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steve5555
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Location: Jamul, CA
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Reasonable way for cell data plan
Hey Everyone, I have Consumer cellular in the states. The international data plan is unwieldy in my situation. Im going to be in Baja for 2 weeks
and am looking for a way to get data/check my texting.
I wonder if I could buy a Mexican chip with prepaid data plan and use as a hotspot for my US phone? Any other ideas??
I know I can use wifi along the way but I would rather augment this with Cell.
Steve
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RFClark
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Hi,
Go to any Telcel store, buy a SIM, pay $200 pesos for data only and get a Mexican number! Use your tablet, hot spot or buy one. Make sure your phone
is unlocked and supports wi-fi calling.
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JZ
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That will work. The only down side to that is you can't use your US number for 2 weeks.
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steve5555
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what do you mean 2 weeks that I cant use my US number.
Steve
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mtgoat666
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If you have an unlocked phone and get telcel plan for your 2 weeks, you will have new tele number.
You want to keep your existing number during baja trip, then get international on your existing plan — or do without, you can check texts and email
when you are on local wifi at restaurant or hotel.
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Prefered gender pronoun: the royal we
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JZ
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I misread your post. If you get a MX based Hotspot and tether your phone you'll be good to go. If your phone supports Wi-Fi calling you can send and
receive calls and texts to your phone. Generally, unlocked phones don't support Wi-Fi Calling. But if you got it from the service provider (i.e.
locked to that service provider) it should.
If you have a tablet that supports Hotspot functionality you can put the Telcel SIM in it. To do that you want the tablet to be unlocked. My Samsung
Tab supports this.
[Edited on 6-7-2021 by JZ]
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surabi
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Some phones have space for 2 sim cards, in which case you could toggle between the 2 numbers if you wanted to.
A sim card and a 150 peso Sin Limites paquete, both of which you can get at any Oxo, would give you unlimited texting and calling to anywhere in
Mexico, the US and Canada plus 2 GB of data and will last for about 17 days as I recall (might even be 21 days). 200 pesos will last for 28 days, with
the calling and texting, and give you 3 GBs.
You can start with that, then if you run out of data, you can go back and buy Telcel Internet only time, for more GBs. For instance, 300 pesos gets
you 5 GBs.The original 150 or 200 paquete you bought will continue work for the unlimited texting and calling, even though you've used up the data on
it.
They send you a message to that effect when the data in the Sin Limites runs out.
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JZ
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Quote: Originally posted by surabi  | Some phones have space for 2 sim cards, in which case you could toggle between the 2 numbers if you wanted to.
A sim card and a 150 peso Sin Limites paquete, both of which you can get at any Oxo, would give you unlimited texting and calling to anywhere in
Mexico, the US and Canada plus 2 GB of data and will last for about 17 days as I recall (might even be 21 days). 200 pesos will last for 28 days, with
the calling and texting, and give you 3 GBs.
You can start with that, then if you run out of data, you can go back and buy Telcel Internet only time, for more GBs. For instance, 300 pesos gets
you 5 GBs.The original 150 or 200 paquete you bought will continue work for the unlimited texting and calling, even though you've used up the data on
it.
They send you a message to that effect when the data in the Sin Limites runs out. |
This puts his US number out of commission. Or he'll need to switch back and forth and only be able to call/text from his US number when connected to
Wi-Fi at some business.
I think he wants to tether off of another device so he can continue to use his US based number.
Here is a hot spot Tecel offers:
https://www.telcel.com/personas/equipos/wifi-movil-telcel/al...
You could also buy it or something similar on Amazon and just put a Telcel sim card in it:
https://www.amazon.com/Alcatel-MW41NF-2AOFUS1-Hotspot-Unlock...
Get the sim card from Oxxo as Surabi mentions. If you have a tablet that has hot spot functionality that would be your best bet.
[Edited on 6-7-2021 by JZ]
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surabi
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| Quote: Originally posted by JZ |
This puts his US number out of commission. Or he'll need to switch back and forth and only be able to call/text from his US number when connected to
Wi-Fi at some business.
I think he wants to tether off of another device so he can continue to use his US based number.
[Edited on 6-7-2021 by JZ] |
That's exactly what I said. If he had 2 sims in the phone, he'd need to toggle to the one he wanted to use.
I don't see why he would need to connect to Wifi through his US number. As soon as he gets his Telcel sim, he can use the tethering function to
connect to any of his devices.
This is the system I've been using for years, as there are no phone lines where I live, therefore I can't get a hard wired modem, so all my internet
is cell-based.
[Edited on 6-7-2021 by surabi]
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JZ
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How is he going to use his US number for calls and texts? To use his US number for calls and texts he'll need to use Wi-Fi calling. He'd need two
phones unless I'm missing something.
Are you using a US number for calls/texts w/o using a US carrier for the cell service?
His problem seems to be either Consumer Cellular doesn't support international roaming, or it is very expensive.
[Edited on 6-7-2021 by JZ]
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surabi
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| Quote: Originally posted by JZ | How is he going to use his US number for calls and texts? To use his US number for calls and texts he'll need to use Wi-Fi calling. He'd need two
phones unless I'm missing something.
Are you using a US number for calls/texts w/o using a US carrier for the cell service?
