LOSARIPES
Nomad
Posts: 283
Registered: 8-14-2008
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Verizon to Verizon
Just heard phone calls are free* Mex-Us/US-Mex, if using Verizon phones at both ends. Supposedly, the US phone carriers are no longer required to pay
connection fees to Tel-Mex. That'd be sweet. Can someone confirm this up there in the US?
* No LD cost.
Aripes
God bless America
and Baja tambien
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bajarickster
Junior Nomad
Posts: 33
Registered: 8-29-2007
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verizon
I got the Verizon North American Plan 2 yrs ago and then it was dicontinued because of Slim/TexMex. Verizon had to grandfather the plan and mine is
still in effect. I'm in La Paz and sometimes my Verizon bill would be over $500, but a simple call and i was credited back difference. I pay $89 for
my wife and I. Nice to see it's being reintroduced.
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fishingmako
Nomad
Posts: 259
Registered: 10-10-2008
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Mood: always up
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I don't know who told you that? you had better do a bit more research.
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gnukid
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4411
Registered: 7-2-2006
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Verizon typically runs on cdma technology while Baja cell is entirely GSM? So Verizon is not typically a great service provider to easily connect
unless your phone is quad mode even then-its a bit inconsistent. For example, calls are piggy backed on networks sometimes they are fine but calls in
often only appear as missed calls or vm which you must call in to check vm which are charged as minutes. Considering in Baja when you need
connectivity you really need it, I would skip verizon from my personal experience, whereas other providers do not charge for incoming calls at all and
offer much better connectivity throughout the region.
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fishingmako
Nomad
Posts: 259
Registered: 10-10-2008
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Well said.
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Mexitron
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3397
Registered: 9-21-2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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Mood: Happy!
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| Quote: | Originally posted by gnukid
Verizon typically runs on cdma technology while Baja cell is entirely GSM? So Verizon is not typically a great service provider to easily connect
unless your phone is quad mode even then-its a bit inconsistent. For example, calls are piggy backed on networks sometimes they are fine but calls in
often only appear as missed calls or vm which you must call in to check vm which are charged as minutes. Considering in Baja when you need
connectivity you really need it, I would skip verizon from my personal experience, whereas other providers do not charge for incoming calls at all and
offer much better connectivity throughout the region. |
What is a good service to have if, say, one were to live half the year in the US and half in Mex?
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gnukid
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4411
Registered: 7-2-2006
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Any of the phone companies are fine and will work relatively well.
Most are increasingly better for baja. It depends on the cost you are willing to pay. A full service plan with data and intl will be more than
$100/month.
If you want to go cheap $100/year ou need to work to reduce the rates. It's worthwhile to have voip and two phones, one in mexico and one in the usa
for the 6 months in the USA/6 month in Baja lifestyle.
OK here's one example to go cheap, in Baja you can get a pay as you go phone from telcel which receives calls for free. You pay for calls you make or
sms text .20/minute or .20 per text. You can use an old phone and buy a sim chip for 100 pesos or purchase a new one for very little and use pay as
you go, I think its called amigo.
BTW they also have affordable monthly contracts from Movistar, Telcel etc... with low rates or free calls to specific numbers.
In the USA you can also use pay as you go such as att/cingular and pay as little as $15 depending on the provider. Most in network calls are free.
Quad band phones are best for USA/Baja use and currently att/cingular pay as you go can be used in baja if they are quad band, tel cell phones work in
the USA for a few days and then they stop receiving calls.
You can also ask for limited service contract plans for as little as $5/month from major providers. The USA phone will report the call but charge for
answering or outgoing unless its a free within network call.
You can combine these inexpensive services above with a free voip phone service for an overall package that is relatively cheap and they can never
bill you outrageous bills as they often do with contracts and roaming.
For longer outgoing phone calls or long distance use voip from a internet cafe. Most voip services allow you to insert your caller id for your voip
service # so when you call out it reports the cell phone number so when people call you back they call the cell to ring first.
You can set up the cell phone to ring incoming calls 3 times and then forward to the voip service or any other phone so you will have a chance to
receive the call or if not and then the voip service can pick it up, answer and send you an email with the vm as audio and transcribed, it can also be
a sms but this would cost typically you .20 to receive.
So with this system you can receive calls for free in mexico via telcel, be notified of who called via cell for missed calls, receive vm, make
outgoing calls within your USA network all for free. If you need to call out via the voip its free too, depending on your service. If you call out via
cell you will pay about .20 a minute locally and $1.00/minute long distance.
