wiltonh
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Using an unlocked iPhone on Telcel in Baja
I have done some searching on the internet about using a Telcel chip in an unlocked iPhone and have come up with very little information. The
following are some notes I have created while testing the process of getting it to work.
1. The SIM card or chip you buy needs to be for the area code where you plan to make most of your calls. If not you pay about 1 dollar US per minute
roaming.
2. There are a number of prefixes in Baja so make sure you know which one is for your local area.
3. Most any Telcel store can sell or recharge a SIM/chip.
4. Telcel claims that there are no charges on your end if someone calls you from the USA. We have not tested this yet.
5. As an American you have to jump through a number of hoops before your new SIM/chip will work. Here is the process as best as I can tell.
a. Purchase the chip from a Telcel store and put it into your phone.
b. Dial *333 and let the menu run to completion. This registers your phone on the Telcel network. If you press # during the messages, you can switch
the language to English. The other options are to list the number of pesos left on your SIM, add money and change language. I have not added money
this way so I do not know how that works.
c. Take your passport to the person at the Telcel store and tell them you are an American and need to have it scanned and faxed in to Telcel. Once
that is done, it may take 3 or 4 hours before they send you an SMS message that your phone is now on the network.
d. There is another number which was helpful for us and may be needed in completing the process. It is *264. This gets you to an operator. They
answer in Spanish but if you say English, they will put you on hold for a bit and then send you to an English speaking person. If things are not
working, you can give them your new phone number and they can look into why it is not working.
e. They give you something like 5 minutes of free time to setup the phone. This was not nearly enough for us so you might want to purchase some extra
minutes while you are at the store.
f. The basic chip cost about 150 pesos and that gives you 50 pesos of air time. You have to use the air time in two months so buy appropriately.
We ended up with a Telcel SIM/chip purchased in Ensenada which was not useful in La Paz as it would result in a dollar per minute roaming charge. In
the process my Passport was scanned 4 time and sent to Telcel before the local office got it right. It took something like 5 hours to get this all
done but we did validate two SIM cards on the network.
The quoted charge to call the US was something like 10 to 12 pesos per minute. Not cheap but would work in an emergency.
We have access to Skype where we are staying so we will not use this very much.
Telcel does have several plans for data but they are expensive. You can buy by the day, week or month with limits on the amount of data used. It
looked like one month worth of data would cost about $45 and this is not unlimited.
I talked to a local Mexican who is using an unlocked iPhone with Telcel. He has chosen to setup wifi in his business and turn off all cell data so he
does not get any unexpected charges.
My wife speaks Spanish quite well but she learned it before the advent of cell phones. The Telcel office people often used words she did not
understand. If I have missed something or you have more information about this process, please post it.
[Edited on 11-13-2010 by wiltonh]
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wiltonh
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Larry
I was told a lot of stuff and some was not true so maybe this was part of the bad information.
We purchased the first card near Home Depo in Ensendada. It had a prefix of 646. We were told it would work just fine in La Paz. We were not told
about the passport requirement so when we did the *333 it did not register on the network. We then called the *264 number and they told us to go get
our passport scanned in and emailed to Telcel at a Telcel office.
We did that in San Ignacio. The woman there looked at the number and told us we would be paying roaming charges if we used the card in La Paz to call
the US. Maybe she was mistaken and she might have done this to sell us a new card but she spent so much time getting it to work that she did not get
paid very much per hour.
The new number starts with 612. I have not used the older card but in doing the setup, we used over half the minutes purchased.
Wilton
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Riom
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| Quote: | Originally posted by wiltonh
4. Telcel claims that there are no charges on your end if someone calls you from the USA. We have not tested this yet.
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There is no charge when you receive a call (from anywhere), IF you are in your home area code. Note that the caller will pay more to call a Mexican
mobile than to call a Mexican landline. In some cases it can be quite expensive for them.
| Quote: |
5. As an American you have to jump through a number of hoops before your new SIM/chip will work. Here is the process as best as I can tell.
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The hoops are not specific to Americans, registering a phone is required for locals also. You can register by text message if you have a CURP number
(all FM2 and FM3 holders will get them eventually, many already have them). That would replace the passport copy.
| Quote: |
Telcel does have several plans for data but they are expensive. You can buy by the day, week or month with limits on the amount of data used. It
looked like one month worth of data would cost about $45 and this is not unlimited.
