Cell phone use in Cozumel

[Nevis Diver]

I thought this might help folks going to Cozumel that either choose to or have to have a cell phone.

There are a couple of resources on the web about this (http://www.cozumelmycozumel.com...GREAT site, by the way) but after reading them I was still confused about how to go about getting one....affordably (and I am in the mobile communications business). It just seemed like hoops to jump through and no surety that it would work anyway.

I finally used a company I previously recommended to my customers that travel internationally (China, Japan and Europe). They send you the phone a day or two before your departure and give you everything you need to ship it back upon your return. I almost never buy insurance for things like this but for some reason I did this time (it was about $10).

Digression
After we dove the cenotes we didn't make it back to Coz that night....jjust too much fun. When we did a late afternnon dive the next day I had the phone with me on a fast boat, trying to talk to the office (totally useless because of noise) and when I was finished I put it in the zipped pocket of my mesh dive bag. After the dive I was dunking my bag in the fresh water gear cleaning tub and after doing a great job of cleaning the gear it hit me.........crap. An hour of hair dryer treatment did not help it.
End digression

The phone never worked again (which was a mixed blessing) and I sent it back to the company hoping for the best. I received a final bill for the airtime and no mention of the drowned phone.

The phone for Cozumel was $35 + $10 insurance however the airtime is $.99 per minute flat rate, incoming or outgoing, no daily fees. And it worked every where I went on Cozumel, except my hotel room.

http://www.worldcell.com

or

http://www.worldcell.com/web/page/10.../travelers.asp

I do not work for or get paid by these folks.

 

[Ron Brandt]

You can get a cheap audiovox and the Amigo plan....The plan uses time cards and I believe cheaper than .99 a minue as friends of mine in the dive business on Coz use it all the time.

Ron

 

[Nevis Diver]

You can get a cheap audiovox and the Amigo plan....The plan uses time cards and I believe cheaper than .99 a minue as friends of mine in the dive business on Coz use it all the time.

Is that something you buy on the island?

Chris

 

[Jim Baldwin]

I thought this might help folks going to Cozumel that either choose to or have to have a cell phone.

There are a couple of resources on the web about this (http://www.cozumelmycozumel.com...GREAT site, by the way) but after reading them I was still confused about how to go about getting one....affordably (and I am in the mobile communications business). It just seemed like hoops to jump through and no surety that it would work anyway.

I finally used a company I previously recommended to my customers that travel internationally (China, Japan and Europe). They send you the phone a day or two before your departure and give you everything you need to ship it back upon your return. I almost never buy insurance for things like this but for some reason I did this time (it was about $10).

Digression
After we dove the cenotes we didn't make it back to Coz that night....jjust too much fun. When we did a late afternnon dive the next day I had the phone with me on a fast boat, trying to talk to the office (totally useless because of noise) and when I was finished I put it in the zipped pocket of my mesh dive bag. After the dive I was dunking my bag in the fresh water gear cleaning tub and after doing a great job of cleaning the gear it hit me.........crap. An hour of hair dryer treatment did not help it.
End digression

The phone never worked again (which was a mixed blessing) and I sent it back to the company hoping for the best. I received a final bill for the airtime and no mention of the drowned phone.

The phone for Cozumel was $35 + $10 insurance however the airtime is $.99 per minute flat rate, incoming or outgoing, no daily fees. And it worked every where I went on Cozumel, except my hotel room.

http://www.worldcell.com/web/page/10.../travelers.asp

I do not work for or get paid by these folks.

I have a new cingular phone. that is triple or quad band. I was just there this past week and due to a sudden death in family had to cut the trip short. The phone worked great and it cost 59 cents a minute for roaming charges since Telcel owns the tower. My wife and I probably made a couple of dozen phone calls trying to schedule a flight out on Saturday. If my wife calls from the US it costs 9 cents a minute but uses my call time minutes. Since we make about five trips a year to Cozumel I got the $4.95 a month international calling option.

Two friends of ours that were down last year had the old nationwide calling option with Cingular and received a number of calls and it didn't cost them anything.

My old Alltel phone was completely useless. It would show four bars but I could never get out.

For calling around locally I just purchased a phone and put about $300 or $400 pesos on the phone and it takes care of local calling without the extra fees.

 

[Hawkeye Mark]

Take a phone on a vacation? Not me. My world worked just fine before I ever had a cell phone. I will not be controlled by electronic devices.

 

[ggunn]

I had bars on my Sprint phone and could connect in roaming mode, but every time I tried to make a call, I got a blast of white noise followed by an unintelligible (by me, anyway) very distorted recording in rapid Spanish which I interpreted to mean that it wasn't going to work.

 

[Nevis Diver]

Take a phone on a vacation? Not me. My world worked just fine before I ever had a cell phone. I will not be controlled by electronic devices.

Amen to that.

My dive trips to Cozumel are more "working diversions" like a golf trip.

My real vacations are with my wife someplace we can both enjoy and then I don't even know what a cell phone or email is.

 

[Nevis Diver]

For calling around locally I just purchased a phone and put about $300 or $400 pesos on the phone and it takes care of local calling without the extra fees.

Where? On Cozumel?

 

[renpirate]

I have cingular and was able to make calls on my last trip in December. I got good signal and clear communications. I am not sure how much it was per minute though.

 

[jayjoans]

I was in Cozumel in December, my regular Cingular phone worked great. My friend had a Verizon and couldn't shut up about how great it was in the states. It was useless in Cozumel, 4 bars but no way to get out.