Cozumel Cell Phone question

[cvchief]

Side note, if the phone is from the U.S. it is probably region locked and won't be able to connect to the towers here even with a proper SIM.

That is true too, but it is getting easier. You can now unlock the sim slot for international on Sprint right on your account web page.

 

[DandyDon]

AT&T - but the issue seems more we have been grandfathered in for a decade on one of the "old" unlimited plans Every time we try to change, add, move - really, to do ANYTHING to our plans or phones - nope, can't do it unless you move to a current plan.

My son-in-law had a Verizon unlimited plan for a while, and about all we could do for him that would not cancel that data plan was change his number to a similar phone we bought on ebay. He couldn't change to the newest models coming out unless he paid retail for the phone. Nowadays, Verizon has them conditioned to paying retail when they upgrade, altho they do get a monthly rate discount on their smaller data plan. Such a gimmick.

They have gotten better about not trashing or losing their phones at least.

 

[mediumone]

Side note, if the phone is from the U.S. it is probably region locked and won't be able to connect to the towers here even with a proper SIM.

That's preposterous.

 

[cvchief]

That's preposterous.

Well not region locked, but carrier locked. I missed that.

 

[mmmbelows]

AT&T - but the issue seems more we have been grandfathered in for a decade on one of the "old" unlimited plans Every time we try to change, add, move - really, to do ANYTHING to our plans or phones - nope, can't do it unless you move to a current plan.

Are you doing something really weird phone wise beyond what normal people's usage is? Kind of hard to believe you wouldn't be better off in the long run switching to a carrier like T-mobile and being ahead in just about everything from where you are now. Every time I look at their new plans my bill goes down, the last time I switched to their new set of plans, my monthly bill went from $140 a month to $80 a month and all my data and everything else went up even higher than it was before, which was already more than I could use no matter how hard I tried, plus I get basically free coverage just about everywhere in the world. Leaving on a 24 day cruise next week we have free cell phone usage in 19 of the 20 stops we are making, Albania is the only one missing. I think 'unlimited' is nice in whatever you have but 'almost unlimited' might be more than enough depending on what the limits are, they likely are higher than you might ever bump into. With T-mobile they keep banking my left over data month after month, it just keep growing.

 

[mstevens]

Kind of hard to believe you wouldn't be better off in the long run switching to a carrier like T-mobile and being ahead

The US still has really bad GSM coverage. Much of my state is a dead zone, and certainly my home and office have no coverage. CDMA coverage also sucks at my home, but there are significantly fewer dead spots in my area. Thus, a GSM carrier such as T-Mobile would be a poor choice for me even if I didn't have a grandfathered $35/month plan that included unlimited voice, text, and data (because at the time I doubt anyone envisioned how much data you could use on a phone).

GSM works great in Cozumel, and all my friends have my Telcel number. If that weren't already the case and if it didn't bother me to force people to make an international call to phone me, I'd just stick with my US Sprint plan.

 

[kixy1]

Verizon tells me I can use my phone in Mexico now. Are you guys saying they're wrong and I'll need to change SIM cards?

 

[DandyDon]

Verizon tells me I can use my phone in Mexico now. Are you guys saying they're wrong and I'll need to change SIM cards?

That depends.

Which model? My iphone worked well there last month. My old basic phone did not last year. Before last years trip they told me it should work fine, but something has changed. After the trip and failures, they decided that I had to have a smart phone to use it in Mexico. My kids have used their iphones there as well.

Which plan? The newest data plan includes free use in Mexico. I had not updated last month so had to pay $2/day for the daily pass, which does have to be added.

 

[al248005]

Verizon works there. I went last December and Verizon has a thing that you can pay like 2 bucks a days and you get unlimited everything...talk, txt, and data. I used that and it worked great

 

[DandyDon]

Verizon works there. I went last December and Verizon has a thing that you can pay like 2 bucks a days and you get unlimited everything...talk, txt, and data. I used that and it worked great

Unlimited data? The $2/day TravelPass added to a phone allows free roaming in Mexico with full benefit of your plan, but do you have unlimited data at home?

The newest data plan includes free use in Mexico. I had not updated last month so had to pay $2/day for the daily pass, which does have to be added.

Now you can consider changing to the new data plans which do not require the $2/day TravelPass. We changed to that.