Mexico -- Engadget Mobile

mexico posts

AT&T's new 'Viva Mexico' plan serves up bucket of minutes

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 4th 2009 @ 7:29PM

If you find yourself frequently dialing Guadalajara, Chihuahua, or La Paz, you might take a gander at a newly-introduced calling plan from AT&T that's offering a package of features custom-tailored to the needs of the carrier's largest long-distance destination. The so-called "Viva Mexico" plan bundles 1,000 anytime minutes for use in the US and Mexico, a total annihilation of international long-distance charges, and the ability to benefit from rollover on the Mexico-friendly minutes. This all only applies to voice -- messaging and data are still on the hook for international fees -- but if voice is your thing, it's might be worth the $54.99 AT&T is commanding for individual plans (or $84.99 for two lines on a family plan).

[Via Phone Scoop]

In-flight calling soon to be allowed south of the border

by Tim Stevens posted Jul 24th 2009 @ 7:33AM

While in-flight WiFi is slowly becoming a reality in more and more jets going to more and more places, in-flight calling seems to be stuck in a holding pattern. Whether that's good or bad news depends on your like or dislike of hearing folks blab on their cellys and/or your propensity for wearing headphones mid-flight. If you answered "love it" or "I don't go nowhere without my Boses" you may want to consider a trip south of the border -- that's Mexico, not the glorified rest stop in South Carolina. Soon, travelers there will no longer have to keep their handsets safely stowed or in airplane mode, with the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, or SCT (the Mexican FCC equivalent), approving cellphones en-masse for flights anywhere in the nation. This cancels an earlier edict made in 2001 banning their use, and while Mexico's federal government still has to approve things, that's not expected to take long. So, who's willing to risk swine flu, gang violence, and other overly-sensationalized risks to get their mid-air talky on?

[Thanks, Xavier M.]

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.

Verizon's Nationwide Plus Mexico plan lets you call south on the cheap

by Chris Ziegler posted May 6th 2009 @ 5:57PM

If you're making a lot of calls to Mexico, you may have glanced at MetroPCS' dirt-cheap $3 add-on package -- but the problem there is that you're only getting unlimited calling to landlines. If your contacts down south are tied to their mobiles (aren't we all?), you might be better off checking out Verizon's new Nationwide Plus Mexico plan, which nixes long distance charges to landlines and mobiles in Mexico alike. Individual plans start at $54.99 and family plans at $84.99, including 1,000 night and weekend minutes; unlimited mobile-to-mobile only applies in the US, but it still seems like a reasonable deal if you're a heavy dialer.

[Via Phone Scoop]

MetroPCS intros $3 unlimited calling to Mexico, plenty of strings attached

by Chris Ziegler posted Apr 23rd 2009 @ 2:16PM

Regardless of the caveats, $3 a month is a microscopic penance to pay for the ability to call Mexico ad nauseam, but buyers just need to be careful that it's going to meet their needs before taking the plunge. The newly-introduced feature on value carrier MetroPCS advertising "unlimited calls to Mexico," but as the asterisk up there implies, there's a catch: the unlimited calling is only to Mexican landlines -- not cellphones -- and only those landlines in a list of 200-odd cities. You also get unlimited texting to handsets on America Movil, Movistar, Iusacell, and Nextel Mexico, which is a nice bonus -- but why texting and no calling?

[Via MobileBurn]

Mexico to fingerprint cellphone users to fight crime

by Darren Murph posted Feb 11th 2009 @ 4:02PM

Not sure if you folks have heard, but apparently there are some serious gang-related issues in Mexico. Crazy, right? Just about two years after the Mexican government began swapping game consoles and computers for weaponry in a bizarre (and evidently futile) effort to curb crime, the country has now decided to take things one step further. Beginning in April, a law will require mobile phone companies to build up a fingerprint database of their clients, with the idea being to "match calls and messages to the phones' owners." Reportedly, there are around 700 criminal bands in Mexico, many of which utilize prepaid handsets in order to take care of business. Oh, and if you just so happen to lose your phone or loan it out, you've got to "report it immediately to avoid being held responsible for a handset used in a crime." Awesome.

