With the roaming charges, I use my ATT phone very rarely. I have an unlocked gsm phone and bought a Telcel sim chip (about $18) and then I get the Amigo cards (100 peso increments). The main Telcel office is on Benito Juarez just past the RR crossing(in the plaza where the JimBur market used to be). They have a couple people that speak English very well....very helpful/professional.
Don't know if they still have the plan, but if you had a Telcel phone for a year, you could get a rate of 1 peso per minute within the 638 area code (Penasco)...
Are you interested in local service or US service down here? Telcel offers a 3G network I do believe, and I think the phone company (Telmex) may offer something of the sort as well...
when we come down (about once a month for 4-5 days ) our phones don't get service. Right now we need something that will work for calls from the US in case of emergency. We plan on selling everything and moving down in about a year and then we'll get a mx provider.
You can buy a phone from Telcel with pay as you go. I paid $30 for my phone and I load minutes with a Telcel card. If you ask they will set your phone up in english. They also have a program that you can sign up for that gives you 20 minutes for 1.05. Thats cheap! I have been using it for 3 years now, no problems.
You can buy a phone from Telcel with pay as you go. I paid $30 for my phone and I load minutes with a Telcel card. If you ask they will set your phone up in english. They also have a program that you can sign up for that gives you 20 minutes for 1.05. Thats cheap! I have been using it for 3 years now, no problems.
Good Point Pinto... I baught my wife one of those $30.00 phones and at the time of purchase Telcel was running a special and they included 300 units (or pesos) of service time. Now you can't beat a deal like that... :-P
So just to clarify - the Telcel phones you're taliking about - they work to phone the U.S.? And you can buy them at the Telcel store at Benito Juarez & the RR tracks (at Calle 13?)
You can buy them at any Telcel store. You can buy the phone card at the SuperTs, and many other small stores. You need to buy phone cards for area two for them to work.
With the roaming charges, I use my ATT phone very rarely. I have an unlocked gsm phone and bought a Telcel sim chip (about $18) and then I get the Amigo cards (100 peso increments). The main Telcel office is on Benito Juarez just past the RR crossing(in the plaza where the JimBur market used to be). They have a couple people that speak English very well....very helpful/professional.
Don't know if they still have the plan, but if you had a Telcel phone for a year, you could get a rate of 1 peso per minute within the 638 area code (Penasco)...
If you live down there it might be different but my son has AT&T in the US and when he visits Penasco he calls AT&T beforehand and for a monthly proratable $5 he reduces his roaming charges substantially. I want to say it drops the roaming fee from $1 per minute to $00.10 per minute but you might want to verify that. I also seem to remember some recent ads where they were dropping their Mexico rates further.
The $5 add on with AT&T (which I have) reduces your roaming charges...somewhere around 10 cents per minute, and also your text messaging. It helps, but nothing to jump up and down about. Not sure about the rate someone else quoted for calling to Mexico from the US, but that is probably calling a landline, and with most people I know in Penasco, they have cellphones and not a landline, and to call a cellphone from the US is somewhere around 29 cents per minute. Just check the ATTwireless.com website, and look for the roaming charges to get an accurate amount.
If you plan on making regular calls to the US from Mexico, your best bet and least expensive is to jump on a wifi internet connection, and use MagicJack. There are still several free ones in town (the coffee shop coming in to town on Benito Juarez, Max's Cafe, some of the bars). The MagicJack cost me somewhere around $39, and it is $19 per year for free calls back to the US (you set up a local areacode phone number on MagicJack...like 602 for Phoenix) and people can also call you from the US free.
My TWO cents on if you are going to do the wifi option for calls is SKYPE. It uses less bandwidth and you will get "a little" better call quality. they have monthly plans for less than $10 a month. You can get a US phone number and calls to the US from Mexico on that number are $0.02 a minute. For $10.00 a month you can call the US 1,200 minutes a month. For cost, portability, features and ease of use I find it to be my personal favorite.
My TWO cents on if you are going to do the wifi option for calls is SKYPE. It uses less bandwidth and you will get "a little" better call quality. they have monthly plans for less than $10 a month. You can get a US phone number and calls to the US from Mexico on that number are $0.02 a minute. For $10.00 a month you can call the US 1,200 minutes a month. For cost, portability, features and ease of use I find it to be my personal favorite.
