Best SIM card for May trip to La Paz and San Luis Cabo?

[eurouser]

Going to the area first week in May and my old SIM company went belly up, at least for now. I have an unlocked Samsung A437 that I use in Europe. Can anyone tell me what would be the cheapest (SIM?) deal for a one week trip to Southern Baja Mexico. I mostly need to receive calls, which I will probably forward from my US number to the Mexican phone using my VOIP phone provider in the US. If it is too expensive going that way, I could always immediately call back to the US after getting a call. Anyway, I won't get many calls, but it is important that I be there when someone does call. (I do tech support and I can't really go on "vacation".) Thanks!

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by eurouser

Can anyone tell me what would be the cheapest (SIM?) deal for a one week trip to Southern Baja Mexico.

If you really won't get many calls, do you have a GSM SIM from another country (such as the US) that can roam in Mexico? For one week that could be cheaper than setting up a new sim.

Otherwise, both Telcel and Movistar do local sims. The Telcel one is around 200 pesos with 50 pesos airtime (varies by region), free incoming in your home area code. The catch there is that La Paz and San Jose Del Cabo are in different area codes, so you will pay some domestic roaming on incoming in one of them.

Calls to the US around $1/min unless you get the "pay per call" option which makes it around $1 per 15 minutes or part. If you want to keep it active for future trips, needs a 100 pesos refill every two months.

Look into the cost of forwarding VOIP calls to Mexico mobile as well - 30c+/min is not unusual, although callwithus.com is about 12c/min.

When forwarding calls, remember that Mexico has a unique dialing system for mobile. When calling from outside the country (only), add a "1" after the country code and before the area code - so a local number 686 123 4567 is 011 52 1 686 123 4567 when dialled from the US.

[eurouser]

I have my non-functional Yackie SIM. Forget that! I have the SIM card that came with the A437 go phone. It is an AT&T GoPhone SIM. It may not be provisioned anymore, I have not used it for over half a year. I also have a German eplus SIM. I'm guessing that would be real expensive in Mexico, but I'll check. Other than that, I have my Sprint phone, but that is a whopping $1.69 per minute in Mexico now.

I'll be in staying in La Paz and sightseeing from there. I just fly in and out of SJD (Cabo). A SIM card based in La Paz might do.

In order to check my VOIP providers rate to a La Paz mobile I need to put in a La Paz mobile number into there rate calculator. It would be nice to know what they will charge me.

TelCel might be okay. I was reading various comments about hassles getting SIMs in Mexico now. I would hate to get there and not be able to get one. Can they be shipped?

[eurouser]

Looks like my VOIP provider charges 20 to 23 cents to forward to a cell phone in Mexico. And it looks like my eplus card is 1.69 Euros to call the USA from Mexico, that won't work.

[money69]

Ive never seen a global sim with good rates in Mexico. if you want a decent price you're gonna have to get a local sim.

[Bossman]

A local sim is probably your best bet. When I was in Cozumel 2 weeks ago via a cruise ship stop. I forwarded my AT&T phone to my tmobile prepaid phone for that day. I believe the rates were $1.49/min. The sim roamed on both Telcel and Movistar. You may be able to get a tmobile prepaid sim with enough credit for cheap on ebay.

[VladS]

AT&T GoPhone roams there too and the rate is only $0.99. They also have (or had) a package... 33 Mexico roaming minutes for $19.99

Coverage is limited to Telcel's footprint.

[eurouser]

I think getting a TelCel card may be the best plan. The free incoming calls will make it worth the $15 you are saying it will cost. However, I need to know how much it will cost me to call to the US from LA Paz if I buy the TelCel card in La Paz. Anyone help me there?

[eurouser]

Just to help others out, I took an AT&T phone with me, used that at the airports, and us used a friends TelCel card on arrival in LaPaz. Refilling the card was easy, there were more TelCel outlets than gas stations. I don't know exactly how much I spent per minute, but the phone lasted a while on one refill and I had no issues with it. SOrry I can't be more specific about the cost, my friend was not willing to give me the bill from TelCel to check over.