BajaNomad

Best BAJA cell phone company

fishbuck - 3-17-2019 at 11:09 AM

Hi all.
Time to consider replacing my phone.
I will need a more Baja centric phone company.
Could kind Baja Nomads please offer up some phone info.
I need Smart phone capability if possible
Thanks:coolup:

Howard - 3-17-2019 at 11:16 AM

Great question and I look forward to hearing about all the current phone plans.

Just as an FYI, for many years I have some type of AT&T plan that runs me $50 a month. Unlimited calls in the USA, to and from Mexico and I believe 10 MG of Data in the US and Mexico. Not sure about Canada but I believe that's included as well. I think that only 1/2 of the data can be used "roaming."
Cell phone works great in Baja and they must be expanding the towers as each time I drive down the coverage seems to get bigger.
In summation, I am very happy with my plan and coverage but who knows what else is out there?

pauldavidmena - 3-17-2019 at 11:28 AM

I've been using Google Fi for a few years now, and have made several trips to Mexico with it. In the U.S., it uses either T-Mobile or Sprint as a carrier when WiFi isn't available. In the Todos Santos area, it uses Telcel. Local calls to Mexican phone numbers were billed at a penny a minute, while calls to U.S. numbers were 20 cents a minute. As WiFi can be fairly spotty even in Todos Santos, I ended up using more data than I usually do. It's billed at $10 per Gigabyte and I used 0.93 GB. My bill is typically between $30 and $35 per month, with a peak of just over $40 when I stayed with my low-tech parents in FL a few years back.

Cancamo - 3-17-2019 at 11:43 AM

TelCel, (Mexican) and Movistar (Spanish), are the two main in country cell service providers. ATT, Verizon are available as well using existing towers.
The no brainer to me is:
TelCel, sin limite plan, 200 pesos/month, calls/text US/Canada/Mexico
without limit. Data plan is more if you need it.
www.telcel.com.mx or any TelCel store.

jedge42 - 3-17-2019 at 02:37 PM

Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena  
I've been using Google Fi for a few years now, and have made several trips to Mexico with it. In the U.S., it uses either T-Mobile or Sprint as a carrier when WiFi isn't available. In the Todos Santos area, it uses Telcel. Local calls to Mexican phone numbers were billed at a penny a minute, while calls to U.S. numbers were 20 cents a minute. As WiFi can be fairly spotty even in Todos Santos, I ended up using more data than I usually do. It's billed at $10 per Gigabyte and I used 0.93 GB. My bill is typically between $30 and $35 per month, with a peak of just over $40 when I stayed with my low-tech parents in FL a few years back.


I'll second the vote for Google Fi. I travel worldwide some for my job and Fi works great. And it works well in this area (East Cape-ish).

jake

PaulW - 3-17-2019 at 03:27 PM

Telcel works great. Most other phone companies are using Telcel infrastructure. Some have their own towers.
I pay 150 pesos every 28 days for unlimited use. Never ran out of data or voice. Works just fine to call US or Canada while in MX.
Any phone works. I use an Iphone6 I bought off the web for use in teh states. Don't buy a phone in Mexico because everything will be spanish.
Go to the telcel store and buy their Sim card and get a MX phone number Get instructions or questions answered by the Telcel person. Be sure to get an explanation on the plans because they have quite an array.
When I go back to the US I use my ATT sim card and use their plan. Avoids Telcel roaming and extra cost.

weebray - 3-18-2019 at 07:56 AM

Telcel is the best option. Best value, best coverage, free calling/text all of N. America. Includes data. Downsides; - You have to "renew" the plan every X number of days and you can't pay in advance. - Unless you are hip to the world of cell phone settings, a daunting task, your data can be gobbled up by Telcel in record time. - There are very few actual Telcel service centers. - The franchised Telcel offices are of very little help (can you blame them?) - Even the personel at the company centers don't always know the answers and English is a struggle for most of them. - Do not expect important information about your use of their service or their plans to be offered voulentarily - The whole system is designed to be difficult to navigate it is designed to transfer $ from you to Carlos. I suggest you invest some time on their website before you visit. OH BTW For your initial visit go to a "Centro de atencion" only.

