Mexico SIM Cards for Unlocked iPhones

[Patrick_DeepPlaya]

I have an unlocked iPhone and I'm headed to Mexico. Anyone have experiences to share buying SIM Cards for unlocked iPhones?

Thanks,
-p

[Mexdon]

Originally Posted by Patrick_DeepPlaya

I have an unlocked iPhone and I'm headed to Mexico. Anyone have experiences to share buying SIM Cards for unlocked iPhones?

Thanks,
-p

When will you be here? I can investigate with TELCEL. But a chip costs about MXN 100.00 but has some air time. PM me if you like.

[Patrick_DeepPlaya]

The Baja Ha-Ha starts Monday. Be in Cabo San Lucas around 3 November.

Thanks a lot for looking into this!

-p

[Mexdon]

I will check with TELCEL in the morning and let you know tomorrow night what I find out.

[Mexdon]

Patrick, TELCEL told me there is no problem. Take your iPhone and passport to a TELCEL Servicios de Cliente either in Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas or wherever you will be most of your time as the number you receive will be for that area code and every call you make outside of that code will be priced as a long distance call plus the per minute cost.

The cost of a chip is now MXN 150.00 but includes some air time. The cost per minute for a new client is MXN 4.50 per minute. Note that in Mexico the charge is per minute so a call that is one minute one second will be charged as two minutes. Text messages cost about MXN 1.15 per text no matter if it is national or international.

When you go to the service centre I suggest you take a Spanish speaker with you if you don't speak it yourself as they are not very used to dealing with foreigners.

When buying pre-paid cards I suggest you buy the MXN 500.00 card as this will give you 900 pesos of air time cost. Lower cost cards have bonus minutes also but on a reducing sliding scale. Always buy your card at a reputable sales point as street vendors may sell you a card that is fake. Then try and find them again.

On prepaid card I am not sure how 3G works nor what it costs but if you have wifi available that is always superior.

There are other companies but TELCEL has the best coverage and the most reliable service.

Hope this helps and have a good time on the Baja Ha Ha.

[zeehag]

bought a telcel fone with sim card for 59 dollars. every month add some to the program and is good. max able to place on one fone is 500 pesos. 13.+ pesos to one dollar.
my usa fone is sprint--no sim cards.

telcel will allow you 3-5 FREE frequent caller number on your fone, depending on plan. i paid a slight amount more for 5. was insignificant, even for me..there are stipulations on the 3g modem youmaynot be able to comply with as a cruiser-- but can be worked out if you get that. wifi is free and nearly everywhere.i found no need for a 3g program as yet.

[Patrick_DeepPlaya]

This is awesome info. Thanks for looking into it for me {us}!!

-p

[zeehag]

thursday is 2 for 1 day, when your peso is doubled in your purchase. pay 500 get 1000 on fone.

[Patrick_DeepPlaya]

Just to close out this thread. I went to big the TelCel store in La Paz. Its on Cinco de Mayo about 5 blocks up from Lopez Marine. The people were super helpful. They spoke excellent English and got the card all setup just fine.

Having all of this info from zeehag gave me a lot of extra confidence in getting things setup.

Thanks a lot!
-p

[s/v Jedi]

If you wonder around with an unlocked iPhone or an iPad with 3G, it is helpful to also have a SIM cutter which creates a micro-SIM from the regular sized ones. In many place they don't have the micro SIM cards.

In Panama all the carriers support iPhone and there are at least two (Movil and Digicel) that support 3G/edge data-plans on pre-paid cards. But neither has micro-SIMs.

cheers,
Nick.

[speakeasy]

And Nick, a sim cutter can be found, where? And looks like what?

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by speakeasy

And Nick, a sim cutter can be found, where? And looks like what?

check it out on Amazon.com or eBay.com etc. They only cost a couple of dollars. Also, you need some adapters to use micro-SIM in a phone that takes regular SIMs (like when you have an iPad but need to dial codes to activate or extend plans etc.). Some cutters come with a couple of adapters.

I just ordered this one for under $10:



I used scissors until now which isn't fun to do really...

p.s. my unlocked iPhone 4S is on the way... just arrived Hong Kong from factory in China (FedEx tracking). Ordered from Apple store USA to be delivered in Miami. They send them straight from factory to customer now apparently.

ciao!
Nick.

[Jamel]

I found it very convenient to buy a cheap Mexican cell phone in Ensenada for $20 which had credit of $2.50 on it....then just recharge as required.

[byniv]

Before leaving to Mexico, I bought a Tecel nano chip for my iPhone 5 from a website called Mexico SIM card so I didn't have to find a store that would have nano SIMs in stock.