iPhone in Mexico

[moonlightgraham]

I just got the iPhone 4s and am loving it after years of using a "pretend" smartphone from Samsung. Will be heading to Royal Hacienda next month and was wondering about using the phone there without incurring exorbitant charges.

My carrier is Sprint and they will unlock the phone to allow use of a local carrier sim card and was wondering if anyone had suggestions on (1) where to get the sim card? Maybe at the RR Marketplace at a reasonable price? (2) Is it even worth the hassle to do this? I'm thinking I can use the RR wi-fi to surf the web and all that so the sim card would most likely be just for a handful of voice calls, and numerous text and email messages. Any thoughts from the great minds?

 

[pittle]

I don't know about the iPhone 4s, but with my iPhone 4, I don't even know where it is. It may be on the side where there is a little black dot and small slot. When I had a Razr, it was easy to change the battery and sim card, but this one is all closed up.

Double-check with Sprint. The iPhone is new for them and the person may not be as familiar with the phone.

 

[Phydeaux]

Why pay at all for calls? Install Skype on your phone & those you wish to call and make FREE calls. :whoopie:

 

[janej]

I don't think Sprint phone has a sim card. I could to totally wrong though.

Check out this article

 

[ilene13]

I also have an iphone. But I use my unlocked Blackberry to use my Aruban and Mexican sim cards. You can get a sim card at any Telcel office. I do not think my iphone uses a sim card. I also get the verizon international plan added as a back up. I used to have sprint--I did the same thing with their international plan. When will you be at the Haciendas? we will be there week 45.

 

[moonlightgraham]

I don't think Sprint phone has a sim card. I could to totally wrong though.

Check out this article

Thanks for the article and it hits at the root of my question. As Sprint uses the CDMA standard and I understand the Mexican system is GSM, I'm not sure with a prepaid local SIM card if the phone would function properly. I can get a SIM card via Ebay for next to nothing but will it work? I do have Skype so the phone would be used for those calls to non-Skype persons. It's not a big deal but just curious if others have had any success in trying the prepaid SIM card.

PS The iPhone SIM card slot is on the right side of the phone, very obscure, but it's there.

PPS We'll be at RH for Thanksgiving Week, not sure what number that is as we're traveling on an II exchange for this trip. First time staying at RH and looking forward to it.

 

[sdbrier]

iphone

I too have an iphone, but never use it as a phone in Mexico. I use the skype app to do all my calling, and then just use the phone for movies in the room, music and getiing on tug. We love the Haciendas. Have a great time.:whoopie:

 

[sdbrier]

AT&T has a Mexico calling plan that seems pretty affordable. The service always seems good when we travel, though I've never actually talked on the Telcel network. I believe it's 3G.

 

[persia]

The iPhone 4S sold by Sprint and Verizon has the ability to use GSM. None of the earlier models sold by these companies do. Verizon will unlock the SIM if you tell them you are travelling outside the US and have been a customer for 60 days.

ATT is GSM and will unlock your iPhone when that very warm place freezes over. If you have an iPhone 4S these probably don't work. Earlier iPhones have both soft (with Jailbreak) and hard (Gevey SIM) unlock methods. Most of those will void your warrantee and may or may not work on certain base bands.

 

[cmh]

I bought an inexpensive phone on Ebay that's unlocked. I use it strictly in other countries, locally buying a SIM card upon arrival. It's worked well and was a reasonable cost. I did this Feb of 2011 in PV and March of 2010 in South Africa.

 

[moonlightgraham]

Just as a follow-up on this, I managed to get most of the people I talked with on Skype during the week and it worked great, even the video chats. Sprint locked the SIM cards in the iphones recently and while they had said they will eventually unlock them, they hadn't at the time of my trip (Thanksgiving week) so the few calls outside of Skype were on their usurious $1.60/minute international rate plan, but I used only a handful of minutes that way so it wasn't a big deal.

 

[pittle]

Thanks for the update. I am planning to set Skype up on my iPhone and try that on my next trip. So many places have WIFI available, so it should work well. We have generally just used Skype on a netbook or laptop.