models.  Once the device is plugged into the router you can plug you wireless portable phone set into it and have telephones all over your house.  Works great. Subscription is approx. $20 per year.

The home phone is very cheap if you are purchasing internet.  It's only a little more to add on cable TV and home phone.  I pay about 2500 pesos per month for internet\phone\catv. with Claro.That includes taxes.

All the apps available on modern cell phones allow you to communicate either free or very cheap.

Welcome to the DR.

Also, if you set up a Gmail in the States with an American IP, you can make free calls from your Google Voice back to the US. That is how I do all of my calls. BUT you must have an American IP when you set up the account.

Yes we use magic jack here in the house and in fact take it with us no matter where in the world we travel.  We even have the app loaded on our phones.

Bob K

No trouble with getting a land line ..we had Claro internet and landline,and also a Magic jack which allowed us calls to Canada free and folks could call us just like being next door!

Great info everybody ! Thank you !  We tried to unlock our phones over the weekend. Still waiting to hear from our carriers. They did say it would take 48 hrs ..  Wait and see !
Internet, cable, dish.. Chromecast  etc... I will let my husband deal with this one !!  LOL

Since you brought it up,  what about internet access for the house?  Any suggestions on that process?

yes figure out the carrier where you will live, go to that company and ask for a new installation.  Just like at  home

Yes just contact the internet carrier in your area (it varies from place to place) which many times is connected to your Cable TV carrier and sign up for new service.

For us it takes about 24 hours to get done.

Bob K

I'm visiting my girl in the DR & I'm wondering if it'll cost money to dial a Dominican number on my iphone.

Of course it will.

Bob K

What's  the cheapest way to make a local call on iphone?

If your phone is unlocked buy a pay as you go simm card. If your phone is locked search on ebay you can get it unlocked for around $30.

Yep unlock your phone or buy a second phone here.

Bob K

And if  you are getting  a phone for your novia make sure it is the absolute latest model and the highest price or she won't be happy.

Bob K