Cell Phones

[UPDATED]

If you buy a cell phone in México, you must register your name and address with the government. It is called the Registro Nacional. If your phone isn’t registered, you can’t use it. To register it, you need either a CURP (do you have a visa?) or a (foreign) passport. If you have a CURP, you can actually send a text message that is something like the word ‘alta’ and a period, and your curp, etc… this may even be done over the internet, apparently (see link above).

There is a telcel customer service center on the third floor of the mall at 222 Reforma. There is a telcel store on the first floor. I bought two there the other day, and registration was automatic (I had an address I could give them).

To buy a phone, find a telcel shoppette (telcel is dominant – using others will make it harder for people to call you) and ask for a phone. There are many such tiny shoppes all over condesa/zona rosa.  If you are like us and you just want a cheap phone so that you can make a few calls while hunting apartments or what not, you can probably get lo más barato for as little as $300 MXN ($30) with a plan prepago (pre-paid). Your phone should come with a few minutes of airtime as a gift, but you should probably buy some minutes immediately, which will help make the person selling you the phone happier. You should be able to buy tarjetas (cards) with airtime credit on them. The seller will probably offer to put that credit on your phone, watch so that you can do it later. I think you dial *333# and hit send, then listen for cues to enter the scratch-off code on the card. You can check your remaining balance by calling (not texting) *133#. When you buy air time, you are not buying minutes, you are buying credit. Apparently different calls cost different rates depending on where you are and who/when/where your callee is.

If they like you enough, they may offer to sell you a sim card that is, um… recycled. This is nice because the phone will already be registered, and you can use it right away. If you want to ask for this option (which is probably frowned upon by somebody) tell the seller that you want to use the phone immediately. They may have sim cards you can use, or they may only have a fresh one. “Necesito usarlo directamente,” should work. [UPDATE] This is for the small booths that sell the phones and that are not run by telcel.

Later on, there are several ways to buy more airtime, and I think the most common is at a convenience store, they do it right at the register. You can also buy more airtime at atms.

You cannot text to shortcodes in the US from México. I tried on my cheapo phone and it failed. I am able to text to other Mexican phones, but not outside the country.

Dialing a phone in Mexico City is another story. If you are calling a regular land line, dial the eight digits. If the number is a cell phone, you need to add extra digits at the beginning. If the cell phone is on the telcel network, you add 044, then the city code 55 (Mexico City), then the eight-digit phone number. If you are calling somewhere else in Mexico, I think you still add 044 for the cell phone, but then a three-digit city code, then the seven-digit phone number. This page may help.