Cancamo - 3-18-2019 at 09:09 AM

Got my TelCel "Sin Limites" plan on pre-pay, (prepago), they take the 200P out of my Banorte peso account every 28 days. It's much easier not having to remember the cut-off date.
All arranged online.

fishbuck - 3-18-2019 at 11:45 AM

Thanks all. Very helpful.

Hook - 3-18-2019 at 02:37 PM

Well, we're paying $40 US for a Verizon plan for 55+ individuals. No contract, but you must do auto pay each month. Unlimited voice and text in US/Can/Mex. 0.5g per day for data. The phone is an unlocked Galaxy S7. I have seen it use TelCel and Movistar towers.

People that I know that have gone the Telcel route say they have trouble placing and receiving calls in the US when they are there, especially from US phones trying to reach them in the States. Not a problem when they are in Mexico. Just what they say.

Just had some friends down who have some kind of 3rd party company that was allied with Sprint. No bueno.

[Edited on 3-18-2019 by Hook]

Bajazly - 3-18-2019 at 03:14 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Hook  
Well, we're paying $40 US for a Verizon plan for 55+ individuals. No contract, but you must do auto pay each month. Unlimited voice and text in US/Can/Mex. 0.5g per day for data. The phone is an unlocked Galaxy S7. I have seen it use TelCel and Movistar towers.

People that I know that have gone the Telcel route say they have trouble placing and receiving calls in the US when they are there, especially from US phones trying to reach them in the States. Not a problem when they are in Mexico. Just what they say.

Just had some friends down who have some kind of 3rd party company that was allied with Sprint. No bueno.

[Edited on 3-18-2019 by Hook]



I got an unlimited Verizon +55 account but in the fine print it says if more than 50% of everything is used out of the US in a 60 day period then you get cut off. What exactly cut off means couldn't be explained to me by the new guy in the store but it sounded like you couldn't have that plan for that amount if you were in Mexico fullish time. YMMV

defrag4 - 3-18-2019 at 05:18 PM

after spending lots of time and effort on trying to get a US carrier that worked well throughout Baja, I eventually gave up on got on Team Telcel

200 pesos a month unlimited call/text, free facebook/instagram/whatsapp and 4gigs of regular data right now during promotion, $10 a month, cant beat it.

Hook - 3-18-2019 at 05:26 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Bajazly  
Quote: Originally posted by Hook  
Well, we're paying $40 US for a Verizon plan for 55+ individuals. No contract, but you must do auto pay each month. Unlimited voice and text in US/Can/Mex. 0.5g per day for data. The phone is an unlocked Galaxy S7. I have seen it use TelCel and Movistar towers.

People that I know that have gone the Telcel route say they have trouble placing and receiving calls in the US when they are there, especially from US phones trying to reach them in the States. Not a problem when they are in Mexico. Just what they say.

Just had some friends down who have some kind of 3rd party company that was allied with Sprint. No bueno.

[Edited on 3-18-2019 by Hook]



I got an unlimited Verizon +55 account but in the fine print it says if more than 50% of everything is used out of the US in a 60 day period then you get cut off. What exactly cut off means couldn't be explained to me by the new guy in the store but it sounded like you couldn't have that plan for that amount if you were in Mexico fullish time. YMMV


We have been in Mexico since early November. So far, nothing has changed and we monitor our account on line. Who knows?

Alm - 3-18-2019 at 07:32 PM

"Slim" Limite aka TelCel is what I would get... if there was any cell coverage in my village. They are cheap. Technically, you could stretch 200 pesos over several months, if don't talk much and don't need "cable sized" data traffic.

Smartphone or not smart is a matter irrelevant to the plan. You will buy SIM card from Telcel and put it in whatever phone you have.

Bajazly - 3-18-2019 at 07:44 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Hook  
Quote: Originally posted by Bajazly  
Quote: Originally posted by Hook  
Well, we're paying $40 US for a Verizon plan for 55+ individuals. No contract, but you must do auto pay each month. Unlimited voice and text in US/Can/Mex. 0.5g per day for data. The phone is an unlocked Galaxy S7. I have seen it use TelCel and Movistar towers.

People that I know that have gone the Telcel route say they have trouble placing and receiving calls in the US when they are there, especially from US phones trying to reach them in the States. Not a problem when they are in Mexico. Just what they say.

