Papirex
Jul 15, 2007, 7:19 PM
Post #10 of 21
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Re: [donnameyer] Affordable communication
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Richard is right about getting an older cell phone reprogrammed to use down here, it is not too expensive to do that, I think I only paid $10 or$15 US Bucks to have it done by Iusacell a few years ago, it may cost more now. Telcel uses TDMA technology, and Iusacell uses CDMA technology. It may be the other way around, but if one of them can’t reprogram your phone, the other company can. If you bring an old phone with you, the type of phone it is will probably determine which company you use. Just take it into one of their offices, show them the phone, and ask if it can be reprogrammed to use their service.
I had one phone that I brought here from The US, and another new phone I bought in México that had a user manual in English, programmed to use their prepaid calling cards a few years ago. The prepaid cards are sold in various denominations; I used to buy the cheapest cards for $100 Pesos. When I first started using them the $100 Peso card was good for 37 minutes, and it expired with all unused minutes every two months. They changed that a few years ago and they were only good for one month before they expired, and only contained 27 minutes of calling time. They were still a good deal for me, I don’t make many cell phone calls per month, and I had cell service for less than $5 US Bucks per month for a couple of years, and $10 US Bucks per month for the last couple of years before I signed a regular contract with Iusacell to end the hassle of needing to activate new cards every month. Iusacell also gives you a phone if you sign at least a one-year contract with them. The longer the contract is, the better the phone you will get. I signed a three-year contract and got their best camera phone.
Rather than buy a more expensive card with more minutes on it, I used to carry a spare card in my wallet in case I ran out of prepaid time. You can activate a phone card on the phone, but be at least semi-fluent In understanding Spanish, as the recording you will be listening to will be spoken in Spanish, and you will need to understand which keys on the phone you are supposed to press to activate a new card. I’m not sure if international calls can be made when using a prepaid card, as I never tried to do it. If it is possible, it will probably eat up many of your prepaid minutes, so it will be prudent to ask the company you go with for the details. A big advantage to using the pre paid cards for a visitor is that there is no contract and you can walk away with no penalty when you go back home. When you come back to México, just buy another prepaid card and activate it, or if you are here to stay, you can sign up for one of their regular contracts and continue to use the same phone if you wish to.
The ability to call another Iusacell phone from anywhere in the nation without using any of your monthly minutes that Richard mentioned is not a part of any monthly plan. It is an extra service that can be ordered with any Iusacell monthly plan. It is listed on our monthly statement and is part of our monthly bill. My wife has a more expensive monthly plan with more included minutes than I do, and she can make international calls with her phone. I have the cheapest plan they offer with fewer monthly minutes, and I cannot make international calls. We pay an extra $90 Pesos per month for each phone to be able to call each other with no other charge. We have made long distance calls to each other between Cuernavaca and México City, and between Cuernavaca and Guadalajara and Ajijic with no extra charges, it has lowered our regular monthly phone bill too. There is an extra charge on our home phone bill every time we use it to call a cell phone, so if Doris is out of the house I will use my cell phone to call her instead of the regular house phone even here in Cuernavaca.
Another possibility that you might want to check on after you get here is to buy a Movistar brand phone (pronounced Mow-vee-star) it is a play on the Spanish word movil, which means mobile. A local Mexican friend recently bought one, and he was praising the low cost of making calls with it using a prepaid card. I know nothing about that company, but it seems to be gaining in popularity here.
Be aware that if you buy a phone here in México the user manual will almost certainly be in Spanish. The phones we have now have Spanish language user manuals only; there is no English section.
Good luck, Rex
"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo
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