I have been doing call forwarding from my home or cell to voip for many years to reduce phone bills. It's also very nice to receive a transcribed vm
as email via my voip service and or sms text instead of answering when you are busy in mexico.
You obviously will need to experiment a little but once you do you find this is a very powerful and affordable system which is great for Baja. Its
also quite normal and used by most corporations and call centers. So its not out of the ordinary.
For reference I have included typical call forwarding codes here. Please be aware, that you should check your own provider to be sure, this is just
an example of how I work it.
In the example below to setup cell phone forwarding I use 'voip' to mean your designated 10 digit voip number ########## given to you by your voip
provider or it could be your home number or any number etc... I use ribbit and skype for voip.
AT&T
Activate
*004*voip*11# and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Deactivate
##004# and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Verizon
Activate
To enable Call Forward when Busy: *90voip and press CALL or SEND
To enable Call Forward No Answer: *92voip and press CALL or SEND
If your phone does not accept the *9x star codes, use the *71 star code instead: *71voip# and press your CALL or SEND
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Deactivate
*900 and press your CALL or SEND button
*920 and press your CALL or SEND button
If you activated call forwarding with the *71 code, use *73 to deactivate: *73 and press your CALL or SEND button
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
TMobile
Activate
*004*1voip*11# and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Note: TMO2GO or T-Mobile to Go (prepaid service) cannot be call forwarded
Deactivate
##004# and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Alltel
Activate
*71voip and press your CALL or SEND button
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Note: Alltel Prepaid accounts cannot be call forwarded
Deactivate
*710 and press your CALL or SEND button
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Nextel
Activate
To enable Call Forward when Busy: *741voip and press CALL or SEND
To enable Call Forward No Answer: *731voip and press CALL or SEND
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Deactivate
*730 and press your CALL or SEND button
*740 and press your CALL or SEND button
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Sprint
Activate
1. Call Sprint support at (866) 588-9907. This is the Sprint PCS's technical support line.
2. Request that the support technicians turn on "call forward busy" and "call forward no answer" on your cell phone. This will forward all the calls
you do not answer to voip. You should confirm that you are not turning on "regular" or "normal" call forwarding.
3. Ask them to forward calls to + 1 voip.
Note: A $0.20 surcharge per minute is added for each call forwarded call
Deactivate
1. Call Sprint support at (866) 588-9907. This is the Sprint PCS's technical support line.
2. Request that the support technicians turn off "call forward busy" and "call forward no answer" on your cell phone. This will switch you back to PCS
voicemail.
All U.K. Mobile Carriers
Activate
*004*voip and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Deactivate
To reactivate the standard voicemail back to your mobile carrier:
- BT: type 15711 and press Call
- T-Mobile: type 222 and press Call
- O2: type 1750 and press Call
- Orange: type 123 and press Call
- Vodafone: type 1211 and press Call
To disable call forwarding to voip, without reactivating voicemail through your mobile carrier, type ##004# and press Call. A message will display in
your phone's screen confirming success.
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rpleger
Super Nomad
Posts: 1087
Registered: 3-12-2005
Location: H. Mulegé, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: Was good.
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KNUKID....Wow that tells it all...thanks
Richard on the Hill
*ABROAD*, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to
be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, _The Enlarged Devil\'s Dictionary_
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LOSARIPES
Nomad
Posts: 283
Registered: 8-14-2008
Member Is Offline
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gnukid......... thanks...... lots of info.
Aripes
God bless America
and Baja tambien
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BajaWarrior
Super Nomad
Posts: 2307
Registered: 9-27-2006
Location: Mission Bay, San Diego. Playa Hermosa, San Felipe.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Anxious to get south
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajarickster
I got the Verizon North American Plan 2 yrs ago and then it was dicontinued because of Slim/TexMex. Verizon had to grandfather the plan and mine is
still in effect. I'm in La Paz and sometimes my Verizon bill would be over $500, but a simple call and i was credited back difference. I pay $89 for
my wife and I. Nice to see it's being reintroduced. |
I have the North American plan but it is through Cingular (now AT&T).
I've had this plan for over 4 years now. 550 anytime minutes Canada, U.S., Mexico with rollover for about $65. Roams on TelCel and always works.
BW
Haven't had a bad trip yet....
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6364
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
Member Is Offline
Mood: TEQUILA!
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| Quote: | Originally posted by gnukid
Any of the phone companies are fine and will work relatively well.
Most are increasingly better for baja. It depends on the cost you are willing to pay. A full service plan with data and intl will be more than
$100/month.
