Forums > Specific Focus > Technical Mexico

mepsi

Jun 10, 2004, 8:10 PM

Post #1 of 15 (1267 views)

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Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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Is anyone using Verizon's North America's Choice plan in Mexico? How is service and reception at the lake? How far away from Guad do you get before hitting the roaming territories?

Any info is greatly appreciated.

Monte

johanson / Moderator

Jun 10, 2004, 10:05 PM

Post #2 of 15 (1249 views)

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Re: [mepsi] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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I have a friend in Ajijic whose boss in Guadalajara uses The Verizon plan or so I was told in late April when I was still in town. I phoned Verizon (via VoIP) and talked to a salesman to try to learn more and he said that my friend's boss couldn't be using it because it hadn't been offered yet, that it was going to be offered in mid May, that once offered that they would, he thought, work with TelCel.

If the information, that TelCel will be used, is correct you will have great reception in both Guad and lakeside.

So far so good. But the next question I asked made me give up any thought of Verizon's North American Plan, should the information be true. I was told that while in Mexico anyone phoning me from Mexico would have to phone me long distance using a US telephone number, even though both the caller and I were in Mexico. The per minute charge would have been prohibitive. My friend whose boss was supposedly already using Verizon said that anyone wanting to call his boss from Mexico simply had to phone a Mexican 800 number. So I don't know what to believe

Better yet, does anyone know of a cell phone plan that works well in both the US and Mexico? Just last week I walked through the local Mall in Burlington WA stopping at each cell phone Kiosk asking company representatives if they had a plan that made sense for someone traveling between the US and Mexico and got nowhere.

Jun 10, 2004, 11:05 PM

Post #3 of 15 (1243 views)

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Re: [johanson] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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johanson writes:
....I phoned Verizon (via VoIP) and talked to a salesman to try to learn more and he said that my friend's boss couldn't be using it because it hadn't been offered yet, that it was going to be offered in mid May, that once offered that they would, he thought, work with TelCel.....

1. Verizon Wireless did a soft roll-out of the North America Choice Plan, with the service being made available in some metropolitan markets in California as early as November of 2003.

2. Verizon Wireless equipment will not interoperate with either of Telcel's digital networks.

raferguson

Jun 11, 2004, 5:39 PM

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Re: [johanson] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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You have hit on the real problem with international cell phone roaming plans. If you roam one phone, with one phone number, from the US to Mexico, then you can get in the situation where calling across town is an international phone call! Or someone calls you to ask for money, and you end up paying for international roaming. Obviously this is potentially very expensive.

Let me mention a few alternatives:

Have a mexican cell phone number and a US cell phone number. If you are in the states, you could leave a message on your mexican cell phone number saying that you are out of the country, but can be reached at this number. You could do this with the same physical phone if the two companies use the same technical standard, just reprogram when you cross the border. This would minimize unnecessary international phone calls.

Have a forwarding service forward your calls to wherever you are. This could be expensive, but at least people could reach you wherever you were without having to keep track of what country you are in. However, it could be annoying and expensive to be paying international forwarding charges when a non-profit calls you begging for money, or a friend wants to meet you for lunch tomorrow when you are thousands of miles away.

Use Vonage both north and south of the border. The Vonage voice mail could tell callers what country you are in, and what your current cell phone number is. It could even forward incoming calls to your cell phone. The downside is that callers from Mexico would need to pay long distance to reach you, unless Vonage offers Mexican phone numbers, which I am pretty sure they do not, although you can get Canadian phone numbers.

If you have an answering machine or service in Mexico, how do you check your messages when you are north of the border? Is there a service that will let you check your voice messages over the internet? (I think the Vonage will let you do that, but limited to US and Canadian phone numbers.) I notice that Vonage offers international calls to Mexico for around 10 cents a minute, so that may be the cheapest way to check voice messages.

Personally, I would be tempted to use Vonage as my primary phone number, north and south of the border, and supplement with a cell phone as needed. If you need a Mexican phone number, use a cell phone as your Mexican number, and sign a contract so you can keep your number no matter where you are.

The telecom industry is in such a state of flux, and there are so many options, it can make your head spin, even if you work in the telecom industry, like I did. I am sure that there are many options I did not list, did not think of, or just plain did not know about. I tried to list the ones that seem most practical to me.

Richard

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com

ziret

Jun 13, 2004, 9:12 PM

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Re: [raferguson] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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I signed up for the Verizon plan and a friend brought the phone down for me. It was dual band and couldn't pick up any signal at all here in Chapala. Or rather, plenty of signal, I just couldn't make or receive calls. Verizon said it has to be an analog phone. I got one, tried that, could place and receive perhaps one in ten calls and analog goes through the batteries in minutes. So that didn't work.

I used broadband phone to have a US number. Since I have to have a phone to get DSL, I use TelMex for the Mexican number. I am considering getting a TelCel phone and forwarding my broadband US calls to it when I am going to be out of the area and if necessary not answering, but returning, US calls, because as near as I can figure out a I'd be paying for the forwarded call in two pretty expensive ways. Keeping in touch is expensive here and the solutions aren't really that great. I'd be interested to hear what others are doing.

Jun 13, 2004, 9:58 PM

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Re: [ziret] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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"ziret" writes:
I signed up for the Verizon plan and a friend brought the phone down for me. It was dual band and couldn't pick up any signal at all here in Chapala. Or rather, plenty of signal, I just couldn't make or receive calls. Verizon said it has to be an analog phone....

