Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

TelCel 3G Banda Ancha Internet. Info

This is for the guys and gals in or going into Mexico. I have a long range antenna that I have used for the last two seasons to pick up Internet but it was frustrating at times because I couldn't get a good signal quite often. I would have to walk all over town to find an Internet cafe only to find that they didn't have wireless and they wouldn't let you hook up your own computer. It just got to be a drag so I had been hearing about the TelCel 3G setup that people were starting to use and decided to give it a try. It works off the Cell telephone system and is suppose to be good anywhere there is Cell Telephone service. I went into a TelCel store in Puerto Vallarta and stood in line for a 45 minutes to finely get my turn. The guy didn't speak English very well but we were able to work through it and I found out as much information as I needed to make my decision. I bought the 3G Antenna for 890 pasos which is about $67.50 US. That included one month of Internet. On or before the 14th of next month I will have to "buy" another month of service for 499 pasos which is about $37.80 US. You can buy the monthly service from a TelCel store, an Oxxo store (which is like a 7/11 store) and a number of other places. The point is that you can get it almost anywhere. You can buy a day for 49 pasos (they call that Bat 1), 2 days for 79 (BAT 2), a week for 199 pasos (BAT 7), 2 weeks for 299 pasos (BAT 15) and one month for 499 pasos which the call BAT 30. So far, it has worked great. I use it for SKYPE also. I have not tried to use it with the video hookup but I'm going to try that this morning with my son in California. All and all, I would recommend it to people looking for a relatively inexpensive Internet service while in Mexico. When you leave, you can sell the antenna and just move on. You can get it cheaper but that requires a contract for two years. I don't know where I'll be in 6 months let alone two years so Dennie and I are just getting the one month at a time card. You can pay ahead if you want to. Say, you are going up into the sea for three months where it might be harder to find somewhere buy the time. You can go into an Oxxo in La Paz or Mazatlan (they are on almost any corner) and pay ahead for three months and be covered. It's a pretty good deal so far.