What is the most reasonable price on cell phone service? I have traveled to Cancun numerous times before but my Sprint service with my US phone is expensive. I have a phone that I can get a number assigned and a chip placed inside after my arrival in Mexico. Any suggestions on the best service?
cancunvalet.com has cell phones you can rent while there, pretty good prices. But I would check with sprint and see if they have an international plan you can have added to your monthly plan. With verizon mine is usually 4 dollars a month, and I can call anywhere in the world free with my minutes on my plan and not get charged extra, no matter where I am in the world. So, that would save you a LOT, assuming you can get reception in cancun.
You sound like you have an unlocked GSM phone. Since Sprint, Usacell and Verizon all do not support GSM you could just walk into any TelCel office and buy a chip (SIM) which will come with a certain number of minutes. I'm still using the SIM I bough 4 years ago for 15 USD. I would assume prices have gone up since then, but not by a lot. After that you can restock the your account by buying a card. The cards come in 100 peso value at the bottom and 500 peso value at the top, with varying bonuses depending on the value of the refill. The 500 peso card gets you 400 pesos in bonus, so you get 900 pesos for 500 pesos cost. You can go to http://tinyurl.com/4tyn3l and check current Amigo rates.
There is an official TelCel office, not a reseller, in the La Isla Mall, opposite the Aqua Hotel at Km 12.5. If it is of concern to you, there is always at least one counter person who speaks English. At the other TelCel office on Tulum there usually is not.
Thanks Mixz1. I know the store and have used that method before. Sprint offers international roaming on my plan but the price is double other plans.
Best price (by far) that we found for cell service in Cancun has been from Mexitel Cellular (mexitel.net). $1 to call the US and Canada (up to 15 min) and free incoming. Calls made to the US or Canada using a SIM from your local Telcel office will cost $1 per min.
We just recently bought a phone at Cancun WalMart (about $30) and had received some free minutes with the phone purchase and had additional minutes loaded on the phone right there at Walmart for about $10. We had more than enough minutes to last our entire trip. In the past, we have also used the internet phone at some internet cafes to call home. Usually this costs about 8 pesos (about 80 cents) for 10 minutes or so depending on the cafe - Hotel Zone is more expensive - we used the cafe across from Chedraui. That worked out nicely for us as well, especially if you know you will be going downtown.
