Telcel Amigo

Telcel Amigo is the prepaid phone and data account. You get a SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) card that you can insert in a suitable GSM or 3G 850 phone, or 3G data aircard or modem (called a dongle).

These SIM cards can be brought from local Telcel dealers (such as CSI, on Mar de Cortes Sur, almost opposite The Peoples Gallery). By themselves they are around 200 pesos, but you should be able to get it bundled with a phone or dongle. Be sure the store calls up and activates it for you, as this takes a while and is in Spanish.

The SIM card comes with a balance (credit) on it. It can be recharged (balance increased) with scratch cards available from Telcel dealers (and other places, such as Pemex and Oxxo), with values of 100, 200 pesos etc. Plus at Oxxo you can recharge it at the counter without needing a scratch card.

You can also add money to your Telcel Amigo card online from a Bancomer peso account, and various other ways including from the US like babblebug.com (I'll cover that in a separate article later).

You must recharge again with a minimum of 100 pesos within every 60 days to roll over any outstanding balance. This is the same for both a Telcel Amigo phone sim, which many are familiar with already, and a data sim. Any sim can be used for voice, or data, or both.

On-demand data

You normally get access to data immediately, from either a phone or the dongle. Otherwise to activate data send a text message to the number 789, the text message must contain just the word ALTA (in capitals).

However, the data you get access to by default is "on demand" data. This is VERY expensive. It works out at 20 pesos ($1.54) per megabyte (MB) of data downloaded. For example the home page of sanfelipe.com.mx (The Net) is around 300kB (one third of a megabyte, mostly ads) -- so at 50 cents for each page like that it's easy to run through the entire balance on your account very quickly!

However, it is a good idea to do your initial testing (to see if you can connect) with this on demand data since you only pay for what you use. Make sure it works, then commit to a fixed period of data.

Data settings

In most cases, activating data with ALTA (described above) will send the appropriate settings to your phone, or for a dongle it'll probably be pre-set.

If not, or you're setting up some other device you already own, you may need to enter the following data settings:

Dial: *99#  
APN: internet.itelcel.com
user: webgprs
password: webgprs2002

Data Access Packets

If you intend to use data for anything more than a few emails a day, the data access packet plans make more sense than the "on demand" data. These plans give you access to up to a certain amount of data or a fixed time period (whichever is reached first), either 1, 2, 7, 15 or 30 days.

It's actually 24 hour periods from activation, so one day covers from now, to the same time tomorrow. Activating two day access on a Friday night at 6pm would last until 6pm Sunday (ideal for weekenders).

The price per day becomes cheaper the more days you buy. The current mainland rates are at Banda Ancha Telcel (in Spanish). We pay a little less (as there is lower tax in Baja California).

In round figures, the cost is currently equivalent to around US$3.85 (one day), $6.20 (two days), $15.60 (seven days), $23.45 (fifteen days) and $39.15 (thirty days), (updated on 2010-04-22 at an exchange rate of 12.20 pesos to the dollar).

The newly reduced 30-day rate is very comparable to the phone and wireless internet package (Prodigy Aire) from Telnor. Especially since you only buy access for the periods you need it, so a snowbird would only need to pay for up to 6 months access (halving the cost compared to leaving the phone and internet connected).

Activating data

To activate data, you need to either use the Telcel website (how to access your telcel Amigo account online), or send a text message from the phone. If you have a data card, you'll need to put the sim in a phone to do this - the data is activated for that SIM card, doesn't matter which device it is in.

To start a period of unlimited data immediately, send a text message to the number 5050. The message should contain BAT1 for one day of access, BAT2 for 2 days, or BAT7, BAT15 and BAT30 for the longer periods. Make sure you have enough balance beforehand (send *133# from the phone to check, costs 0.81 pesos).

You'll get back a text message which confirms unlimited data has been activated, and tells you the day and time it will end. This time will be shown in Mexico City time (2 hours ahead of us). You can check the status anytime by sending VIGENCIABAT to the number 5050, or on the website.

There are more options on the website, including automatic renewal and choose a date/time in the future for the access to start. And, most importantly, a running counter of how much data you have used.

Limited data

The amount of data you can download in the time you have activated it for is limited, effecively to an average of 200MB per day (note: this was 100MB a day limit until August 2010, it's not clear if the doubled amounts are a temporary promotion or not).

Each plan has a total limit, such as 700MB 1400MB for a seven day plan, and 3GB (3000MB) 6GB (6000MB) for a 30 day plan.

You can access 150MB one day for example, 50 MB another day, it's the total that counts, not the usage in one day.

One the Telcel website you can check how much data it thinks you have used. After you've logged on, it's alta de servicios (under servicios) then internet then the consulta tab. The remaining available data is Datos disponibles. The website works barely 50% of the time.

The figure it gives is unreliable and unpredictable, sometime gets stuck, so count the data locally as well if possible. Sometimes it gets stuck and gives you unlimited data (nice!), sometimes it suddenly notices the data you've used a while back and expires the account with no warning.

When you reach the limit of days or data, access under that packet will end.

When it ends

When your packet ends (either because of time or data consumption), be very careful as this is the point where you might empty out your phone balance accidentally.

If you're accessing with a phone, you'll get a text message upon expiry. Nothing will actually stop you using data after that, it'll just switch to the "on demand" rate - roughly 50-100 times the cost per megabyte!

So when the data access packet has ended, either buy more time/data or stop using data.

It's even more tricky with a modem (dongle), since you won't see the text message (and there is no way yet to get a notice by email). Keep a careful note of when the access time ends, and check your balance on the site, or set the automatic renewal on the website.

Unless you've set the automatic renewal, do NOT keep a large balance on your account.

The on-demand data (after the data packet ends) will run through it before you notice! (the regalo (gift) balance first, then your normal balance).

Using elsewhere in Mexico

You can use the same data account anywhere in Mexico for no additional cost, although in many areas there will be no 3G coverage - in those locations it'll fall back to GPRS speed which is very slow.

International Use

Don't even think about using the Telcel 3G in the US. It is way too expensive for any practical use.

The basic rate, with the Telcel Amigo roaming on AT&T in the US, is US$8/MB ($8,000 per GB!), or there's a "packet" of 20MB of data valid for 5 days for US$44 (available on the web site).

To put it another way, the 3GB of data that costs under $40 in Mexico would cost US$6,600 to $24,000 in the US! Yes, that's six to twenty four THOUSAND dollars! So don't do it.

Questions

I'm sure I've left many things out, so if you have any questions about this, please add a comment (below) and I'll try to answer where possible. I'll aim to keep this page updated if there are changes.