Of course cell phones work here!!! Check with your provider because you may need an international set up on your account, and you will want to check about charges...calls per min and text, incoming and outgoing. I know for sure AT&T and Verizon work...and very well.
US cell phones are deadly expensive to use here. You are roaming internationally and if I remember correctly, you are making an international call while roaming internationally on some carriers. Try Skype or Magic Jack and go to an Internet Cafe to use, or more simply and quite reasonably, rent one from Home - Cancun Valet They also provide airport transportation and can hand you the phone when they pick you up. Or it is left for you at your hotel and you can leave it there in the same manner. You know your number in advance and it will br preprogrammed for I think 8 numbers you provide at the time of your order. Pretty idiot proof. Great service. Newer phones. Locally owned and operated.
Or just leave the phone at home, go enjoy your vacation, worry free, and deal with anything that may come up once you return home! Plus, that way you won't make (potentially embarrassing) very expensive drunk dials...
cell phone- when Perry travels w/o me, (which I try to avoid!) We switch him to a plan with AT&T called Viva Mexico, we do the one with more minutes because he calls a lot! 900 minutes, for $75. There's one with less minutes that's cheaper. We also use skype ocassionaly, but Perry does what's easiest.. and that is dialing his phone. In the past, a 10 day trip worth of his calls home has cost us $300! It would have been cheaper if I bought a plane ticket. For some reason he wants to talk to me more when he's in Mexico than at home I guess that's good.
First to register with the State Dept. is only of value if there is a major international incident in which they will try to find all Americans in a certain country to give them the appropriate warning. Otherwise they will try to find you if your family cannot and they contact the State Dept. Remember the State Dept knows when you leave the country since the airline reports it to them, but they do not know where you are going other then your first landing with the plane. If you leave word with your family as to where you are staying with the phone number of the place, they will find you that way from home if necessary. As for cell phones-AT&T has a service for $5.00 per month to connect to Mexico and Canada and use your existing minutes with no roaming charges. I am not sure if they charge any more then normal per minute used in either direction, but still for $5.00 per month if you stay that long in Mexico its a good deal. If you only go for one week, they will pro rate the rate to the time you are out of the USA. Make sure you let them know that you are back and want to discontinue the service otherwise you will pay the $5.00 forever. Verizon has a similar deal as well but their per minute charge is 90 cents for each call in either direction. Again make sure you call to disconnect from their international services when you get home.
Just got back and have phone service with ATT. With the $5 Mexico plan the rates were 59 cents a minute to landlines in the USA and 99cents to cell phones in the USA.
