vB Easy Archive - Gsm Service In Mexico / Telcel

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Gsm Service In Mexico / Telcel
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Posted by: cmm3

so i just got abck from my trip to cabo san lucas, mexico and i wanted to give u guys an idea of what kinda service was available using my sisters T68i based in boston.

i had full bars of service almost everywhere i went in cabo -- even on the lil boat ride around the caves at the tip of the peninsula. service was amazing.

i also was able to send and recieve SMSs to my own AT&T GSM phone which i left w\ a friend so he could contact me. SMSs to other US carriers recieved positive delivery notices but i am not sure they got thru. SMSs to international carriers also got positive delivery messages but i didnt recieve a reply so i dont know if they got thru either.

in short TELCEL, the GSM 1900 Mhz service provider in mexico, ROCKS! of course building penetration in baja is not a big deal since its all wasteland w\ scattered builidings which signal should have no trouble that way. RF was perfect almost all the time on my end. it was as if my T68i had never worked so well. i was impressed.

i wasnt too thrilled abt the $1.29/min i iwll be paying for the calls i made/recieved, but i was able to tay in contact w\ those back home which was the most amazing thing.

btw outgoing calls to the US from my resort were billed at USD $3.00/min (iuncoming was free of course) but it still paid for me to call on my cell and have the others call me back.

btw.. my verizon TDMA account would only make long distance calls using a credit card

the bad news:

the most iritating thing abt GSM service in mexico was that since latin america is all abt TDMA just like the US, i had a very hard time finding out info about GSM service and SIM cards. i had wanted to get a mexican SIM card to use w\ my other unlocked SE T68i i so taht my friend could just call me on that using the cell phone i left w\ him.most latin american countries are on the euro billing system of free incoming calls. so it would have cost me very little in terms of long distance calls for him to talk to me. $0.23/min for calls to mexico is a pretty fair rate which i didnt mind paying to stay in touch w\ friends.

i did see a number of TELCEL shops on my way to the resort, i didnt go out to the town until late in my stay so it made buing a local SIM pointless. but again it was just annoying that people at electronics shops were like.. um... GSM?? wha?? and i showed them the SIM card and they had no idea etc. i guess its to be expected what w\ TDMA being the standard and GSM being so new and all.

the other bad:

i left my SE T68i w\ my friend who lives in the bronx and he had to stand in a single spot in the middle of his living room to be able to use the cell phone i left him. (also a ATT GSM T68i)

i hope to god that AT&T is not done w\ its GSM service build out and that it expands it in NYC or at least allows roaming on T-Moble to allow some of our phone calls to go thru when they need to.

or else why cant we have cell service in NY the way they have in cabo san lucas? why cant we have this same service in boston? (my sister who lives in a Boston College dorm avges 250 mins a month out of her 1000 charter minutes b/c the phone doesnt work in her dorm... local calls on her landline are free tho so i dont mind so much)

overall tho.. my trip to mexico made my switch to GSM -- which i had till now had a number of resrevations abt -- totally and unquestionably worth it.

i had my sister add all her phonebook entries in +1-xxx-xxx-xxxx format when i 1st purchased the phone so she could use her speed-dial no matter what part of the world she was in and it werked beautifully. it was EASY EASY EASY and a long time dream of mine to be able to use my cell phone whereever when ever.

now all i am waiting for is international SMSs. i'm not too thrilled abt paying $0.25 instead of $0.10 but i am willing to deal w\ it if the feature gets implemented.

(i'm also waiting for her phone bill but honsetly it shouldnt be THAT bad.)

YAY GSM!!

Posted by: drudown799

I had the same basic roaming experiences with TELCEL in Playa del Carmen, Cancun, and Cozumel. I loved it

Posted by: SMR99Si

well i live in san diego and i am going to rosarito tomorrow night, i used to never take my at&t gsm phone down bc i thought it would never work, but now i heard they have roaming agreements with telcel, so im going to try it tomorrow night, ill let you guys know how it went...

Posted by: europb

I live in San Diego as well and make numerous trips to Mex throughout the year. Let me know how GSM works there.

Chris

Posted by: cmm3

just as a follow up to my above message...

GPRS services did not work in cabo mexico even tho i believe the TELCEL website does advertise this feature (and i pay 12$ a month for GPRS here in the states which means i get cheaper roaming rates on my KB usage)

also, i mentioned i sent SMSs to some Nextel phones back in the states while in mexico but recieved no replies... i found out a few days ago that those went thru just fine.

the SMSs sent to european cell phones, however, did not...

hopefully this feature will be up by the end of the month as promissed.

CMM