How much are roaming charges in Mexico
 

I'm going to rent a cell phone from Mexitel Cellular for my trip to Cancun in a few weeks. The phone I'm renting will have a number local to Cancun.

While I'm on the trip, I will be traveling to areas outside of Cancun (Cozumel, Chichen Itza, etc) so I'm trying to figure out how much it will cost me to use my phone if I charge it with Amigo prepaid and use Mexitel's preferred VOIP carrier, when I outside of Cancun.

I've looked at a lot of places but I haven't been able to find out how much TelCel charges for using a prepaid phone in a different city. Anyone know where I can find roaming fees for TelCel, or have recommendations on what is the cheapset way to make/receive calls to/from the U.S. while traveling in the Yucatan peninsula?

Thanks,
--Sandy

I don't know the answer to your question but you'll find almost no one here would advise you to rent a phone. That's why it's called PrePaidGSM.net. The idea is that you own an unlocked multiband GSM phone and use prepaid SIM cards. This is generally much cheaper than renting.

You definitely do not want to rent in this day and age as the Dr. already mentioned. If you have an unlocked phone get a prepaid sim in Mexico. That is probably the cheapest way. Also, tmobile prepaid works in Mexico and I believe it's only $0.59/min to make and receive calls. Which is quite competitive with other roaming sims. However, a local telcel sim will give you very good rates to the US.

Actually it works well
 

Sandy, with all due respect - the naysayers here are a little outdated. We've purchased SIMs in Mexico before and using them you'll still pay $1 per minute to call the US. With Mexitel phones we paid $1 for the entire phone call (say 10 or 15 min at a time). (And we're not the only ones - you can see from their feedback that others have had the same experience.)

As far as the charges when you are outside of Cancun, it can run up to 60 cents per minute (to call the US). That's still not as much as you would pay when roaming with a US carrier, but if you're planning on making/getting lots of calls outside of Cancun, you might want to get a second phone from them for the other area where you'll be making/getting calls (sounds like it would the Playa Del Carmen area). Once they combine shipping and all - it doesn't take many calls at this kind of savings to quickly pay for itself.

I have a strong presumption against renting, but the presumption is not rebuttable. In the past, for example, I've rented when I was in Japan. The difficulties in foreigners getting prepaid SIMs made it a deal breaker. With some roaming SIMs now working in Japan, I might need to rethink the issue, but the flexible SIM only renting options still seem like a good deal.

If I went somewhere that needed satelite service, I'd probably rent unless there was a really good deal on something like the failing Globalstar network. When I've gone out into the desert in the UAE, I've rented a sat phone and put my UAE SIM card in it. The price of a sat phone exceeded the price of a handset only rental for a weekend. Similarly, even though I believe in GSM over CDMA, I have an unlocked CDMA dual band phone in my dresser which I will get programmed up if that is the best alternative for a particular country. Additionally, I've added VOIP to my mobile warrior's travel kit. We live on a much smaller planet than our parents, but there is no one global magic answer.

Turning to Mexico, in the past, I've used an 09 SIM in Mexico with a callback service, but I've heard positive things about this Mexican rental service. I don't think we should just write it off because it is prepaid.

I've also used 09 in Mexico. With CBW is was 14c/min to call the US.

Both Telcel Amigo and Movistar have "pay per call" tariffs that charge 11.50 pesos (currently less than a dollar) per 20 min or 30 min call to the US/Canada, in most regions, and domestic calls for half that price. You have to ask to be switched to the "por llamada" tariff.