Mexico iPad 2 prepaid data success with TelCel

[dpkroh]

TelCel recenty release some new prepaid data plans - their prepaid
service is generally referred to as Amigo.

I am staying at a resort in the gated community of Peurto Adventuras,
about 15km south of Playa Del Carmen. *Just outside the gate about
500m south, on the northboud side of the highway, in a beige building,
directly across from the highway ramp, is a TelCel dealer.

I went there, and fortunately an English speaking resort worker
happened to be there. *I asked for the 199 peso plan that was good for
up to 700MB of data for up to 7 days, but then changed my mind and
upgraded to 1.5 GB of data for up to 14 days for 299 pesos. *More data
is always better - allowing me to do lots of video and youtube.

Here are the telcel prepaid data offerings
Telcel Mexico Introduces New iPad Data Plans | Tarifica

The dealer did not have any micro-sims, but cut several regular sims
down to size, until he had one that worked in my iPad micro sim slot.
Good idea to bring existing microsim for a good template of exactly
where to cut.

The charge for the SIM was 150 pesos and 20 pesos more for a surcharge
for an international account? *Forgot the name of the dealer employee
but he was very helpful and patient. *Did a lot of work to get it
working. *Now that he has experience, probably can be faster next
time.

I get a full 5 bars of connection everywhere around the area. *Latency
is a rather high, typically about 750ms, but sometimes as low as
500ms. *Speed ranges from slow to moderate, download tests showing
anywhere from 0.5Mb/s to 1.5Mb/s and upload typically testing at about
0.25Mb/s.

I paid the dealer directly in Canadian dollars. *Not as good an
exchange rate as at a bank, but easier for a small transaction. *The
store offered the typical retailer rate of 1 Canadian or 1 US dollar
per 10 pesos. *So my total cost for 1.5GB of data for two weeks, was
$30 data + $15 sim card + $2 foreign charge, and for all the work the
guy did, I told him to just take $50 and keep the change.

The cost for 1.5GB of roaming data using my Rogers SIM from Canada
would be $40,275 instead of the local telcel rate of $30 !!

I had the card set up for data only, but I could have added the option
of voice, and then used it in my iPhone instead, but I have no need
for voice. So the card will not work in an iphone without taking it
back to a TelCel dealer and asking to have it activated for voice. *I
noticed in the iPad menus that there is no phone number associated
with my iPad SIM card. *My Rogers iPad SIM card has a phone number
associated with it.

Sent from my 3G iPad 2