Saint Martin coverage

What the Saint Martin numbers mean

Two numbers matter and only one of them is the one every seller quotes. The typical speed, 22.3 Mbps, tells you what a good moment looks like.

The tenth percentile, 3.6 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 Saint Martin 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 Orange Caraïbe, Digicel, Dauphin Telecom, Free Caraïbe and UTS. 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 Saint Martin

• Five networks: The regulator's shutdown table for Saint-Martin lists five mobile operators: Dauphin Telecom, Digicel, Free Caraïbe, Orange and UTS. Dauphin Telecom and Free Caraïbe never ran a 2G network there.
• Free Caraïbe: Free Caraïbe began selling mobile plans in the French Caribbean on 17 May 2022. At launch it had 10 mobile sites on Saint-Martin covering 97 percent of the population with 4G, with 2 more sites planned to reach 98 percent.

Older networks in Saint Martin

• Digicel switched off 2G on Saint-Martin on 1 July 2025, and UTS has also ended its 2G service. Orange began with Peatree Hill, Rambaud and Marigot on 19 May 2026 and scheduled the switch off everywhere on the territory for 26 September 2026.
• Orange plans to close its 3G network in 2028, and the other operators have not announced a 3G date. The regulator warns that a phone which cannot carry calls over 4G, known as VoLTE, will stop making calls once the older networks close.

5G in Saint Martin

• Spectrum for 5G was awarded on 25 July 2023. Dauphin Telecom, Free Caraïbe and Orange Caraïbe received frequencies in both the 700 MHz and 3.4 to 3.8 GHz bands, and Digicel received 3.4 to 3.8 GHz only.
• Each winner took a 50 MHz block in the 3.4 to 3.8 GHz band in return for coverage commitments, and the remaining 180 MHz went to auction on 1 June 2023. The whole 700 MHz band, 20 MHz duplex, was auctioned on 18 April 2023.
• Free Caraïbe's licence runs from 25 July 2023 to 24 July 2038 and can be extended to 2043. It paid 2,000 euros for 5 MHz duplex at 700 MHz on Saint-Martin, and nothing for three extra 10 MHz blocks that put it at 3620 to 3700 MHz.
• Within five years of the award, half of Free Caraïbe's larger sites, and at least 2 on Saint-Martin, must use the 3.4 to 3.8 GHz band to offer at least 100 Mbit/s per 10 MHz block with latency of 5 milliseconds or less.

Network notes for Saint Martin

• Free Caraïbe's licence names five areas of Saint-Martin that must get voice, text and fast mobile internet within 36 months of July 2023: Concordia, Colombier, Oyster Pond, Cul de Sac and Quartier d'Orléans. Operators must share new masts built for these areas.
• Hurricane Irma on 6 September 2017 destroyed 90 to 95 percent of buildings and infrastructure on Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy, took down GSM antennas and broke a submarine telecom cable. When the mobile network returned it was saturated, and restoring service took several weeks.
• After Irma the fixed networks, previously strung overhead, were rebuilt underground through Tintamarre, a company set up from November 2017 to build and run buried ducts for the three fibre operators on the territory: Orange, Dauphin Telecom and THD Tel.