NO NO NO - just so no one gets burned...AT&T does NOT charge .50 a call - the other poster is correct - its closer to $2.80 a minute. the 0.50 is per TXT. both those prices are WITH the $5.99 /mo international service, or it would be even more. we use AT&T and believe have the highest int'l rates.
the original poster appeared to want the phone for intra-bz use, and was answered well. for us visitors calling home, there are other options available out there, such as renting a BTL phone while visiting (about $1 less per minute), or skype (with conditions, of course).
This is true. With AT&T, any texts you RECEIVE from the states are FREE. Any texts you SEND are $0.50 per text. That is without any type of international plan.
The AT&T international plan is about $5.99 a month, but the calls are still around $3.99 or so per minute, so it is not worth it to me.
Here is what I did: I bought a local phone there at C's, across from Milo's. The cheapest they had. I then bought minutes for it at Milo's. Same thing as buying a calling card, but now they don't give you a slip of paper with a long number on it that you have to dial every time. Now they actually put the money on your phone. You can press *122 to check your balance periodically.
It has a local number, so now I can call and receive local calls there in Belize for a small amount per minute. Also, I can MAKE calls from that phone to the states for about $0.25 to $0.50 a minute (can't remember which). But it is certainly a lot less that an international plan from the states.
When someone from the states needs to contact me, they text me for free to my US phone and tell me to call them. I then call them on my Belize phone for a small amount per minute.
Some may have found a better way, but this is the best way that I have discovered to handle it.
Hope this helps.
(By the way, I tried this route first: I took three extra unused, but still working phones with me that had SIM cards in them (three different brands to try). I was told I could get one unlocked there and could then purchase a local SIM card. The same scenerio listed above would then work and I wouldn't have to purchase a local phone. However, none of the three phones could be unlocked. Apparently each type of make/model of phone requires different software to unlock it and they didn't have it. I tried at a couple of different places. So instead of unlocking my existing phone and buying a $55 BZE SIM card, I ended up having to buy a local phone for $100 or so BZE. But now I have it for all future trips there.)