Telephoning To and From Bonaire

General Dialing

If you're calling Bonaire from the U.S. or Canada, you would dial 011-599-7XX-XXXX, where 011 is the International access code, 599 is the country code for the Netherlands Antilles, 7 is the city code for Bonaire, and XX-XXXX is the local Bonairean number you want to reach. If you are calling Bonaire from Europe or most of the rest of the world, you would dial 00-599-7XX-XXXX using 00 for the international access code.

While on Bonaire dial the number starting with the first 7. So for the example above, you would dial 717-8000. Bonaire phone number typically have a prefix of 717- or 715- for land line numbers, and 780-, 781-, 785-, 786-, and 790- for local cell phone numbers.

Some of our cellular phone numbers are Curacao numbers and therefore have a different code and will be listed on this site starting with a 09-XXXXXX as this is how you dial when on Bonaire. If you're calling from the U.S., you would dial 011-599-9-XXXXXXX, or from Europe, you would dial 00-599-9-XXXXXX. Recently Bonaire cellular numbers have been added and would be dialed as a normal Bonaire number.

Calling Bonaire from the U.S. is about $1.50/minute with no special rate plan. However, for a small monthly fee, most of the long distance carriers can set you up with an International calling plan that lets you call Bonaire for less than US$0.40 a minute.

Calls from Bonaire to the U.S. are a little more pricey. Calling from a hotel or resort directly is going to cost you between $2 and $4 per minute, but calling from a Bonaire cell phone or personall owned land line is typically less than $0.50/minute.

Similarly, calls to various European countries are quite expensive too (the Netherlands being the least expensive to call).

The four ways to get around this are to:

1. Go to the Telbo building in downtown Kralendijk, and call via their phone booths (you pay at a nearby counter for this service) - this costs about half what the charge is calling from a resort.
2. Get a calling card from a long distance company which allows you to place credit card calls from Bonaire (check this with them first - it can be costly) - rates on calling card calls from Bonaire to other parts of the world vary depending on the card. You may wish to explore the advantages of a call-back system combined with a pre-paid card such as CallnPay, as these may offer prices advantages.
3. If you plan on being here for more than a few weeks and have your own phone number, you can use a callback or calling service, such as that from CallnPay.
4. AT&T Direct at either the airport or Telbo.
5. Use a Blue international calling public phone. There are 50 located around the island. Be forewarned these can be very expensive. We priced a call to the States at US$14.00 for the first five minutes.
6. Rent a local cell phone from a company like Chat N Browse to use to make your overseas calls.

In terms of telephone equipment on Bonaire, it's U.S. standard, including the modular RJ-11 connectors. Telbo is accessible at phone number 717-7000.

Cellular Phone Service

GSM is supported on Bonaire at European frequencies. Roaming with some carriers, including Cingular and T-Mobile is possible as well and GPRS data services are available for roaming in some cases.

There are three cellular service provides on Bonaire: Telbo (the island phone company), MIO, and Digicel. Telbo and Digicel use GSM, and MIO uses CDMA technology. All three offer prepay phone usage programs.

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