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A Gringo Guide to Phones in Mexico
 Mark de Leon - TeknoGeekz.com
January 29, 2010
| | (IguanaNancy) | |
Although many come to the Banderas Bay area with a foreign Cell phone, or VoIP, this article covers domestic services.
Cell Phones are EXPENSIVE in Mexico, no matter how cheap they tell you they are, you will soon find out there are many hitches to the cheap calls.
There are three Major Cell phone carriers in Puerto Vallarta, they are; Telcel, Movistar, Iusacel, and Nextel. Officially Nextel is not a Cell phone carrier in Mexico so, as I say, three cell carriers. More on Nextel later. There is currently one single fixed phone carrier.
In most cases calling from one cell phone company to another will cost over 4 pesos per minute on any pre-paid plan. So to call from Telcel to Movistar or Movistar to Telcel is the single most expensive kind of call you can make. Of course Telcel to Telcel or Movistar to Movistar will have a lower rate of just over 1 Peso per minute.
Nextel is NOT officially a cell phone carrier. This is because the numbers they offer are NOT Cell phone numbers, rather fixed numbers. When calling Nextel numbers in Mexico, they are dialed just like Telmex numbers. This is different from all other cell phone carries because they all require the prefix of 044 or 045 to be reached from a Telmex line (521 for international callers).
This means that the person calling from a Telmex line to a Nextel line pays the same rate as to call any other Telmex number. Whereas a caller calling from Telmex to Telcel or to Movistar pays a higher rate of over 2 pesos per minute.
As for folks calling from outside of Mexico Cell phone numbers must be dialed as 521. So from the USA and Canada, callers must dial 011 521 322 XXX XXXX for a cell phone and 011 521 322 XXX XXXX for a home, office, or Nextel phone. Of course, the cost to call a cell phone in Mexico is substantially higher, thus necessitating the different 521 prefix. From most of the rest of the world this is 00 52 XXX XXXX and 00 521 XXX XXXX.
Data Plans
Most Cell phone data plans are equally expensive. It appears that to date, Movistar does not offer data plans. This leaves Telcel, Iusacel and Nextel. Each with their own rate structures. Watch out for monthly bandwidth limits, restrictions, and "introductory" rates that apply only for the first few months of service, as often times the rate may double after the introductory period, and you most likely will be bound to a contract.
Dialing in Puerto Vallarta
From Telmex:
XXX XXXX (seven digit dialing) from Telmex to Telmex, or from Telmex to Nextel
01 XXX XXX XXXX (01 + Ten Digits) for dialing long distance fixed phones
044 322 XXX XXXX (044 + Ten Digits) for LOCAL Cell phones
045 XXX XXX XXXX (045 + Ten Digits) for LONG DISTANCE Cell Phones
From Cell Phones:
XXX XXX XXXX (ten digits from/to any number on most cell phones)
As of this writing I have confirmed that Telecable is entering into the Telephone market in Puerto Vallarta. Details will follow as they become available.
 Mark de Leon has worked 20+ years in the USA as a Video Engineer for Rogers, The Merv Griffin Group, and Trident Media Group. Later he started and ran his own VoIP company. He has presented at the “Encuentro de Sistemas” at the University of Guadalajara CUC Vallarta campus instructing VoIP. He is a full time resident of Puerto Vallarta where he has now lived for over five years. Mark can be contacted through www.teknogeekz.com or 044 322 205 5236 Cel or +1 206 203 5561 USA
Click HERE to learn more about the services provided by TeknoGeekz.
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