I used Skype for a couple of years (still have some money on my account), but I have to disagree on the clarity of the calls....MagicJack beats Skype. Plus, I hook up a regular phone to the MagicJack and use that. Don't know if Skype has graduated from the "special" phones you needed if you wanted to use one, and not a headphone.
The calls to the US from Mexico were somewhere around 2 cents per minute with Skype, and I recall you could "buy" a number from the US, and have people call you for free....but the cost of the number was not free, whereas you get that with MagicJack in the price ($19.95/year).
But...to each his own.....if it works for you, that's great....I've switched, and don't plan on going back to Skype (except to use up the money in my account).:razz::razz:
My calls out are straight TelMex 2 pesos a minute to the states about 1.6 cents a minute I have a wi fi blackberry that is configured to operate as a wi fi phone whenever I am in a zone - my cell phne cost went down 350.00 usd per month when I made the change. There are alternatives - check it out
There is news about some new regulations for Mexican cellphones: "In yet another attempt to throw a wrench into the operations of drug cartels and other illegal operations, Mexico is changing its laws on the use of cellphones. It started back in April, with all new Mexican cellphones being registered with a new government agency (RENAUT). The user and the assigned number are thus uniquely identified. Number portability services will also be introduced so that you can maintain the same cellular number even if you change phones or providers. All existing Mexican cellphones not registered by April 10, 2010 will be deactivated on that day.
Note that cellphones from other countries that are roaming in Mexico are not affected by the new regulations and are exempt from registration."
I've heard that ATT has a new program out for calling in Mexico, supposed to cut roaming charges or something, but I haven't looked into it. Guess I ought to check it out.
Man do I feel stupid.... All I know then is that my landline is a better alternative than skype or vonage because of the bandwidth limitations that come with using telmex.
I have used magicjack for about a year and love it. No problems at all and I can take it with me when I go to the US. That way I still have my number with me.
Man do I feel stupid.... All I know then is that my landline is a better alternative than skype or vonage because of the bandwidth limitations that come with using telmex.
There was nothing shown on the advertising that Telmex has for their dsl concerning bandwidth...I believe it's a straight 1 mbps line for the cheapest plan, with no max monthly usage. I've been tapping my neighbor's dsl thru wifi, and have had no problems with MagicJack.
La Huerita: Magic jack set up is a PC or laptop with the magicjack plugged into the USB port and then any regular phone plugged into the magicjack. I do not believe you can use head phones and mic. You will need a telephone to plug into the magic jack. If i am incorrect let the experts correct.
La Huerita: Magic jack set up is a PC or laptop with the magicjack plugged into the USB port and then any regular phone plugged into the magicjack. I do not believe you can use head phones and mic. You will need a telephone to plug into the magic jack. If i am incorrect let the experts correct.
There is a menu choice in the MagicJack program that sets it to use your headphone/speaker/mic on laptop or an actual phone plugged into the MagicJack.
Yeah, don't let the guys at the Verizon store tell you any different--no matter WHAT plan you get, there's no service in Penasco. My friend was sold an international add-on last month to her plan after she complained her phone didn't work in Penasco the month before, even though the salesman said it would when she signed up for a 2-year contract. So this other kid at a Tucson Verizon store swore up and down it'd work with the ad-on, despite what I'd warned her.
Oh, and I think that line from the salespeople about Verizon not working north of Mexico City is a load of crap too--doesn't Verizon work in San Carlos?
Yeah, don't let the guys at the Verizon store tell you any different--no matter WHAT plan you get, there's no service in Penasco. My friend was sold an international add-on last month to her plan after she complained her phone didn't work in Penasco the month before, even though the salesman said it would when she signed up for a 2-year contract. So this other kid at a Tucson Verizon store swore up and down it'd work with the ad-on, despite what I'd warned her.
Jerk.
She can get out of that contract based on nonavailability of Verizon in Penasco.
Well, I think the international $5 add-on will be no problem getting cancelled and a refund, but since she lives in Tucson I doubt she can get out of the whole two-year contract. I'll fwd that suggestion on, though--Thanks!
Verizon works well on the main highway corridors but only 10 or 15 miles below Sonoita in spite of having a large corporate presence in Mexico.
With Verizon's system, you're probably picking up the tower from the US side of the border. I can occasionally get Telcel coverage on the US side 7-8 miles from the border.
Someone I know also got the add-on with Verizon...he has one of those "world phone" Crackberry's....and it does not work in Penasco. It would work on the European gsm frequenciies, but not the one's used by Mexico.