Telcel Amigo Mexico prepaid data rates reduced

[RTuesday]

Telcel Amigo in Mexico have reduced the price of their 30-day "unlimited" data bundles:
Banda Ancha Telcel (in Spanish).

It's now only 499 pesos ($38.) a month, and 477 pesos ($36) in border areas (lower VAT).

Good timing really as 3G was switched on at my local base station just last week! I get up to 1.5Mbp/s download at really offpeak times, dropping to a dismal 200kbps mid-evening. But even that's better than what I had before, so I now have a Sierra 881U USB dongle connected to a Linux netbook connected to a router to send the wi-fi around the house (and I'll be getting a mobile router to replace that lash-up later).

The 3GB fair access policy is going to be the killer, I'll probably exceed it, but all that happens then is the speed drops till the end of the 30 days, won't be charged any overages.

[RTuesday]

Just to update this a little, the prices went up marginally at the beginning of the year, because of the 1% increase in the IVA/VAT tax rate. For example 503.34 pesos a month in the non-border areas.

I do indeed get through more that 3GB a month, and you can't just start a fresh month, you have to wait for the 30 days to expire before you can get high speeds again. I switch to a second sim during the month instead.

Capacity is fine now, generally get 1-2Mb/s most of the time, maybe 500kb/s at really peak times, and sustained 2.4Mb/s at really off-peak times. Which is why 3GB doesn't last long at all.

[JPJ]

I am looking for help on the following subject:

I am looking for companies that will provide data service in Mexico that will be transmitted to the US. We will be using SIM cards, but not the actual cell phone. We are only concerned about data, not voice. The cell modem we will be using runs on a GSM platform and we need to know what the costs will be for the GPRS(general packet radio service). GPRS data rates usually come in bundles/packets of say 5Mega bits of data or something like that for a fixed price. If these companies have a rate sheet, that would be good to see, as well as "packages" where we can put several phones/modems into a pool and then use the data out of the pool.

I don't know if there are different rates for M2M "machine to machine" rates as there won't be any voice on our system, just data being transmitted.

thanks

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by JPJ

I am looking for companies that will provide data service in Mexico that will be transmitted to the US. We will be using SIM cards, but not the actual cell phone. We are only concerned about data, not voice. The cell modem we will be using runs on a GSM platform

Telcel Amigo looks a good fit, the rates are at:
Telcel: Internet Telcel Amigo
(click on Paquetes).

Their "Amigo Internet Telcel Correo 150MB" rate is designed mainly for email but might also suit automated applications like truck trackers.

So that's 150MB (GPRS or 3G) over 30 days for 149 pesos (142.58 pesos in border area price, around US$12).

The service can be activated by SMS from the number, or online via the customer portal.

For even lower data volumes, there's the pay-by-kB option: all Telcel Amigo accounts should come with this activated. 0.02 pesos/kB (20 pesos/MB) until you reach 49 pesos within 30 days, then each additional MB for the following 30 days are 1 peso (US 9c) each. Details: same link as above, click on "Por Demanda".

If you are planning to activate a lot of sims, remember each one has to be registered with the government in the name of a physical person, and I think there's a limit of how many can be registered by one person.

The only other option for GPRS in Mexico is Movistar, they probably have similar rates but often a bit less coverage. Both companies are GSM 1900 (like the US).

[rfranzq]

Are you familiar with:
Jasper Wireless Global Service Platform for Machine-to-Machine (M2M), Embedded Mobile, Embedded Wireless and Connected Devices ??

I know a user had a SIM from them but could not use it because he was not data oriented. It is not clear that they can help you, but it would seem that due diligence would encourage you to figure out if they could.

Originally Posted by JPJ

I am looking for help on the following subject:

I am looking for companies that will provide data service in Mexico that will be transmitted to the US. We will be using SIM cards, but not the actual cell phone. We are only concerned about data, not voice. The cell modem we will be using runs on a GSM platform and we need to know what the costs will be for the GPRS(general packet radio service). GPRS data rates usually come in bundles/packets of say 5Mega bits of data or something like that for a fixed price. If these companies have a rate sheet, that would be good to see, as well as "packages" where we can put several phones/modems into a pool and then use the data out of the pool.

I don't know if there are different rates for M2M "machine to machine" rates as there won't be any voice on our system, just data being transmitted.

thanks