Forums > Specific Focus > Technical Mexico

jodielyn

May 21, 2003, 4:07 PM

Post #1 of 5 (942 views)

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calling FROM Mexico

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My daughter will be staying in Santa Ana, Sonora, Mexico for the month of August this summer. I'd like for her to be able to call home easily. I know she can buy and use a TelMex card at the pay phones... but i am wondering if there might be another sollution.

Last year when we were there in February my cell phone worked great... however, after being there in March this year i know that i cannot count on that being a sollution.

Any thoughts?

Jodie

johanson / Moderator

May 21, 2003, 6:44 PM

Post #2 of 5 (932 views)

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Re: [jodielyn] calling FROM Mexico

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I'm sitting in the State of WA freezing to death and all of my information is in Mexico. So I'm going by memory here. Maybe someone else who is in Mexico will have the telephone number for a good call-back service. What I and most of my friends do is subscribe to a call-back service. I phone a special number in the States, let it ring once and hang up. Then the computer at that # (call-back service) calls me back in Mexico and gives me a US dial tone. I then phone as if I were in the US and pay about 24 cents per minutes to anywhere in the states. If I call a US only 800 #, the rate is closer to 18 cents per minute.

Maybe a creative google search will help if no-one has better information

From the US to Mexico I pay less than 9 cents per minute.

Rolly

May 21, 2003, 9:02 PM

Post #3 of 5 (927 views)

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Re: [johanson] calling FROM Mexico

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This is the callback I use: http://alliancecall.com/

Their rate to the USA is 18 or 23 cents/minute depending on where in Mexico you are calling from -- charged to your credit card on file with them. I have never had a problem with the service.

Rolly Pirate

(This post was edited by Rolly on May 21, 2003, 9:03 PM)

May 21, 2003, 10:08 PM

Post #4 of 5 (922 views)

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Re: [jodielyn] calling FROM Mexico

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Quote

jodielyn writes:
My daughter will be staying in Santa Ana, Sonora, Mexico for the month of August this summer. I'd like for her to be able to call home easily....

Particularly considering that (a) it's only for a one month period and (b) at least the callback services I'm familiar with require a preset telephone number where the calls need to originate from, I think the callback services are an excessively complex solution.

For starters I'd suggest checking with your residential (hard-wired home) long distance carrier to see what they offer for "international calling plans". At least the bigger carriers such as AT&T, MCI/Worldcom, and Sprint offer plans in which you can initiate calls from a remote location using the carrier's calling card, and pay the same rates as if you're making the call from the residential phone. As an example (and note this is only an example, I'm not wild about MCI because of both billing problems and mysterious network outages) MCI has their "Anytime Worldwide" plan, which for a fee of $4 USD/month allows you to make calls from the residential phone to Mexico, an MCI-issued calling card either to or from Mexico, or collect from Mexico to your home phone in the US (important - using an MCI operator), for the same rate. Currently for Mexico this rate is $0.19 USD/min ($0.10 USD/min in Zone 1, which is the area within approximately 100 miles of the US/Mexican border).

While in Mexico your daughter would dial a country-specific MCI toll free access number, and then either key in the calling card information, or switch to an operator to place the collect call. Both the calling card prompts, and the operators speak english.

In the past I've subscribed to similar plans offered by both AT&T and Sprint.

Jerry@Ajijic

May 27, 2003, 7:42 AM

Post #5 of 5 (891 views)

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Re: [ET] calling FROM Mexico

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Our callback service will also give you a "pin" number. You then can call a number in the states, let it ring and a computer will answer asking for your "pin" number. You enter that number and make your call just as if you were at home.