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Telcel posts

GSM Palm Pre to launch on Telcel in Mexico, feature storage expansion?

by Nilay Patel posted Oct 8th 2009 @ 3:01PM

Well, this is interesting: we'd been under the impression that Telefonica had pretty much wrapped up a global exclusive on the GSM Palm Pre under the O2 and Movistar brands, but here we are, looking at two videos which claim that the Pre will launch in Mexico under rival América Móvil's Telcel label. That's certainly interesting -- and even more intriguingly, we're told that the gentlemen in this video are discussing storage expansion slots on the Pre, which is basically like having a conversation about Santa winning the Super Bowl in terms of Things That Are Real. Did Telcel just manage to pull the rug out from under Movistar and land what could be the best Pre of them all? We're on pins and needles, here. Videos after the break -- and if anyone wants to leave a better translation for us in comments, we're all ears.

Continue reading GSM Palm Pre to launch on Telcel in Mexico, feature storage expansion?

Telcel launching Pantech C570 slider with preloaded Paty Cantu content

by Chris Ziegler posted Jul 2nd 2009 @ 8:31AM

Celebrity tie-ins are always a surefire way to put a little more oomph behind the launch of an otherwise bland handset, and in Mexico, carrier Telcel is doing exactly that to celebrate the launch of its latest Pantech piece. The C570 is a pretty basic GSM phone with some stylish color accents, FM radio with RDS, and dedicated music controls, but what immediately turns up the interest knob by a notch or two is that they've hooked up with local star Paty Cantu to preload the phone with artist content. Further helping the handset's street cred as a music phone is the fact that it's also got a 3.5mm jack, a remote with yet another set of music controls, and microSD expansion up to 8GB -- but with the brooding expression on Paty's face here, we can't rightfully say we're sure whether she's delighted, horrified, ambivalent, or utterly unaware of the offering.

Mexican 3G auction could bring in $1.5B, depending on bidders' moods

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 2nd 2009 @ 7:17PM

Mexico's prepping for a big auction of purpose-built 3G spectrum in the 1700 and 1900MHz bands toward the end of the year, and at least one big-time investment group, Banamex, believes that could net as much as $1.5 billion for the government when everything's said and done. The estimate actually runs from $1 billion to $1.5 billion depending on the number of bidders that ultimately decide to participate and which side of the bed they woke up on that morning, but any way you slice it, it's a nice chunk of change (for comparison's sake, Canada's AWS auction brought in CAD $4.2 billion -- about $3.86 billion). Telcel, Telefonica, and NII are all said to be virtual locks to place bids, while Mexico's number-three operator -- Iusacell -- may sit this one out considering its less-than-stellar financial situation and a stash of spare spectrum that it already has at its disposal. Before you start any wild rumors that a foreign company might swoop in and shake things up, be warned -- Banamex says that's highly unlikely considering failed attempts to bust into the Mexican market by Verizon, Voda, and France Telecom in the past.

Telcel's iPhone pricing in Mexico: not bad

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 29th 2008 @ 11:51AM

The strategies carriers around the world are employing to price the iPhone 3G and its plans seem to be varying pretty wildly -- a side-effect of the newfound freedom Apple is giving them with the new model -- but in Mexico, where Telcel's signed up to release it, the strategy isn't too terribly different from AT&T's. Plans will run between MXN $399.60 and $876.90 (also available in US Dollar denominations of $41 to $90.85 after tax), and the phones will be priced on a graduated scale accordingly. The 8GB goes from MXN $3,199 down to free, while the 16GB will hit your wallet for anywhere between MXN $4,459 and $1,259. In US greenbacks, that works out to $311, free (because free's free in any currency, after all), $433, and $122, respectively. So yes, at the cheapest plan price, both models cost over $100 more than their US equivalents, but the plan's only $41 at that level, which nets you 200 voice minutes, 100 messages, and 100MB of data. Extra texts are 74 centavos (about 8 cents) and extra data -- a very real necessity -- runs 5 centavos per KB, which is a pretty immeasurably small amount of cash until you do the math and realize that you're going to be shelling out about USD $4.86 per megabyte. Be careful there!

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Blue Palm Centro in the mix, but not in the US

by Chris Ziegler posted Apr 4th 2008 @ 5:08PM

Seems a little bizarre that AT&T would choose to launch white and lime over this more conservative choice -- but they did, and our Mexican friends get to reap the benefits. The blue variant of the GSM Centro is available via Telcel and Movistar -- exclusivity's apparently not an issue here -- and offers specs that are otherwise unchanged from its international cousins. Eh, on second thought, we think we like the white better anyway.

[Via IntoMobile and Palm Infocenter]

Pantech releases S100 in Mexico

by Sean Cooper posted Apr 26th 2007 @ 7:35PM

Korea's Pantech launched a handset with Telcel this week in a bid to bolster its presence in Mexico. The S100 is a plain white candybar, and while decidedly lacking in crazy styling -- as per Pantech's usual conceptual flair – it does pack all the basic features an intro-level handset user could ever want. Featuring triple-band GSM / GPRS (no frequency info was posted), 1.8 inch screen, VGA camera, MP3 ringtones, and even a voice note function to babble down your thoughts, it leaves little to complain about. No word on how many monies this will set subscribers back, but we don't expect it to drain even the smallest of piggy banks.

Cellphones go silent as Mexico's biggest network fails

by Brian White posted Feb 8th 2007 @ 11:47PM

~~Millions~~ Hundreds of millions of us could not get through the day without access to our beloved mobiles, so the scene in Mexico City this week when the Telcel wireless network went down must have been quite the frenzy, and even more than the mess that was caused by intermittent Cingular outages almost one year ago here up North. Millions of Mexican cellular customers has nothing but silence in the earpieces of all those handsets when Telcel's network, uh -- how do we put this nicely? -- crashed. The details of the network going down centered on a technical fault in western Mexico City, temporarily saturating the Telcel network, Mexico's largest wireless carrier with 40 million customers (a little smaller than Sprint Nextel's customer base here in the U.S.). The good news after the network went down in Mexico City was that it was soon back up, as service began returning just hours later. Service was 90% functional by late afternoon Tuesday.

Pantech hooks up with Telcel for five new handsets

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 13th 2006 @ 4:27PM

Pantech might still be an up-and-comer in the US market, but if you head south of the border, you'll find that they're the fourth largest manufacturer -- this coming just two years after entering the Mexican market through an exclusive agreement with carrier Telcel -- but it looks like they're still aiming higher. The Korean company chose this week to announce not one, not two, but five new models exclusive to Telcel in the Mexican market, most interestingly the PG-6200 clamshell with fingerprint recognition and 2-megapixel cam. Also along for the ride are the PG-1310V, PG-3810, and PG-1810 clamshells, and the PG-1610 slider, all with oddly similar specs: 1.5-inch main display and VGA cams across the board.