Prepaid unlimited gprs data now in Mexico
 

Telcel Amigo have a new tariff for "unlimited" prepaid data in Mexico, by the day, week or month.

First, get a Telcel Amigo prepaid card (widely available) and add some credit. Test out your gprs data connection settings with the pay-as-you-go-data, that now seems to come as standard. (APN "internet.itelcel.com"', dial *99***1#, no user/password).

Once you've got that working, and have enough money on the card, you can send an SMS to get unlimited data for 1 day, 7 days, 15 days or 30 days. Prices work out around Five US dollars for one day, down to $2 per day when you get 30 days. Appears to be calendar days, not 24 hour periods. Buying large recharge cards gets you bonus time that should reduce those costs by up to 40%.

The details of this are on their site - http://www.telcel.com.mx then "Amigo de Telcel" then "Internet Telcel Amigo" on the left menu. It's also possible to sign up for it on the account portal https://www.atencionenlinea.telcel.com/ instead of SMS.

It's "unlimited", but limited. After the first 100MB or so per day (3GB per month), they may drop your speed down to 128kb. Doesn't seem to be a volume limit (although speed obviously limits the amount of data). Around here, I'm getting 192 kb/s download, 96 kb/s upload, but in other areas they have 3G. Works in Mexico only.

I haven't tried it out yet (although I have used the pay-as-you-go data on several devices), might have a need for it later in the week though. It sounds ideal for short-term visitors to Mexico.

This IS great news. Too bad there's no 3G south of Cancun in the Riviera Maya.

This is good news. However, I would like to add a word of caution about bonuses and the "fine print" which in reality is not printed at all. The Mexican cellphone market I would say is overall pretty shady. For example, I thought it would be good with Movistar to buy $500 worth of credit when they have the promotions because that coupled with the $1 for 20mins of talk time it would be a steal for calling back to the US. Well, it seems that the "bonus" time is only valid for Movistar to Movistar calls and and maybe local calls to landlines, problem is they dont state any of that.

So, my point is, if you get the bonus thinking you can use it for whatever just be careful, it might be the same on Telcel. Id probably bet money it is. But......even if that IS the case its still a good deal for broadband data on the go in Mexico.

Agreed, this is why I wrote "should reduce".

But it's a good point, so I checked. Soon after filling with a 200 peso card I get (60 pesos free):

Saldo del teléfono: $ 211.55
Saldo regalo : $ 59.19
Saldo ideas : 7.00 SMS

The balance enquiry charge (0.81 pesos) gets deducted from the "gift" balance. I then tried a bit of pay-as-you-go data, and it was also deducted from the "gift" balance, so it seems to get used first. When I try out the one-day access soon (I'll also play around with Joiku to get a mobile hotspot) I'll double-check that also deducts from the gift balance first.

Best case then, if that works, if you used an account just for data, and refilled with 500 peso cards (currently +400 pesos bonus), and buy 30 days access at a time via the online portal (where the price is 764 rather than 799) is 14.15 pesos per day - USD 1.08, about $32 a month.

This can change at any time though - for example the "pay per call" tariff is now in blocks of 15 minutes at a time, not 20 minutes like it used to be (in region 1).

When 3G gets here it'll beat my existing fixed-wireless internet connection. Even without 3G it's fine as a backup.

All good information, please let us know what happens. Im in Mexico about once a month and I could use this.

Took me a while to realize, but the reason the Telcel Amigo online account portal shows the 30-day rate as 764 pesos rather than 799 pesos is because my account is in a border area.

Here the included IVA (VAT, sales tax) is 10%, rather than the 15% that applies in the rest of Mexico. (799 / 1.15 * 1.10 = 764). (Same for SMS: 0.81 rather than 0.85).

So it's not an online discount.

I've been testing this today (as it'll be my back-up internet if my main connection is down for a while).

There's good news and bad news.

The good news: the "1 day" connection is 24 hours from when you request it, not a calendar day. After texting BAT1 to 5050 you get back (about 10 seconds later) a confirmation message showing the time your unlimited service expires, which is 24 hours ahead. (the time shown is Mexico City time, even if you're in another time zone).

The bad news: the money (66.81 pesos in border areas, 69 pesos elsewhere) is NOT deducted from the bonus time first. Unlike texts and pay-as-you-go internet it comes only from the actual money on the account. This limits how low the price can go (you could still use the bonus time for PAYG internet most days to quickly check email, and just sign up for a day when you actually need a longer connection).