If you want to go cheap $100/year ou need to work to reduce the rates. It's worthwhile to have voip and two phones, one in mexico and one in the usa
for the 6 months in the USA/6 month in Baja lifestyle.
OK here's one example to go cheap, in Baja you can get a pay as you go phone from telcel which receives calls for free. You pay for calls you make or
sms text .20/minute or .20 per text. You can use an old phone and buy a sim chip for 100 pesos or purchase a new one for very little and use pay as
you go, I think its called amigo.
BTW they also have affordable monthly contracts from Movistar, Telcel etc... with low rates or free calls to specific numbers.
In the USA you can also use pay as you go such as att/cingular and pay as little as $15 depending on the provider. Most in network calls are free.
Quad band phones are best for USA/Baja use and currently att/cingular pay as you go can be used in baja if they are quad band, tel cell phones work in
the USA for a few days and then they stop receiving calls.
You can also ask for limited service contract plans for as little as $5/month from major providers. The USA phone will report the call but charge for
answering or outgoing unless its a free within network call.
You can combine these inexpensive services above with a free voip phone service for an overall package that is relatively cheap and they can never
bill you outrageous bills as they often do with contracts and roaming.
For longer outgoing phone calls or long distance use voip from a internet cafe. Most voip services allow you to insert your caller id for your voip
service # so when you call out it reports the cell phone number so when people call you back they call the cell to ring first.
You can set up the cell phone to ring incoming calls 3 times and then forward to the voip service or any other phone so you will have a chance to
receive the call or if not and then the voip service can pick it up, answer and send you an email with the vm as audio and transcribed, it can also be
a sms but this would cost typically you .20 to receive.
So with this system you can receive calls for free in mexico via telcel, be notified of who called via cell for missed calls, receive vm, make
outgoing calls within your USA network all for free. If you need to call out via the voip its free too, depending on your service. If you call out via
cell you will pay about .20 a minute locally and $1.00/minute long distance.
I have been doing call forwarding from my home or cell to voip for many years to reduce phone bills. It's also very nice to receive a transcribed vm
as email via my voip service and or sms text instead of answering when you are busy in mexico.
You obviously will need to experiment a little but once you do you find this is a very powerful and affordable system which is great for Baja. Its
also quite normal and used by most corporations and call centers. So its not out of the ordinary.
For reference I have included typical call forwarding codes here. Please be aware, that you should check your own provider to be sure, this is just
an example of how I work it.
In the example below to setup cell phone forwarding I use 'voip' to mean your designated 10 digit voip number ########## given to you by your voip
provider or it could be your home number or any number etc... I use ribbit and skype for voip.
AT&T
Activate
*004*voip*11# and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Deactivate
##004# and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Verizon
Activate
To enable Call Forward when Busy: *90voip and press CALL or SEND
To enable Call Forward No Answer: *92voip and press CALL or SEND
If your phone does not accept the *9x star codes, use the *71 star code instead: *71voip# and press your CALL or SEND
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Deactivate
*900 and press your CALL or SEND button
*920 and press your CALL or SEND button
If you activated call forwarding with the *71 code, use *73 to deactivate: *73 and press your CALL or SEND button
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
TMobile
Activate
*004*1voip*11# and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Note: TMO2GO or T-Mobile to Go (prepaid service) cannot be call forwarded
Deactivate
##004# and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Alltel
Activate
*71voip and press your CALL or SEND button
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Note: Alltel Prepaid accounts cannot be call forwarded
Deactivate
*710 and press your CALL or SEND button
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Nextel
Activate
To enable Call Forward when Busy: *741voip and press CALL or SEND
To enable Call Forward No Answer: *731voip and press CALL or SEND
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Deactivate
*730 and press your CALL or SEND button
*740 and press your CALL or SEND button
A confirmation tone will be played to you over the phone upon success
Sprint
Activate
1. Call Sprint support at (866) 588-9907. This is the Sprint PCS's technical support line.
2. Request that the support technicians turn on "call forward busy" and "call forward no answer" on your cell phone. This will forward all the calls
you do not answer to voip. You should confirm that you are not turning on "regular" or "normal" call forwarding.
3. Ask them to forward calls to + 1 voip.
Note: A $0.20 surcharge per minute is added for each call forwarded call
Deactivate
1. Call Sprint support at (866) 588-9907. This is the Sprint PCS's technical support line.
2. Request that the support technicians turn off "call forward busy" and "call forward no answer" on your cell phone. This will switch you back to PCS
voicemail.
