BajaNomad

Baja Cell phone

motoged - 12-8-2013 at 03:05 PM

I will be in Baja for a month and would like to know how my options for getting a "throw-away" cell phone for occasional use there.

Thanks for any info/advice. :light:

shari - 12-8-2013 at 03:20 PM

go to a telcel place and get a cheapo phone...we like the Nokia 400 peso phone as it had a great battery...then just get recargas when you need them. Good to get the phone in the area code you will be in most...or you can just get a new chip in the area code where you are for 100 pesos.

motoged - 12-8-2013 at 03:28 PM

Shari,
Gracias....

How many area codes in Baja? I think I want it for south of GN...

....will be in your 'hood sometime around Jan. 15th...mas o menos.

Floatflyer - 12-8-2013 at 04:52 PM

A month ago we went into the Oxxo store in Los Barriles. We paid 289 pesos for a phone, no id or anything else required. With the phone we got 100 pesos of air time included.

Later we saw phones for sale at the El Rey store in La Ribera. There is no need to go into a TelCel store unless you want to based on our recent experience.

dasubergeek - 12-9-2013 at 11:41 AM

If you stop in Tijuana, they sell a 301-peso phone at Sanborns that comes with 300 pesos of credit. When you're low on credit, you just go into any Oxxo, 7-Eleven, Ley, grocery store, etc. and ask for a recarga.

There are seven "claves LADA" in Baja California (technically eight, but one is just the bridge offices on the toll road to Sonora) and four in Baja California Sur. From northeast to southwest:

Los Algodones and Cuervos: 658
Mexicali and San Felipe: 686
Tecate: 665
Tijuana: 664
Rosarito: 661
Ensenada and the Valle de Guadalupe: 646
San Quintín and south to the state line: 616
Bahía de los Ángeles (satellite phones): 200

Guerrero Negro to Mulegé: 615
Comondú, Loreto, C. Constitución: 613
La Paz, Todos Santos, El Pescadero: 612
Los Cabos: 624

motoged - 12-9-2013 at 12:19 PM

Thank you, folks.

Very helpful :saint: :saint:

mcnut - 12-13-2013 at 12:16 PM

Well everyone has to have a 1st post, got to start somewhere, may as well be here!

I wanted to bump this and add to the question from motoged. I'm in a similar fix, looking for a low cost option to call home (USA) while on an annual 2 week trip to Baja.

As far as American contract carriers I understand that Verizon is best, AT&T less so and Sprint almost nonexistent. Guess which we have? Even with international calling turned on our Sprint phones only worked in 3 or 4 of the largest metro areas in Baja.

Will the suggestion to buy a no-contract prepaid phone in MX work for international calling to the US? If so how are the international charges billed/paid for? Other options?

Bruce

[Edited on 12-13-2013 by mcnut]

[Edited on 12-13-2013 by mcnut]

msteve1014 - 12-13-2013 at 12:47 PM

Welcome aboard. The many voices here have voted ATT as the best U.S. carrier. So, you could buy a cheap ATT go-phone and be good for 2 weeks, Or buy a cheap telcell phone here, and be good for 2 weeks. Both phones are prepay per minute. Both phones will make local and international calls.

jbcoug - 12-13-2013 at 01:52 PM

I have Verizon at home and am very satisfied with it. I took it to Baja for three weeks in August and got reception for one call in La Paz. The rest of the time nothing. I wouldn't want to depend on Verizon in Baja.

mcnut - 12-13-2013 at 01:54 PM

Thanks for the quick reply & input!

It has been frustrating to see locals in places like Vizcanio, San Ignacio and Mulege chatting when we have no signal.

Perhaps the AT&T prepay will work, I called Verizon about same and was told we would need a post pay account and that requires 6 months of service to establish. I assumed this was a means to bill the international charges.

I will look into the AT&T option.

Bruce

[Edited on 12-13-2013 by mcnut]

KaceyJ - 12-13-2013 at 02:22 PM

AT&T and T-mobile use GSM technology.

Sprint and Verison use CDMA.

Mexico Uses GSM

I think the best option is to buy an unlocked GSM phone and stick a Sim card in for where you are traveling.

Bajaboy - 12-13-2013 at 02:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by mcnut
Thanks for the quick reply & input!

It has been frustrating to see locals in places like Vizcanio, San Ignacio and Mulege chatting when we have no signal.

Perhaps the AT&T prepay will work, I called Verizon about same and was told we would need a post pay account and that requires 6 months of service to establish. I assumed this was a means to bill the international charges.

I will look into the AT&T option.

Bruce

[Edited on 12-13-2013 by mcnut]


We call the US for free using Google Voice over wifi. If you just want to check in, finding wfi is easy nowadays. Just another option.

mcnut - 12-13-2013 at 04:42 PM

Thanks to all going to do some more research on AT&T and may test the Google voice.

Bruce

dasubergeek - 12-13-2013 at 04:56 PM

AT&T is absolutely the US way to go; Verizon doesn't allow GSM roaming even when CDMA (Verizon and Sprint's technologies) are not available, assuming your phone can handle both, like an iPhone.