This is with my laptop (Ubuntu Linux) tethered to my Nokia E51 with bluetooth. Gets around 192kb/s download, 96 kb/s upload. There are several hops on Telcel's internal network before the connection comes out onto the internet in Mexico City, so quite long latency to get anywhere. But good enough for basic email and web.

It's very flexible for short-term visitors, and usable (if a bit pricey) for seasonal residents, especially given the months it can take to get a normal phone+internet.

The prices on Telcel's prepaid unlimited data were reduced today, by about 25-30%. They sent a text message to customers to announce it.

It's now 47 pesos (US$3.35) for a day (24 hrs), 76 pesos ($5.40) for 2 days (that's a new period), reducing to 621 pesos ($44.35, under $1.50 a day) for 30 days. These are border-area prices, it's about 5% higher inland (different VAT rate).

Still the same volume limits for 3G though (100MB/day, 3GB/mo at the higher speed, then dropping to low speed).

Im glad they came out with a 2-day plan, I can definitely use this since I am usually always there for a weekend, Im going to need to stop off and get a Telcel sim next time im in Monterrey.

Rtuesday, did you say you where on the per minute plan???

Also, on a side note, Movistar now also has 3G data in multiple locations. Doesn't seem like they have it prepaid though although theres a monthly plan option with no contract required. Overall, for 3G data Id have to say its better to go with Telcel.

Thanks for reporting all of this, it's very helpful.

Sorry, don't understand what you mean by the per-minute plan. I have one Telcel sim on the "per call" plan (under a dollar for 15 mins to the US) and one on the standard rate (used mainly for incoming, it's a "house" phone).

I don't have a 3G tower here yet, otherwise it could be viable as a main connection, although even with GPRS/Edge it's good enough as backup.

Watch those download limits though if you do have 3G - the 3GB limit for 30 days means if you blow through it in the first few days, you're back to slow speeds for the rest of the month!

Can any of the active Telcel users clarify the extra costs and limitations (if any) when using the service outside the town it's based in (eg a DF based card in Cancun).

Thanks!

For Telcel Amigo prepaid data: the tariffs are the same nationally, no roaming involved.

For voice calls, a difference is you also pay (about 2.30 pesos/min) for incoming calls when roaming outside your home "region" (small group of states). Outgoing calls don't change.

That's great!!!

So I take it you get free incoming call in the whole region not just in the local town you're in? In other words, a Cancun based SIM would still get free incoming anywhere in Region 8 (Yucatán, Tabasco, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Chiapas)?

Also will the per call plan work the same out of region?

Thanks!

Sorry, I got confused and forgot the small print "* Applies "The caller pays" in calls when the mobile user is within their city of origin." - in other words it's still only free incoming in your home city (area code), not region. For me there's not a lot of difference as I'm rarely outside my home area code (it's 150 miles long). Sorry for misleading you.

Outgoing calls are the same price where-ever you're calling from (in Mexico) so there's no roaming difference for the "pay per call" rate. Nor data.

I'm curious - is roaming to the US or Canada possible with one of those SIMs? If so, what are the rates? Prepaid data really sucks in the US & even more in Canada, where no useful options exist.

For the US, there's AT&T and they charge over 10 $/MB though they also have an add-on that works for 30 days & gives you just 1 MB for 4.99 - pathetic!

In Canada, data does exist on pre-paid but the rates are astronomically high: 3 to 5 cents PER KILOBYTE! It really is cheaper to roam there!

It's possible (US only, not Canada), but not at all affordable.

Voice roaming is around $2.20/min in and out (with very limited border areas at half that price). Can be expensive if I forget to switch the SIM after crossing the border! Still, it's handy for checking balances while in the US (and it can be refilled online).

Data roaming is $0.017/kB - so $17/MB. Not recommended! The unlimited deal DOES NOT work outside Mexico.

Prepaid data in Mexico is 0.04 pesos/kB which is 40 pesos or $3/MB - still way too much to use - which is why these new daily/monthly rates are such a great deal (within Mexico only).

Rtuesday,

Sorry, I meant per call. Im going to need to pickup a Telcel sim next time im there. Im a little concerned about getting onto the "por llamada" plan because they gave my GF crap about switching to it and she never ended up getting it, any advice to make sure it gets done like it should???

Not really, sorry. It worked for me about a year ago on the first SIM (the store phoned up and sorted it for me).

For the second SIM, they couldn't get through to customer service so I was going to go back but never bothered, as that SIM is only used for local calls (short local calls are cheaper on pay-per-minute than pay-per-call) and incoming.