AT&T GoPhone roaming in Mexico

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by JPSmith

Is a dual band (850/1900) GoPhone adequate for Mexico roaming, or is quad band needed?

Yes, it should suffice:
PrePaidGSM: Mexico

[JPSmith]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

Yes, it should suffice:
PrePaidGSM: Mexico

Muchas Gracias!

[eccalex]

I am currently in Mexico and the gophone is working great. Calls to US or within Mexico (landline or mobile) are always 25 cents. Calls to overseas (Europe) are not possible. However, I am using an calling card service which allows me to make calls to Europe.

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by eccalex

I am currently in Mexico and the gophone is working great. Calls to US or within Mexico (landline or mobile) are always 25 cents. Calls to overseas (Europe) are not possible. However, I am using an calling card service which allows me to make calls to Europe.

Many thanks for the information on calls within Mexico, good to know.

[petkow]

Now this is interesting. 25c/min is only 3 pesos per minute. For incoming calls that is much cheaper than Telcel Amigo prepaid when you are outside of your area, (5 pesos/minute) and much cheaper for outgoing calls within Mexico. Telcel charges between 4 pesos and 7 pesos for this! When I was last there it was cheaper calling USA from my Telcel than calling elsewhere in mexico! They really have silly rates!

Next time I will try pick up a GoPhone!

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by petkow

Next time I will try pick up a GoPhone!

You should be able to pick up an AT&T Go Phone sim from ebay in the US, otherwise you'll have to fit in a bit of US shopping on your way to Mexico. As you'd expect they're not sold in Mexico.

Remember it'll cost $100 a year to keep the Go Phone active. Telcel costs 600 pesos or $50 a year to keep active, has cheaper data in Mexico, and (the most important point for me) it has a local number that people locally can call. I forward US/UK numbers to my Mexico mobile for much less than Go Phone's incoming charge.

[petkow]

Good point about needing to keep them active.

Originally Posted by RTuesday

I forward US/UK numbers to my Mexico mobile for much less than Go Phone's incoming charge.

Yes, I managed for quite a bit cheaper too. The only problem is incoming to Telcel when you are elsewhere in Mexico and not in your LADA. That is quite expensive IMO.

However, just out of interest, who do you use and how much do they charge?

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by petkow

However, just out of interest, who do you use and how much do they charge?

Mainly I now use Localphone US with a US number, with voip on the phone via wi-fi when I'm at home, failover to divert to Telcel mobile when I'm out of range, 8.8c/min for the divert.

Most outbound non-local calls are when I'm at home so they're the same VOIP account (plus some alternatives), can also use Google Voice callback. I have some other incoming numbers in various countries that forward either to the Localphone US number or the sip address, so they work out the same or 1-2c/min more.

I still have a divert on my eKit US/Can. On the dual sim it's probably different, but on my one-number eKit sim it's now 9c/min to divert to Mexico mobile, with no connect charge.

I've very rarely been outside my home Mexican area code (it's 150 miles long) so domestic roaming isn't a factor for me.

An AT&T Go Phone would be interesting for my non-technical neighbours (mostly Americans). Not something I need while my current setup works.

Rob

[petkow]

Originally Posted by RTuesday

Mainly I now use Localphone US with a US number, with voip on the phone via wi-fi when I'm at home, failover to divert to Telcel mobile when I'm out of range, 8.8c/min for the divert.

Most outbound non-local calls are when I'm at home so they're the same VOIP account (plus some alternatives), can also use Google Voice callback. I have some other incoming numbers in various countries that forward either to the Localphone US number or the sip address, so they work out the same or 1-2c/min more.

Thanks Rob. Looks like you have a nice setup!

I had forgotten about localphone for giving me a free DID. I presume there are no problems of diverting incoming calls from your mobile onto a mapped Localphone number are there? e.g. If Localphone give me a Madrid +3491 number mapped to my Telcel SIM, I presume there will be no problems if I setup my Spanish phone to divert all calls to the +3491?

On my last trip to Mexico, for incoming calls to my main UK phone I had no problems of doing a divert via a UK DID and a Betamax provider (I used 12voip.com at 7c/min to Mexico mobile). That all worked grand! However, I had troubles on a friends last trip as I needed to divert her Spanish contract phone to my Mexico number. I used a free Spanish DID provider called Netelip who wouldn't allow a divert to SIP and I was stuck with their rates of 18c/min with 60/60 billing!! I eventually worked around it to some extent by diverting from them via my UK DID.. but the delay was awful!

[Roti2000]

Originally Posted by RTuesday

You should be able to pick up an AT&T Go Phone sim from ebay in the US, otherwise you'll have to fit in a bit of US shopping on your way to Mexico. As you'd expect they're not sold in Mexico.

Remember it'll cost $100 a year to keep the Go Phone active. Telcel costs 600 pesos or $50 a year to keep active, has cheaper data in Mexico, and (the most important point for me) it has a local number that people locally can call. I forward US/UK numbers to my Mexico mobile for much less than Go Phone's incoming charge.

Here's a question about AT&T Go: My local store here in Chicago says they will give me the SIM along with however much money I put on it.

Let's say I put $15 on and use $14 while I'm in Mexico in December.

I return and after $0 days the GO phone is inactive.

Can I reactivate it in a few months simply by putting more money on? Or do I have to go into the store and get another free SIM?

Also, the people at the store say that I can't top up a card online whilst in Mexico. That has to be wrong. Right?