Calling back to the US is pretty cheap on the Telcel prepaid plan. Look around (I'm not on a real computer right now) for the post where I listed the tariffs. Within the last month for sure. I talk all the time on the phone and I never seem to run out of credit.

mcnut - 12-17-2013 at 11:55 PM

Well I decided to order a $15 AT&T GoPhone and take it to the locale AT&T store to fire up and load with $. In the US it's $.10/min and in MX $0.25 a minute. So for $40 I have a phone and 100 minutes of MX air time.

My cell service is with Sprint and only spend a couple weeks a year in Baja so I wasn't interested in a contract or even a monthly plan so I opted for the pay as you go option.

Many suggested doing this in MX and I'm sure that would be cheaper but I didn't want to spend vacation time in MX to buy and setup a phone. Also most all calls will be international going from MX to the US. I thought it would be nice to have a US number and for the phone to work well in the US when not in MX. Perhaps a Telcel phone would have done the same but this seemed simpler.

Thanks to all how have contributed their thoughts on the subject.

Bruce

[Edited on 12-18-2013 by mcnut]

dasubergeek - 12-18-2013 at 10:20 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by mcnut
Well I decided to order a $15 AT&T GoPhone and take it to the locale AT&T store to fire up and load with $. In the US it's $.10/min and in MX $0.25 a minute. So for $40 I have a phone and 100 minutes of MX air time.

My cell service is with Sprint and only spend a couple weeks a year in Baja so I wasn't interested in a contract or even a monthly plan so I opted for the pay as you go option.

Many suggested doing this in MX and I'm sure that would be cheaper but I didn't want to spend vacation time in MX to buy and setup a phone. Also most all calls will be international going from MX to the US. I thought it would be nice to have a US number and for the phone to work well in the US when not in MX. Perhaps a Telcel phone would have done the same but this seemed simpler.

Thanks to all how have contributed their thoughts on the subject.

Bruce

[Edited on 12-18-2013 by mcnut]


Sounds good Bruce. Make sure you check when your minutes expire so you don't lose your investment.

pauldavidmena - 12-18-2013 at 10:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by KaceyJ
AT&T and T-mobile use GSM technology.

Sprint and Verison use CDMA.

Mexico Uses GSM

I think the best option is to buy an unlocked GSM phone and stick a Sim card in for where you are traveling.


I did exactly this - bought an unlocked HTC One and a pre-paid Telcel SIM card - and had no problems during my last trip to Baja. Based upon my experience, I'll do the same when I return next month. :cool:

mcnut - 12-18-2013 at 11:07 AM

One negative with going into the AT&T store was that my sales person while very nice and gave maximum effort was not fully up to speed on using a GoPhone (prepay) in MX. Seems they are more interested in selling iphones so I had to press the issue a little, we got there but it took a while. Also being a week before Christmas didn't help.

Bruce

willyAirstream - 12-18-2013 at 02:15 PM

Google voice is free from anywhere in the country where you start your account, so set it up in the usa before you leave. Calls within mex are cheaper than telcel, but getting a telcel burner is good to have with you while travelling.

dasubergeek - 12-19-2013 at 01:10 PM

The nice thing about having a Telcel is that if I need to have someone in MX call me (let's say they're going to be my proxy at the fish market and get me some uni), it's nice to have a local number rather than asking them to make an international call.

kassonswildride - 1-28-2014 at 06:41 AM

All good info here - I have an att iphone- unlocked and will be in Baja for 3 months. I have clients in the US that I need to connect with occasionally. Trying to decide between ATT's Mexico plan or getting a Mexican SIM card for the iphone. ATT says they can suspend my acct for $10/mo and then my clients phone calls will go to voicemail which I can retrieve through google voice or skype. But maybe it would be less of a hassle to use their Mexico plan? Anyone have any experience or advice??

I've heard a little chatter about with the new laws in baja that they aren't selling the throw away phones anymore. Are they still selling the SIM cards??

dasubergeek - 1-28-2014 at 07:34 AM

They were just selling the throwaway phone as recently as last month—it was being trumpeted at Sanborns in Tijuana.

It depends. If your clients need to call a US number, you can set up your US phone to forward to a Mexican number and eat the cost of the international forwarding, or you can go with the Mexico plan. If your clients are willing to dial a Mexican number (remember that all cell phones in Mexico have a 1 in front, so 011-52-1-XXX-XX-XX), then you can just get a Mexican phone.

chavycha - 1-28-2014 at 08:57 AM

We used mexicosimcard.com to get a couple telcel Sims before we left. Quick delivery and good service. A few dollars more expensive but well worth the peace of mind to have it taken care of beforehand.

CatCrazyJulie - 10-1-2014 at 09:47 AM

Hi - We're heading to Baja next week, and I had begun researching renting satellite communications, since cell and internet is still down in so many places, including Cabo Pulmo, our final destination. (Pulmo's cell tower is okay, but evidently the relay from SJdC isn't working yet.)