Just had some friends down who have some kind of 3rd party company that was allied with Sprint. No bueno.

[Edited on 3-18-2019 by Hook]



I got an unlimited Verizon +55 account but in the fine print it says if more than 50% of everything is used out of the US in a 60 day period then you get cut off. What exactly cut off means couldn't be explained to me by the new guy in the store but it sounded like you couldn't have that plan for that amount if you were in Mexico fullish time. YMMV


We have been in Mexico since early November. So far, nothing has changed and we monitor our account on line. Who knows?


Good to know. Like I said, the kid couldn’t elaborate much on what that meant but i did see it reading over the fine print while I was waiting for him fumbling around for an hour doing something else. I’m in the same boat as Fish, I’ll be there pretty much full time in a couple months so I’m interested where this settles out.

Alm - 3-18-2019 at 08:02 PM

Cutting you off the plan when the phone most of the time is being used outside of the plan issuer country, is a pretty standard policy. Don't know whether SlimCel have it too, but possible.

Bajazly - 3-18-2019 at 08:09 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Alm  
Cutting you off the plan when the phone most of the time is being used outside of the plan issuer country, is a pretty standard policy. Don't know whether SlimCel have it too, but possible.


Seems odd because they are getting their money and I would imagine using less of their system. Unless international takes up more bandwidth to go back and forth.

Hook - 3-18-2019 at 08:52 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Bajazly  
Quote: Originally posted by Alm  
Cutting you off the plan when the phone most of the time is being used outside of the plan issuer country, is a pretty standard policy. Don't know whether SlimCel have it too, but possible.


Seems odd because they are getting their money and I would imagine using less of their system. Unless international takes up more bandwidth to go back and forth.


I would assume it is because they are paying a fee for using cell towers that are not their own. Their own cell towers in their own countries are essentially "free". They provide a certain amount of international "roaming" as an enticement to sign on, but they probably would like to limit the amount of cell tower use outside their own.

It's like the old days when you used to incur "roaming" fees whenever you left your phone companies service area. They were passing on the costs that they were being charged. Now, Verizon and ATT have absorbed lots of those old roaming phone companies, competition has increased from Sprint and T-mobile AND they have found more clever ways of charging you than the dreaded roaming fees.

defrag4 - 3-18-2019 at 09:17 PM

Cricket which is an ATT MVNO is the only major provider that I know of that fully supports use in MX with no cutoff times, fair plans as well

If you are in La Paz or further south it is a good option, uses ATT LTE towers.

its not so hot between Ensenada and La Paz unforunately where it roams on Movistar

[Edited on 3-19-2019 by defrag4]

PaulW - 3-19-2019 at 08:13 AM

In Mexico, of course the partnership between Telcel and ATT results in ATT using all the infrastructure provided by Telcel. And when using a Telcel phone in the states your signal will come from ATT towers. It's all part of the deal.
That is why ATT service in Mexico is so good = same service as Telcel.

defrag4 - 3-19-2019 at 10:31 AM

Quote: Originally posted by PaulW  
In Mexico, of course the partnership between Telcel and ATT results in ATT using all the infrastructure provided by Telcel. And when using a Telcel phone in the states your signal will come from ATT towers. It's all part of the deal.
That is why ATT service in Mexico is so good = same service as Telcel.


Not any longer, at least in Baja, ATT now has its own infrastructure (ATT MX) and is no longer using Telcel equip, if no ATT tower avail it roams on Movistar (junk)

edit: I could be wrong on this, I was using Cricket (ATT MVNO) which may not have the partnership with Telcel, though that would seem odd since they are both owned by the same company

[Edited on 3-19-2019 by defrag4]

defrag4 - 3-19-2019 at 10:48 AM

Stand corrected, looks like they gimped Cricket only, regular ATT should still be roaming on Telcel towers where available.

BajaRat - 3-27-2019 at 09:42 PM

Telcel America for 35 US and up if your still spending much time up NOB.
Works perfect in Mex as would be expected. Keep a USA phone number and receive calls from there with no hassles for business and friends.
Calls from Mex numbers just as trouble free.
Lionel:cool:

fishbuck - 3-27-2019 at 10:20 PM

Sounds like a plan