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It's currently around $41 for up to 6GB of use over 30 days (shorter periods available), with Telcel Amigo prepaid, with 3G speeds where available.
This is a better deal than almost any prepaid data package in the US or Canada, so not that expensive.
There are also online-only deals (visible in the account control panel for your phone on the Telcel site as "Paquetes Correo Electrónico") that are
for really low data use: 142 pesos ($12) for 50MB, 286 pesos ($24) for 100MB, both valid for 30 days.
| Quote: |
I talked to a local Mexican who is using an unlocked iPhone with Telcel. He has chosen to setup wifi in his business and turn off all cell data so he
does not get any unexpected charges.
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If you don't get a package (such as the 30 days of data), ad-hoc data can be expensive (20 pesos/MB), so it IS a good idea to turn off data in that
case.
| Quote: |
If I have missed something or you have more information about this process, please post it.
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I've written quite a bit about Telcel 3G data on my site, more for using it for computer access than for iPhones but some parts may be relevant:
http://www.sanfelipelife.com/category/Phone-Internet
My understanding of domestic roaming is you get charged extra outside your home area code (not region) but I don't have any direct experience of that
as my area code extends from San Felipe to the US border.
Note: Telcel Amigo has dropped all mention of any extra charges for domestic roaming with their latest tariffs, so it seem like the roaming costs have
gone?:
http://www.telcel.com/portal/personas/amigo/detalles/fichas_...
Rob
[Edited on 2010-11-13 by Riom]
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flyfishinPam
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Location: Loreto, BCS
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Mood: gone fishin'
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iPhone's internet is always on it will eat up any credit you have in a hurry. To disable it, go to
iphonenodata.com
then follow the instructions. It will disable your data so you won't be able to navigate and pay $$$. If you want to navigate again you can connect
to a wifi network and go into the control panel enable wifi and you can get on that network. or if you want to navigate again in 3g or edge you can
enable the disabled profile again. save yourself the $$$ I paid for these mistakes.
i'm off the phone grid using majig jack on a 3g usb connection works beautifully. i am forced to call locally with my iphone because if I want a
phone line I have t pay a 10,000 peso mordida to the phone tech to install what should be free. i just plain refuse to.
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wiltonh
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"It's currently around $41 for up to 6GB of use over 30 days (shorter periods available), with Telcel Amigo prepaid, with 3G speeds where available.
This is a better deal than almost any prepaid data package in the US or Canada, so not that expensive."
T-Mobile charges $10 for a data plan so $41 seemed expensive to me. That is my real reason for using an unlocked iPhone as the AT&T data plan is
either $15 or $30 depending on the amount of data you want per month.
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Baja&Back
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Posts: 549
Registered: 9-10-2004
Location: Vancouver, Canada / todo de Baja
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Mood: Rarin' to go South!
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| Quote: | | Originally posted by wiltonh We ended up with a Telcel SIM/chip purchased in Ensenada which was not useful in La Paz as it would result in a
dollar per minute roaming charge. |
This is nitpicking, but you incur a DOMESTIC LONG DISTANCE charge in this case.
Anyone wanting a cellphone for La Paz or Cabo, DON'T buy it in Ensenada (like we did the first year). Wait til you get there.
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Riom
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| Quote: | Originally posted by wiltonh
T-Mobile charges $10 for a data plan so $41 seemed expensive to me. That is my real reason for using an unlocked iPhone as the AT&T data plan is
either $15 or $30 depending on the amount of data you want per month. |
In both cases I believe those are contract (plan) prices (possibly in addition to any voice plan) - the Telcel equivalents are at http://www.bat.telcel.com/planes_telcel_3G.html (from $20 a month, but a contract needed).
For *prepaid* (which directly compares to Telcel Amigo Banda Ancha), T-mobile's "Mobile broadband pass" is $50 for 1 GB of data over 30 days (or $30
for only 300MB): http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans.aspx
AT&T's prepaid "Dataconnect" over 30 days is $60 for 5GB, or $35 for only 200MB:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-pl...
So $41 for 6GB isn't too bad, compared to these, especially as it includes tax.
Rob
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wiltonh
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Riom
That is good information.
Yes my T-Mobile plan is a contract in the states and yes I am paying for the plan and not using it, when I am in Baja.
The real kicker for me is the fact that I have an old data plan that only costs $5.99 per month. It is no longer available for new customers.
Wilton
[Edited on 11-13-2010 by wiltonh]
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