Calling the US from Cozumel

[bryanmc57]

What's the best way to make a call back to the US. We just found out that my wife's cell phone won't work in Coz so I need a new plan. Is there an international calling card available down there like the ones we have here for calling Mexico? What about collect calls? Last time I used 1-800-collect it was $7.00 for a 1 minute call 150 miles away... definitely no good.

 

[dive pro]

Forget calling from hotels or call booths, the best prepaid phone cards are telmex cards you can get for 30 50 or 100 pesos and charge about 5 pesos (less than .50cents usd ) per minute, telmex public phones are everywhere and on the screen it tells you how many minutes and money you have left, check out Telephone System in Cancun Mexico I got friends in USA and Canada and some like JAJAH - web-activated telephony but that is if you bring your laptop and have access in coz to internet.
There are also other phone cards but most trusted ones are Telmex calling cards sold everywhere even at airports there are automatic dispensers
hope this helps

 

[dive pro]

Check if your cell phone provider can extend the plan some people do with verizon....but not really sure how it works...

 

[beachnik]

bryanmc57

You need to provide a little more info to get a couple of options. And for the record, I'm no expert, just someone with a little info.

You did say making 'calls back to the US' as opposed to making yourself available for someone trying to contact you in an emergency.

For making calls back to US, Skype is hard to beat (skype.com). But - while there are ways of working around this - you should assume that you'll have to take notebook computer. Read on.
- Calls are 2 cents a minute.

- Call quality is not bad (are you technical? - it's a peer-to-peer file sharing network over millions of desktop computers. That sounds primitive but it works. It's not Vonage with their proprietary servers, but it's not bad).

- You get an account for free, you charge up your account with a minimum of $10 in credit. As you make calls, the account balance declines.

- As noted, a computer is required, and a relatively fast internet connection. The most popular thing to do (you'll see folks doing this everywhere) is take a notebook computer and use your hotel's wireless internet access. No access at the hotel (?), have lunch at a restaurant where they have free or nearly free access (like Rock N Java). Don't like that, go to the calling station on the bottom floor of the Hotel Barracuda with your computer and hook up via their ethernet and call away (they charge for internet time, the price is so reasonable I've forgotten it).
Incidentally, there are numerous places that offer the same service as the calling station at the Barracuda.

- And why would you take a computer if some of these places have a computer already? Because they may not want you to install Skype on their system. Because when you download and install Skype in Mexico, you might end up looking at software written in Spanish.

Enough about Skype.

Don't want to take a computer (?), go to the calling station at the Barracuda (or any of the many other calling shops) and make a call using their regular phone (regular - it's probably voice-over-IP like Vonage, as opposed to analog - cheap and it works good). The price is ...sufficiently low that I've forgotten it. But not as cheap as Skype over your hotel's free wifi.

There are actually a number of cheap solutions with cell phones. Including using text messaging (SMS) - very cheap when all you need to say is 'we've arrived safely'. You need to post info like: you do or do not have a GSM quad band phone.

Incidentally, if you do have a GSM phone and you use ATT, you call them up, request 'international provisioning' order ATT World Connect Mexico (about $6/mo)' then you can make and receive calls for something like $0.60 per minute. When you go back home, wait for the bills to post from mexico to ATT and then discontinue ATT World Connect Mexico. They're happy to oblige.

That's just a few of the solutions. I've run out of gas. Hope this helps.

 

[DandyDon]

Bryan, which carrier is your cell with...?

For my August trip, I change my Alltel to the North America plan for a month, then changed back. Worked well in Cozumel and Playa del Carmen but not Holbox. That plan is not on their site but available on request, except that they are merging with Verizon so who knows whats next.

I also tell my laptop and headset. Skype worked great and for some reason the calls were free? You can check your remaining balance on the skype window after each call and add more as needed instantly.

On my next trip, I want to also try The PennyTalk Calling Card - International Phone Card at 2c/min.

 

[5615mike]

ATT cell pgms are dial and use. Nothing special other than while in MX your not using ATT towers. The LAN is ring based not call answer based. In other words, you get charged as soon as you connect rather than by an answer. LAN sends charges to ATT and they pass on the charges to their users.

 

[Bob3]

Better than a laptop for VoIP calls:
Nokia 770 ($75 - $100)
Nokia N800 ($150 - $200)
Nokia N810 ($250 - $350)
and coming soon, Nokia WiMax*
Plus you can get email etc etc etc
The little critters have an uncanny ability to suck signal better than any laptop I've seen; my ThinkPads with a Cisco wireless card (about 4x the wattage of a "normal" card) plus 7dbi antenna can't hold a candle to even the 770.

Will run Skype as well as Gizmo5

Gizmo runs about a penny & a half per minute.

*nope, I don't own any Nokia stock.

 

[mike_s]

Check if your cell phone provider can extend the plan some people do with verizon....but not really sure how it works...

with Verizon (and many other carriers) you have to call your cell phone company first and have the country "turned on".

By default they keep use in other countries "turned off" to keep down fraud.


You can also get some international calling for like $2.99/month. I signed up for it the last trip out of the countrying thinking I was getting a rate discount from what they told me over the phone. Got no discount though. so it was a waste of $3 bucks.

After you have your international access for that country turned on, you need to update your roaming. On Verizon I think it's *228 [send button]. but you can ask them when you call to turn it on.


depending on who your carrier is, most carriers have a list of supported countries (once "turned on" access to) on their websites.


I think currently Verizon charges like .69 cents per minute for their calls (plus some other taxes and fees).