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reg767

Mar 8, 2003, 5:44 AM

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Best Overall Cell Phone Service in Mex?

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I will very soon be living and travelling in the San Miguelde de Allende to Chapala area for awhile. What is the general consensus for the best CELLULAR Tel service provider/plans in that are. Reception and quality of call are my main priorities. Most if not all calls will be in Mexico and receiving international calls. I believe there is no charge to receive INcoming calls on Cellular phones, whether local or international - correct? Thanks very much.

raferguson

Mar 8, 2003, 8:46 PM

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Re: [reg767] Best Overall Cell Phone Service in Mex?

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The only free incoming cell phone calls are the local calls, where the calling party pays. I was quoted 2.5 pesos per minute for incoming long distance and international calls.

Richard

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com

reg767

Mar 8, 2003, 9:40 PM

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Re: [raferguson] Best Overall Cell Phone Service in Mex?

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From what carrier/provider? Do you have any or have you heard of any particular providers that may have the best reception? Thanks.

raferguson

Mar 11, 2003, 8:31 AM

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Re: [reg767] Best Overall Cell Phone Service in Mex?

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That price, 2.5 pesos per minute, for incoming international and long distance calls was from Telcel. You may be able to get a better deal than I got, I was primarily looking for low start-up costs for a short trip, rather than the lowest per minute costs.

I understand that there are two major cell service providers with wide area coverage, Telcel and IUSACELL. There are other providers, with limited coverage. I have no opinion about the relative virtues of Telcel and IUSACELL, Telcel worked fine whenever I wanted to use it in San Miguel and beyond, including in the countryside far from towns.

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com

Mar 11, 2003, 8:46 PM

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Re: [raferguson] Best Overall Cell Phone Service in Mex?

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Quote

Richard Ferguson writes:
"....I understand that there are two major cell service providers with wide area coverage, Telcel and IUSACELL...."

There's actually three. Number three and the sleeper in the bunch is Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica's Mexican cellular subsidiary Telefónica Móvile México, which is trying to establish brand identity as Telefónica MoviStar. Although their CDMA-encoded network was unified sometime in 2000, they're still better recognized by the tradenames of the originally independent cellular (800 MHz A-Side) operators Baja Celular Mexicana (Bajacel, Zone 1), Movitel del Noroesta (Movitel, Zone 2), Telefonia Celular del Norte (Norcel, Zone 3), and Celular de Telefonia (Cedetel, Zone 4), as well as their most recent (September 2002) acquisition, multi-market PCS (1900 MHz) provider Pegaso Telecomunicacione (Pegaso PCS).

(This post was edited by ET on Mar 11, 2003, 11:10 PM)

raferguson

Mar 12, 2003, 7:20 PM

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Re: [ET] Best Overall Cell Phone Service in Mex?

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I looked at the Movistar coverage map, and noticed that large parts of the country are covered, but not Mexico City or the state of Guanajato. In some areas they cover the countryside and most of the state, but not the major cities, such as Merida or Guadalajara. The gaps in coverage mean that Movistar would not work in San Miguel de Allende, and also explains why I did not think of them as a big player. Maybe in the future they will have more coverage, or is that going to be solved by the purchase of 1900 MHz Pegaso?

Do you have any opinion of the relative merits of the various providers, or does it come down to the local coverage in your neighborhood, like it often does in the USA?

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com

Mar 12, 2003, 11:21 PM

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Re: [raferguson] Best Overall Cell Phone Service in Mex?

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I have the strong suspicion that you're reading the MoviStar Coverage Map (http://www.movitel.com.mx/images/cober/mapa3.jpg) backwards. Defying conventional logic, the map shows areas with cellular service in grey, and non-covered areas in the more eye-catching green, meaning that there's service in Mexico DF, Guadalajara, and significant portions of the state of Guanajato.

There's a number of variables that affect a user's experience with a cellular phone, including but not limited to:
- proximity to the closest repeater site,
- geographical and architectural features between the user and the repeater,
- electric and magnetic field emitters between the user and the repeater,
- user density (cell saturation) for the repeater,
- mobile v. fixed location terminal (handset) use,
- terminal quality,
- terminal condition,
- terminal orientation,
- frequency of transmission, and the
- encoding and error correction scheme used by network.

The combination of these variables makes it close to impossible to judge how your experience is going to be with a given carrier based on the comments of others. I have a personal bias towards cellular, compared to PCS service, and have a dislike for CDMA encoding. The former is based on physics, the latter is simply a dislike for the licensing requirements imposed by the patent holder Qualcomm.

I'd love to get inside of the skull of the various Telefónica Móvile management types involved with the Pegaso purchase to see what their plans are. Even though both use the same encoding (CDMA) they're broadcasting on different frequencies and neither company, to my knowledge was selling dual band phones. Possible explanations for the purchase include denying Pegaso to the competition, interest in Pegaso's cell sites, interest in adding PCS functionality to the MoviStar network, and being offered a rock-bottom price. Even if none of these considerations came into play, you'd still be inside somebody's head and could make some interesting Exorcist-like moves.

(This post was edited by ET on Mar 12, 2003, 11:33 PM)