All U.K. Mobile Carriers
Activate
*004*voip and press your CALL or SEND button
A message will display in your phone's screen confirming success.
Deactivate
To reactivate the standard voicemail back to your mobile carrier:
- BT: type 15711 and press Call
- T-Mobile: type 222 and press Call
- O2: type 1750 and press Call
- Orange: type 123 and press Call
- Vodafone: type 1211 and press Call
To disable call forwarding to voip, without reactivating voicemail through your mobile carrier, type ##004# and press Call. A message will display in
your phone's screen confirming success. |
That is the best and most informative way i have ever on this board.
This is another post worth the Nomad membership.
Thanks gnukid!
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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Mexitron
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3397
Registered: 9-21-2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy!
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Thanks gnukid for the excellent response! BajaWarrior--your ATT plan sounds good too, thanks!
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tripledigitken
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4848
Registered: 9-27-2006
Member Is Offline
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More proof..................if you want a simpler life move to Baja.
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BooJumMan
Senior Nomad
Posts: 929
Registered: 8-11-2007
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
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I haven't been to Baja for close to a year, and will be traveling down to the tip for a month or so in the fall.
I have Verizon, and even with international calling, I only get service in certain areas. My friend with ATT has service in most areas, but, will get
billed heavily when using the phone.
1) Is Verizon coverage through the peninsula better these days? What do I need to do to get my phone to work in more areas?
2) Can my friend pay $5/mo for international calling like what was mentioned above so he doesn't get dinged $10 per call?
Thanks for any information
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gnukid
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4411
Registered: 7-2-2006
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BooJumMan
1) Is Verizon coverage through the peninsula better these days? What do I need to do to get my phone to work in more areas?
2) Can my friend pay $5/mo for international calling like what was mentioned above so he doesn't get dinged $10 per call?
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Not sure what if any new services are available to improve service... but this is my experience.
No, verizon often misses the incoming call and reports it afterwards as a missed call. Coverage is very inconsistent. Try using a quad band phone and
let Verizon know in advance you will be traveling and ask if there is anything you can do to work with telcel/moviestar networks easier such as force
it to connect with the telcel GSM or TDMA network if you have an appropriate phone.
You can not make cheap long distance phone calls on your verizon phone. They will charge you very high rates, usually. Verizon was based on CDMA
technology which is different than the networks which run in Baja (or anywhere else in the world) which were predominately TDMA and now support GSM
(not sure what that means except Verizon doesn't work real well). Incoming calls to verizon are charged as well normally unlike telcel which does not
charge.
You can make cheap intl phone call via voip service such as magicjack.
You can get a telcel amigo and receive intl phone calls for free. A sim card and activation is usually about $10. But be sure what you want, TDMA or
GSM. You can go to almost any store such as Oxxo and buy a sim card with minutes on it or buy a cheap phone for $40 which includes the sim card and
400 minutes.
You can setup a system such as you call your family from your cell and let it ring once and register your call but they do not answer, then they can
call you back on your telcel amigo phone via voip for free a phone call or other plan.
If you really want a low cost cell phone to call outgoing intl you should consider an intl plan with a carrier such as Movestar or telcel or another
service which works better on their network like ATT.
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BMG
Super Nomad
Posts: 1776
Registered: 6-10-2007
Location: La Paz / Bahia Asunci�n / Away from home
Member Is Offline
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We have a Verizon cell in La Paz and it works very well - IN LA PAZ. Between La Paz and Ensenada it's pretty much all dead area for our phone.
I think the world is run by C- students.
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BooJumMan
Senior Nomad
Posts: 929
Registered: 8-11-2007
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
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Thanks for another insightful response gnukid.
OK, well it looks like I'll just get my friend to up his international calling for the AT&T phone.
I just wanted outgoing calls just to call and check in to my family once a week or so, or to get a surf forecast. Not needing to use the phone for
more than 5 or 10 minutes a time.
Verizon will only get spotty service in the larger areas that is correct. Maybe I can try and call them to see what they can do to help me.
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ELINVESTIG8R
Select Nomad
Posts: 15882
Registered: 11-20-2007
Location: Southern California
Member Is Offline
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I buy a cheap phone in Ensenada from Telcel every time I go down to see Mama and have it programmed for San Quintin area.
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ELINVESTIG8R
Select Nomad
Posts: 15882
Registered: 11-20-2007
Location: Southern California
Member Is Offline
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The only problem is you need a mexican address to activate it. If you plan on giving it to someone use their mexican address.
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