Travel to Cabo San Lucas

[ldenier]

I am traveling to cabo san lucas mexico in may. what do i need to do inorder to use my cingular quad band phone? i was thinking of changing my plan from the national to the northamerican one. if so will i be able to make and receive calls as part of the plan with no additional charges?

thanks,

larry a. denier

[Tony E!]

first off, what phone model do you own and is it unlocked?

[ZaphodB]

I can't speak to the charges on the North American plan, but as far as roaming, all you need to do is have International Roaming enabled on your account (call customer care). There is a credit check required. You'll roam on either Telefonica or Telcel -- both have coverage in Los Cabos.

Have fun -- it's just like California, but Mexican. (They even take American dollars.)

[Tony E!]

first off, what phone model do you own and is it unlocked?

Zaphod, wouldn't a prepaid sim card from a south of the border carrier like Telefonica or Telcel be cheaper for him instead of going through Cingular's roaming rates?

[Charlyee]

I am traveling to cabo san lucas mexico in may. what do i need to do inorder to use my cingular quad band phone? i was thinking of changing my plan from the national to the northamerican one. if so will i be able to make and receive calls as part of the plan with no additional charges?

thanks,

larry a. denier

Hi Larry, Welcome

Here is my 2 cents: The cheapest NA plan is $59.99 for 450 roll over min. and 1000 NW and no M2M. So I think it would depend on how frequently you will be calling from and to cabo san lucas.

If you are just visiting temporarily and will be making occasional calls then Cingular's roaming rate of 49c/min is not bad and like ZaphodB said just make sure you have International Roaming Enabled on your account.

If you are going to be making a lot of calls then Tony E's idea of finding out if your phone is unlocked (and if not, get it unlocked) and using a local SIM will be a better option.

Hope I did not confuse you completely.

[ZaphodB]

Tony,

Probably not. The setup and cost of the SIM is $300.00 m.n. (about $27.25 dlls.). Each minute is $1.50 m.n. (about $0.14 dlls.) plus IVA (Impuesto sobre el Valor Agregado -- VAT tax, 15%).

This brings your initial investment to $31.36 dlls. and your per-minute investment to $0.16 dlls. In order to make it worthwhile to buy the SIM, you would have to spend 80 minutes on the phone in Mexico... and that's not including the $0.80 dlls. to call the border cities, or the $2.00 dlls. to call the rest of the country. Maybe not so likely.

(To the original poster: m.n. is "moneda nacional", or pesos. dlls. is "dólares", meaning American money. Dlls. are so commonly accepted in Mexico, with the exception of gas stations and the government, that you won't need to change any money. It's about 11 pesos to a dollar, though often people just do 10:1 to make the math easier.)

[ShoresGuy]

It could probably only be the V400 or V600. Cingular hasn't released too many new quadbands in the last year, other possible models are the V3, V180 and V220.

[ldenier]

It could probably only be the V400 or V600. Cingular hasn't released too many new quadbands in the last year, other possible models are the V3, V180 and V220.

Thanks for all of the replies. I should provide more info. I have the V3 and we are normally in cabo for 3 weeks in may and 3 weeks in Nov. i was thinking of switching to the north american plan during the months i would be down there and then switch back upon our return. we would be using the phone to call california and receive calls from california on a daily basis. usually keeping track of family activities and business questions that need to be answered while we are gone. maybe the sim card makes more sense???

thanks for all of your help.

Larry

[ShoresGuy]

If you plan on making a lot of calls, you might want to look into an int'l SIM like riiing should the NA Plan not be an option:

http://www.riiing.com/index.php?p=1
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html

Otherwise look into a TelCel or MoviStar SIM if their rates are cheaper than roaming on a Cingular SIM in Mexico:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/messico.html

But considering you're in the US and will be making more calls back to the US, look at the NA Plan.