Verizon uses the term "Dual Mode" to describe one of their handsets that functions with both 800 MHz digital and analog transmissions. Verizon uses the term "Tri-Mode" to describe one of their phones that operates on both 800 and 1900 MHz digital and 800 MHz analog (there is no such thing as 1900 MHz analog). What brand and model phone did you actually start off with?

In addition to signing up for international roaming (which signing for the North America plan should automatically take care of), while still within the Verizon Wireless coverage footprint (not one of their roaming partners) you usually need to update the phone's Preferred Roaming List (PRL). Do you know if this was done?

ziret

Jun 13, 2004, 11:50 PM

Post #7 of 15 (1147 views)

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Re: [ET] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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I started with one that had dual band digital, no analog, from Kyocera. Switched to one from Sprint which is dual band tri mode, that is both bands of digital and analog. Neither of them worked. Yes I had the phone updated for roaming, etc., while in the US.

abq

Jul 5, 2004, 10:48 AM

Post #8 of 15 (1078 views)

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Re: [ET] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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I don't know a thing about cell phones but the Verizon salesman said I could buy a North America plan and call and receive calls in my home area of San Miguel with no roaming.
He mentioned SMA connects to the texcell network. He also said my trimode phone will work fine. I know my cell phone works in Mexico because I used it on my last trip like a pager. I would hear the ring, check the caller ID and call back on my home phone.

jazzebra

Aug 27, 2004, 3:25 PM

Post #9 of 15 (1006 views)

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Re: [mepsi] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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Have you got any positive responses to your question? We have been trying to set up the North American plan and are having all sorts of difficulties.

jazzebra
JZ

elprofe

Aug 27, 2004, 5:58 PM

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Re: [jazzebra] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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We use T-mobile with their international option. Has worked fine in Lakeside, also Singapore, Thailand, Japan. Roaming charges do apply - approx $1.50/minute but it does allow us to maintain communication. I am told that once in the country you can get a chip installed to allow it to work on the local system at local rates but have not looked into this in MX. We did get one installed in Singapore.

mepsi

Aug 31, 2004, 11:04 AM

Post #11 of 15 (963 views)

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Re: [ziret] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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I'm now living at lakeside (Chapala Haciendas) and am using the Verizon plan with a Kyocera 2535. Initially had setup problems; I could receive calls from the US but couldn't call out to US or Mexico. Finally got the bugs worked out and everything is working perfectly. Calls to and from both Mexico and the US are coming through perfectly. Quick connection and amazing clarity. We also have a land line for local calls and the combination meets all our needs at what I feel is a reasonable cost with virtually no hassle.

If anyone wants to discuss it further send me a private email and I'll try to help.

Monte

NEOhio

Oct 27, 2004, 5:49 AM

Post #12 of 15 (895 views)

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Re: [mepsi] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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We just replaced our phones and want to use the old ones in Jalisco over thanksgiving week. I was hoping to get them reprogrammed here and be up and running when we land.

Does anyone know what "magic words" you use to tell the Verizon saleman exactly what you want to accomplish - at our Verizon office here the mans eyes just glazed over when I asked about programming our old phones for Guadalajara area.

Or is it just simply not possible to accomplish until there?

If so, does it take a few days as an article in the archives states or is it more instant than that?

Are the pay as you go plans fairly available to get up and running on a Saturday afternoon, and if so where would I go in Ajijic to accomplish that?

Thank you.

johanson / Moderator

Oct 27, 2004, 11:30 AM

Post #13 of 15 (882 views)

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Re: [NEOhio] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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This may not help but Verizon has the North America Plan that allows you to phone in Mexico. I understand but have not confirmed that they work with TELCEL.

That isn't really what you asked about, but it's all I know.

bournemouth

Oct 27, 2004, 2:08 PM

Post #14 of 15 (873 views)

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Re: [NEOhio] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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To have a phone set up with a Mexican number, you will need to do this in Mexico - sorry, I can't help you with where to go in Ajijic to do this but I'm sure somebody local can do so.

We used the Verizon North American plan while we were in Ajijic this summer and it worked well. However, their coverage for all of Mexico is somewhat limited. They use various carriers - Movistar, Iusacel (sp?) and I think Telcel but only have agreements with them in certain parts of the country. We were not charged for calls received in roaming areas and only made calls in areas that had coverage. The charge was $59 or thereabouts for 400 minutes. You might just have Verizon set you up on that plan for your visit. The only problem that I can see is that anybody in Ajijic calling you has to make an international call to reach you, even if you are just down the street.. I was badly informed by Verizon that my Startak phone had to be on Side B - who knew phones had sides - but that was not the case, Side A worked for us all the way but we were travelling down the west side of Mexico to get to Ajijic.

bbeitz

Oct 27, 2004, 2:08 PM

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Re: [johanson] Verizon Wireless in Mexico

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I have the Verizon North American Plan. I pay $119 usd per month for 2,000 minutes. I believe the next lower plan is for 800 minutes at a lower rate of course. I have spent a little over half the time in Mexico for the months of July, Aug., Sept. & Oct., calling the US from Mexico and vice versa. My wife has a phone on the family plan so she shares the minutes and the rates at $20/mo.. We have had no problems and have not incurred any roaming or long distance charges except when I drove from Nogales to Ajijic there was some roaming fees. Most of our calls are forwarded calls from No. California or from Ajijic or Guadalajara to No. Cal. and Oregon. I have my office # in Grass Valley forward to my cell which calls me wherever I may be, generally Ajijic or if my phone is turned off or out of reception the calls go into my voice mail. I retrieve them and the only charge is against the minutes I pay for. I'm more than pleased and my clients that call me in Grass Valley, CA. don't know I'm in the land of eternal Spring. Works great for me.
It is better to be thought a fool than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt.