Cell Phone coverage in Puerto/Nuevo Vallarta

[ejs43]

I will be in the Puerto Vallarta area for the month of January. I currently have Verizon cell phone service. Does anyone know if Verizon will work in that area? Or could I rent a cell phone in Mexico when I get there for the month?

Any information would be welcome.

[SYRnative]

Puerto Vallarta is listed as one of the cities for international roaming on the VZW web site. I do believe that you need to call *611 and have international dialing added onto your account in order to roam in Mexico (make and receive calls).

[BillRadio]

Originally Posted by ejs43 I will be in the Puerto Vallarta area for the month of January. I currently have Verizon cell phone service. Does anyone know if Verizon will work in that area? Or could I rent a cell phone in Mexico when I get there for the month?

Yes, Verizon phones roam on Iusacel in PVR, in digital, and I find coverage all along the coast. The exception for most (if not all) carriers is the beach & resort at Mismaloya.

However, while my account is flagged to permit both Mexican Calling & Mexican Roaming, I have had NO successwith my Verizon phone working in PVR other than an Iusacel intercept message.

So, now I take one of my unlocked GSM phones and buy a SIM in PVR. The SIM is about $9 and a handful of minutes is about 200 pesos ($18). There is a 100 peso card, but the per minute rates are too high. My next trip I'll go to Mazatlan, so I think I'll try Movistar (also GSM) instead of Telcel. They should be cheaper, but coverage is smaller, but that shouldn't be a problem.

The CDMA carriers require you to buy a phone, none were cheap for prepaid. There seems to be cell stores & kiosks everywhere, although we never travel north of the marina. I found a store downtown off the main drag and she really appreciated the business.

Calls to the USA are $1.36 or more/minute, so a regular LD prepaid card is a better deal (.50/min.), but the Telcel phone is still cheaper than the hotel's rates ($5) or my LD calling card ($2.25/min). Text Messaging works perfect between MX & USA, if you know the number sequence.

If you don't have a GSM phone, they do have rentals, but it LOOKED way too expensive. I say "looked" because I couldn't find a cell store that spoke English, so I really had difficulty with their numbers...even writing them on paper. I would buy a cheap GSM phone from eBay, and buy a SIM (they call them "chips"...pronounced "cheeps") there. You either need an unlocked phone, or learn how to unlock it at google.

[BillRadio]

After spending another week in Mexico recently, I'd like to add that in Mazatlan, my Verizon phone worked perfectly, both incoming & outgoing. So the roaming option is a good first try, especially if you sign up for North America's Choice. I am assuming my problems in Puerto Villarta might have been temporary. The downside is that I didn't get Caller ID on Verizon incoming calls, while I did on my Telcel phone. But the Iusacel (VZW) connection was much better.

Also, I was surprised after buying a 200 peso TelCel card that my online balance was actually 730 pesos! I couldn't use all my minutes, even calling the US.

I added minutes to my TelCel phone instead of going with Movistar because I couldn't find a Movistar store. When I did find a kiosk (at El Mercado) a new Movistar SIM was $22 USD.

[Kalimotxo]

I'm seeing where Puerto Vallarta is covered by VZW North America's Choice plan... you can switch to that plan and for $20 bux more that month have coverage in Mexico with no roaming charges. Highly recommend it... don't have to switch phones or deal with an extra phone. Call customer service to arrange that...

[PARSROBC]

Don´t mean to hijack your thread, but has anyone had problems using there phone in the Puebla, Puebla, Mexico area or the Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico area ? I have North America´s choice that is supposed to work the same in covered cities in Mexico as it does in Houston, Tx. I have tried talking to Verizon tech support. They blame it all on Puebla´s towers, but the phone only receives calls, no calls out unless you are calling a number in Mexico, so i can´t call my wife if she is sitting in the other room or call home. But when i went to Veracruz and to Alvarado Mexico, the phone still doesn´t work.
Is it the phones, (LG VX 8100 and LG VX 3300) or just problems in Mexico or problems with Verizon ??

[BillRadio]

Originally Posted by PARSROBC Is it the phones, (LG VX 8100 and LG VX 3300) or just problems in Mexico or problems with Verizon ??

If your phone has Mexico service enabled, then I blame the network. VZW says it's common, but claims they can't do anything about it.

[naoautorizada]

Originally Posted by BillRadio Calls to the USA are $1.36 or more/minute, so a regular LD prepaid card is a better deal (.50/min.), but the Telcel phone is still cheaper than the hotel's rates ($5) or my LD calling card ($2.25/min). Text Messaging works perfect between MX & USA, if you know the number sequence. If you don't have a GSM phone, they do have rentals, but it LOOKED way too expensive. I say "looked" because I couldn't find a cell store that spoke English, so I really had difficulty with their numbers...even writing them on paper. I would buy a cheap GSM phone from eBay, and buy a SIM (they call them "chips"...pronounced "cheeps") there. You either need an unlocked phone, or learn how to unlock it at google.

I used a very inexpensive (Telcel) rental phone in Cancun from a stateside company called mexitel. Calls to the US were the same as local cell time (which came to 35 cents per minute give or take) plus 2 cents using their cell-VOIP to call international (no callback req). I conversed very freely and couldn't seem to get to the bottom of the $40 of air time I bought during the 10 days of my stay. I believe things are getting better for those of us that enjoy visiting MX.