[Edited on 6-7-2021 by JZ] |
Unless I'm also missing something, I don't understand why he would have to use his US number for calls and texts. Why not use the unlimited calling
and texting that he'd get on his Sin Limites? If it's a matter of people up north not being able to contact him, he could give them the Telcel number.
Or he could not buy a Sin Limites paquete and only buy Internet time on the Telcel sim. Then when he needs to use data, switch the sims out.
No, I don't have a US number. I live in Mexico. I use Telcel for everything.
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JZ
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It's different if you live in MX as opposed to being there for a week or two.
One probably wouldn't want to tell everyone in their contact list to call them on a MX number for a short stay. But it all depends what type and how
much volume you have on your US number whether you could go without it.
I couldn't. A retired person probably can.
[Edited on 6-7-2021 by JZ]
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steve5555
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Thanks for all of the great responses. Yes it would be awkward for me to give a Mexican number to all of my work contacts. How about this? I buy
the SIM card as surabi suggests and put it in my OLD iPhone. With that Mexican service I set up a hotspot and use it with my US cell number? I would
probably never use the Mexican number to call or text. Just use the data.
Steve
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JZ
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| Quote: Originally posted by steve5555 | Thanks for all of the great responses. Yes it would be awkward for me to give a Mexican number to all of my work contacts. How about this? I buy
the SIM card as surabi suggests and put it in my OLD iPhone. With that Mexican service I set up a hotspot and use it with my US cell number? I would
probably never use the Mexican number to call or text. Just use the data.
Steve |
That will work perfectly. Just make sure your US phone supports "Wi-Fi Calling." It should unless it is unlocked. But I doubt it is with your
service.
The opposite is true for your old iPhone. It needs to be unlocked to accept a Sim card from a different service provider. If it's not unlocked I'm
sure you can find a YT video to show you how to do it. Or buy a cheap unlocked phone if not.
[Edited on 6-8-2021 by JZ]
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surabi
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| Quote: Originally posted by steve5555 | Thanks for all of the great responses. Yes it would be awkward for me to give a Mexican number to all of my work contacts. How about this? I buy
the SIM card as surabi suggests and put it in my OLD iPhone. With that Mexican service I set up a hotspot and use it with my US cell number? I would
probably never use the Mexican number to call or text. Just use the data.
Steve |
No, Steven. You can certainly put a Telcel card in your old iphone and use that to go online on that phone or tether to your devices, but your hotspot
will be linked to your Telcel sim card number, not your US number.
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mtgoat666
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Switch to AT&T unlimited plan. Easy to travel in Mexico.
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Prefered gender pronoun: the royal we
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karenintx
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X2
Get the prepaid plan with auto-charge to your credit card...no annual contract. You get a discount plus you do not pay for all the FCC taxes just
your local tax. The hubby and I each have a prepaid plan, auto-charge to C/C...total monthly cost $35 plus $3.24 local tax. Have the North American
plan...unlimited talk, text in/to Canada, USA & Mexico and 15 GB.
Hubby has a phone that has two sim card capability, when he phones rings he selects the line he wants to use/talk to.
Phones needs to be unlocked!
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Udo
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Why not just take the one SIM card and exchange it for the old one? However, there is a Samsung phone that has dual-chip capabilities.
| Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666 |
If you have an unlocked phone and get telcel plan for your 2 weeks, you will have new tele number.
You want to keep your existing number during baja trip, then get international on your existing plan — or do without, you can check texts and email
when you are on local wifi at restaurant or hotel. |
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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Hook
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| Quote: Originally posted by lencho |
I travel in areas where Verizon coverage is much better than AT&T so would rather not switch over; it appears that Verizon has recently changed
their policy to open up Mexico roaming on prepay plans (you need an "international-capable" handset or something like that), anyone have recent
experience with Verizon prepay down Baja? |
My wife and I prepay for some kind of 55+ plan from Verizon that gives us unlimited text, calling and 0.5 gb of data per day. Believe it is about
40-50 bucks a month.
We use it constantly at our home in Sonora and never come close to our data limit, but we do have high speed internet at the house. We are there six
months. We never download anything weighty as we arent watching movies on our phones. I do stream a lot of Sirius XM audio. Mostly, we communicate
with friends with Whats App in the States and in Mexico.
I notice my phone, an older Samsung S7 with use either Telcel or Movistar towers. Never without coverage except well out at sea or in some enclosed
canyon.
Verizon has much better coverage in the areas of the Western US that we travel.
[Edited on 6-9-2021 by Hook]
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Don Pisto
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| Quote: Originally posted by lencho | | Quote: Originally posted by Hook |
We use it constantly at our home in Sonora and never come close to our data limit,
...
use either Telcel or Movistar towers. Never without coverage except well out at sea or in some enclosed canyon
....
Verizon has much better coverage in the areas of the Western US that we travel. |
Very helpful, thanks.
On the U.S. coverage angle, I agree: A few years ago I was on a remote mountain pass in Colorado with my ATT phone showing one bar while a friend was
happily chatting away on Verizon, no problem. We got back to town and I switched over, never to return. |
Verizon vs AT&T....lets get real, Verizon has Joy AT&T has Lily......GOD I MISS T-MOBILE! 
there's only two things in life but I forget what they are........
John Hiatt
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