[Image courtesy of BusinessWeek]

TechFaith rolls out first touchscreen WinMo CDMA phone for Mexico

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 26th 2008 @ 10:02AM

Mexican carrier Iusacell has scored itself a nice little exclusive, rolling out the very first Windows Mobile Professional-based phone running CDMA in all of Mexico. Problem is, it appears to be WinMo 6.0 -- a strange choice, considering 6.1 is already getting long in the tooth -- but it's a pretty smart-looking device, and hey, at least it's got EV-DO. The TechFaith-sourced "Moffett" has a 2-megapixel cam, 128MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a 2.8-inch QVGA display, which compares favorably to... well, now that we think about it, nothing that we can think of off the tops of our heads. Sorry, Iusacell, we swear we were trying to be stoked.

[Via wmpoweruser.com]

Verizon brings new bolt-on international data plans to vanilla handsets

by Darren Murph posted Nov 16th 2008 @ 12:01PM

Verizon just put the finishing touches on an international data plan rework back in August, but it's now gearing up to offer a pair of roaming options for those without a smartphone / PDA phone. Starting November 16th, VZW customers who own a down-to-Earth dumbphone will be able to pay $19.99 per month for 10MB of international data or $29.99 per month for 20MB; the plan will allow users to access picture / video messaging, Visual Voicemail, mobile IM, BREW downloads or the world wide web. Of course, this cheaper data only works in VZW's list of Preferred Data Coverage countries, which includes just Bermuda, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Saipan, Guam and South Korea. Wait, is that GSM we hear laughing in the corner? Oh, it is.

Mobile payments coming to Mexico

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 29th 2008 @ 8:56PM

Like Canada, Mexico's getting mobile payments, too, but these are just a bit different in two very important respects. One, this is a full-fledged service being underwritten by Telefonica, Iusacell, Citibank, and BBVA -- not just a trial. Two, unlike the NFC-based Canadian system, this one will rely on text messages to get the cash flowing. The service is expected to launch in the next few months and get backing from restaurants, stores, and taxis, all places where we can recall specific times when we would've rather kept our wallets in our pockets when the time came to pony up. Of course, considering how miserably unsuccessful mobile payments have been across North America so far (we've still got our fingers crossed that NFC is going to take off one of these days), this one could die off as quickly as it started unless it catches a break and goes big.

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]

Apple's iPhone coming to Latin America on America Movil

by Darren Murph posted May 7th 2008 @ 12:38PM

Just a day after we heard that Vodafone was taking the iPhone on a world tour, in comes word that Apple's darling will be headed to Latin America via America Movil. We aren't told if the deal is one of exclusive nature, nor were we given a specific launch date, but residents of 16 countries in Latin America will have their shot at latching onto an iPhone sometime "this year." Huzzah!

[Thanks, Jesus]

Mexican attach� attempts to make off with White House BlackBerrys

by Darren Murph posted Apr 25th 2008 @ 8:01AM

We're a bit frightened by the fact that high-ranking political officials are told to leave their BlackBerrys outside in an unguarded basket during high-level meetings (really, it's "common practice"), but nevertheless, one chap who tried to take advantage of the situation didn't quite make it out undiscovered. During a recent political meetup in New Orleans, a Mexican press attaché managed to slip a half dozen or so BlackBerrys into his pocket before darting to the airport with visions of black market markups in his head. Before he could exit the country, however, Secret Service had tracked him down after catching him via surveillance footage. As it stands, the responsible individual has been fired from his post, but there's been no word on whether the US will take any further actions. Reevaluating the whole "leaving them out in the open" practice may be a good start -- just sayin'.

[Via The Boy Genius Report]

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.