This thread answered some of my old questions about cell phones in Baja (have been down the Verizon route). In Cabo Pulmo, we know that Telcel would be the only functioning cell service. Since we anticipate making many trips to Baja in the future, and will want to be able to communicate by phone with other people in Baja, it would be handy to have a Baja phone number. From an earlier post above, it sounds like there are advantages to having that phone number have the Cabo Pulmo (Los Cabos?) area code. So in order to make this happen, do I need to purchase a Telcel phone from a store somewhere within the Los Cabos area code? Given hurricane Odile, I'd imagine there's some uncertainty now about where to do to do this/which stores are up and running? It would be great if it was possible to buy a phone in La Paz or Los Barriles, since these are going to be stopping points for us, and I think the bridge is still down to SJdC.

DaGreen - 10-1-2014 at 09:55 AM

I just bought a new phone at Telcel in LaPaz last week. They asked which area code I would like to have, all are available, Tijuana, La Paz, Cabo, etc. Safe Travels.

bajalearner - 10-1-2014 at 10:04 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by willyAirstream
Google voice is free from anywhere in the country where you start your account, so set it up in the usa before you leave. Calls within mex are cheaper than telcel, but getting a telcel burner is good to have with you while travelling.


So set it up in the US and one can call from MX to the US for free?

Or set it up in MX to call free to the US?

Udo - 10-1-2014 at 11:55 AM

I gotta throw in my two centavos:

About two years ago I bought one of the TELCEL cheepo phones...300 pesos/300 minutes.
BTW even though the phone is purchased with a Spanish menu and screen, one can go to the settings menu and change it to all English.

After about a year and a half of that phone, I got tired of it and decided to buy a US phone made by HTC. It turns out all HTC (ATT) phones use the same SIM card.
So I swapped the old SIM card from my old phone, and plugged into my new HTC smartphone...and it worked great!

Now I have a new smart phone with e-mail, contacts, camera, you tube, Facebook, Nomads, etc. The SKU# of the phone I bought is 65232, and I think the model number is 99-HLZ104.
I bought the phone and the case ($115.00) through Amazon.

BTW...I can make calls to Mexico from the US and to the US from Mexico. How much does it cost for air time?
I don't know. I set up an on-line account and put in 100 pesos very two months. For this year, your air time is good for only two months, then the phone gets deactivated, but you don't lose your previous minutes.
But starting January 1st, 2015, the new telecom plan for Mexico allows for one to keep the minutes without expiration date.

CatCrazyJulie - 10-1-2014 at 01:14 PM

Udo - This sounds very promising! Question: was your original cheapo telcel phone a HTC? Do you think the model of your telcel phone had anything to do with the success of the sim card swap?

AKgringo - 10-1-2014 at 01:41 PM

For $28 I bought an ATT Go Phone at a Walmart in Anchorage. It has far more capability than I will need or use, and it is has service in Canada as well as Mexico! I selected the area code for the Northern CA town that I will spend most of the winter so I m good for the entire west coast adventure for twenty to thirty dollars a month if I just use it as a phone.

Udo - 10-1-2014 at 03:13 PM

I think that most of the cheepo phone sold by Telcel are HTC.

Note: When I was getting ready to buy my smart phone, I asked of the manufacturer that if the sim card did not work, can I return it?

They said: don't worry...most SIM cards fit just about all American phones.
Quote:
Originally posted by CatCrazyJulie
Udo - This sounds very promising! Question: was your original cheapo telcel phone a HTC? Do you think the model of your telcel phone had anything to do with the success of the sim card swap?

mojo_norte - 10-1-2014 at 03:52 PM

So does your Sim card expire if you don't use it or add time for 6 months?

Mojo Norte

AKgringo - 10-1-2014 at 05:51 PM

Mojo, I am not sure whose post you were referring to. With my ATT Go Phone a $25 card gives me 90 days to use 250 minutes in the US, or 100 in mexico.
A hundred dollars for a year of service is OK by me, or you could toss the $28 phone at the end of the trip, or buy a new sim $? if you need it in the future.
G.L.

mojo_norte - 10-1-2014 at 06:12 PM

no , actually meant will my Telcel prepaid phone that I haven't used since last April still work when I go down in December or will I have to buy a new Sim ?

Udo - 10-1-2014 at 06:16 PM

No, it does not.
Quote:
Originally posted by mojo_norte
So does your Sim card expire if you don't use it or add time for 6 months?

Udo - 10-1-2014 at 06:18 PM

In your case, I would advise taking a few minutes and go into a TELCEL store and buy 50 Pesos worth of time.
You should be good to go.
Quote:
Originally posted by mojo_norte
no , actually meant will my Telcel prepaid phone that I haven't used since last April still work when I go down in December or will I have to buy a new Sim ?

mrfatboy - 10-1-2014 at 06:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Udo
No, it does not.


Quote:
Originally posted by mojo_norte
So does your Sim card expire if you don't use it or add time for 6 months?



No one really knows. There is no official statement from telcel. I have read people's sims have been cancelled after 6 months of non use and others have not. I put $20 pesos on the sim via the iPhone app or website every six months too make sure. Small price to pay for not having to go back into the telcel store.

I think Carlos slim needs the money anyway. Lol ;)