Antigua and Barbuda coverage

What the Antigua and Barbuda numbers mean

Two numbers matter and only one of them is the one every seller quotes. The typical speed, 33 Mbps, tells you what a good moment looks like.

The tenth percentile, 7 Mbps, is the one that matters. It is the speed in the worst tenth of the day, when the cell above the station is full and everybody around you is on it too. A country with a high median and a low floor is a country that works beautifully right up until the moment you actually need it.

If the trip depends on video calls or tethering, plan around the busy figure rather than the typical one.

What happens in Antigua and Barbuda when the network is busy

Congestion is not a fault, it is a Tuesday evening. The question is what your eSIM can do about it, and for most travel eSIMs the answer is nothing: one wholesale agreement per country, one network, and no way out except buying a second eSIM from somebody else while standing in the street.

Here, Orbislo traffic runs over Flow and Digicel. When the network you are on degrades we move you to another one, mid trip, without you asking, and tell you afterwards rather than interrupting you at the time.

Mobile operators in Antigua and Barbuda

• APUA inet: APUA, formed in 1973 under the Public Utility Act from the government's electricity, water and telephone departments, launched its GSM mobile service APUA PCS on 25 January 2000, the first GSM service in the English speaking Caribbean.
• APUA network: APUA says inet Mobile runs a 4G LTE Advanced network with island wide data and voice coverage, and describes inet, the brand of its telecommunications business unit, as the only indigenous telecommunications provider on the island.
• Digicel: In September 2019 Digicel settled its spectrum dispute with the government by handing 2 MHz in the 850 MHz band and 9 MHz in the 900 MHz band to APUA, in exchange for automatic continuity of its licences beyond 2021.

Older networks in Antigua and Barbuda

• Flow retired its 2G network in Antigua and Barbuda in phases from 1 June to 31 July 2024, reusing the spectrum for 3G and 4G. Since then phones, trackers and dongles that support only 2G cannot connect to Flow at all.

Network notes for Antigua and Barbuda

• Flow advised customers after its 2G switch off to check that 3G or 4G is enabled in phone settings and to choose a VoLTE capable handset, noting that most roaming partners abroad have also closed 2G and require VoLTE for roaming.
• In 2019 APUA said only two low frequency bands in Antigua can carry 3G voice with good indoor reach, with Digicel holding all of one and sharing the other with Flow, leaving APUA weaker indoors.