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Author: Subject: Using a Telcel phone in the US or Canada
wiltonh
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[*] posted on 3-13-2016 at 09:15 AM
Using a Telcel phone in the US or Canada

Telcel is in competition with AT&T for the communications pesos in Mexico. In the latest report of the richest men in the world, Carlos Slim dropped a number of positions. The article I read claimed that he had lost 45 billion dollars since the last list was published. He still had something like 27 billion so he is not a charity case yet. Some of that is due to currency devaluation but the new programs he has created to compete with AT&T have not helped.

I have used a Telcel Sim in an old unlocked iPhone for several years down there and it has worked well. A call to Canada or the US was something like 3 pesos per minute. That changed this year and it is now 1 peso per minute.

To compete with AT&T and T-Mobile, they have a new international calling plan which I found interesting. If you have a Telcel phone in Mexico, you can text SL100 to 5050 and activate the plan. The plan gives you unlimited calls between Canada, the US and Mexico. It also gives you unlimited texts. They also give you 200 MB of data that can be used in either of the three countries. The cost of the plan is 100 pesos per month. If you want to run the plan all summer then you would text SL100R to 5050 and it would remove 100 pesos per month from your account. It runs on the T-Mobile towers in the US.

There are several options for refilling your plan. Probably the cheapest way is to setup a mitelcel.com account. It requites a bank card. You can also use something like Pinzoo. This makes a smart phone work in all three countries for less than 6 dollars per month. You can purchase more data if needed.

Another option is to get the Simple Choice plan from T-Mobile which gives you unlimited calls and texts in Canada and Mexico. The data that you purchase in the US can be used in either country. When you cross the border, they send you a text message that says your phone works in Mexico just like it worked in the US.

AT&T has a similar plan but it tries to use the Iusacell towers which do not cover Baja very well. If you have an unlocked iPhone you can go to settings/cellular and turn off automatic. The phone will then spend several minutes searching and come up with a list of all the networks it can see. Choose Telcel as your provider and things will work much better.
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Riom
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[*] posted on 3-13-2016 at 05:23 PM


I agree Telcel Amigo works well as a phone to use in all three countries, with the new plans. I've been using it for data (and voice/text) on and off in the US and Mexico now since late last year.

I'm quite a low user of cell phones (I mainly use wifi voip) so I've just got the Amigo Óptimo Plus Sin Frontera plan, but the Sin Limites options you mention do look worthwhile if you're likely to have lots of outgoing calls or texts (incoming calls and texts are free in all three countries anyway), or use more than 100MB of data a month.

Telcel still roams on AT&T (3G, not LTE), as well as T-Mobile, at least in this area.

With Telcel Amigo, you only have a Mexico mobile number, which can be expensive to call from some plans and countries, especially legacy non-plan landline rates (up to $3.25/min on AT&T!). It's also hard for some to understand how to call, and it can't be reached as a forwarding number for Google Voice.

So I also have a US incoming number at Localphone.com for 99c/mo, and I set it to forward to the Telcel number. Costs me 3.8c/min for incoming calls, but makes it much easier for people to call me from the US as they just call a domestic number. Plus the calling card and callback features of the Localphone account allow me to call countries outside North America cheaply from the Telcel phone.

Rob
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[*] posted on 3-13-2016 at 05:36 PM


The TELCEL plan also gives you unlimited FACEBOOK in both countries for free.



Udo

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wiltonh
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[*] posted on 3-13-2016 at 09:33 PM


One small change to my original post.

On an iPhone you go to settings/carrier and turn off automatic.

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