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New TELCEL internet experience?


simpsca

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29 minutes ago, RickS said:

Are you referring to getting a TelCel ‘at home’ device from which other devices can be ‘tethered’?  

A friend told me it's a TELCEL modem and you pay a monthly fee for service. I'm just guessing buy imagine you can use it for any device that uses wifi.

 

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We’ve had the Telcel modem for about a week now. It was very easy to set up, basically you plug it in and it works. The speed varies considerably at different times of the day, but seldom goes under 10 mbps. Most of the time it’s between 20-30 mbps download and about the same for the upload. We still have Telmex so we’re running both right now. The cost was around $1900 pesos for the modem and you pay upfront for the first 3 months at $350 pesos/month. Of course, it took three trips to Telcel to get the modem, but I have no idea why. 

You need your passport, visa and a utility bill and the names of 3 personal references with their phone numbers.   So far, so good. 

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So you're saying that, after paying 1900 pesos for the modem, it costs 350 pesos per month for the service? Speed is good and you can probably check in advance by using your smartphone as a hotspot for a day. My question is in reference to the number of gigabytes that you can download. Is there a limit per month? What happens if you exceed the limit to 1) your speed 2) cost for overage?

 

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Here's a thread from April 2018  about TelCel and references....and yes, they did in fact also come to our home, as others pointed out in this thread.  We went through this at same time, late April when we went from pay-as-you-go to a monthly plan.  

https://www.chapala.com/webboard/index.php?/topic/78643-telcel-reference-checks/&tab=comments#comment-575612

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I had exactly the same experience as  Bisbee Gal when I went from a pay as you go monthly plan to a billed monthly fee. Three references and they came physically to confirm my address. P.I.T.A. considering that I wasn't buying anything from them.... and the bill is not available on miTelcel on the date that it's due. gggrrrr.

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I remember that thread. I am aghast that they would waste that kind of money, rolling a truck to a subscriber's house to "check up". Not even Immigration does that. Regardless... my daughter and friends come at least once a year for a visit, and sign up for TelCel plans while here, and do not even have to show their visitor visas. The plans include pay-as, and paquetes, depending on their requirements and length of stay at the time.

So number 1: a silly circumstance, and number 2: no consistency in application.

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3 hours ago, JyC said:

Yes, there is a limit to the amount you can use. Don’t have it with me, but if you go to the Telcel website all the info is there. Also, not sure what happens if we exceed the limit. Guess we’ll find out.

Per Telcel's  Política de Uso Justo (PUJ), with the 349 peso plan you are allowed to use 150gb with no speed cap. After that the speed is throttled to 2mbps until your next billing cycle. 

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Telcel internet isn't new. I've been using it for 3 years. That they now have modems for sale for this is what is recent. However, there is no need to purchase a modem for this, or sign up to be locked into monthly payments if you don't want. If you have a phone with a tethering feature, you can use the phone as a hotspot and that connects to your computer. You can use the pay-as-you-go internet option. 

I buy 500 pesos worth, you get 6.5 GB/month. If you run out before the month is over, you can purchase another 500 pesos worth, or however much you want. 

To do this, you go put $ on your phone number at OXO or wherever takes Telcel payments, then text Int500 (or whatever amount you have paid) to the #5050.

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We got the service a week or so ago. I needed my immigration card, something with my home address (I had my Mexican Driver's License) and 3 people to "vouch" for me. Also, I needed almost $3,000 pesos to walk out the door with my modem. It took about an hour and a half. Half an hour to do the paperwork and a "wait" time (?) of an hour. I asked why the wait and I still have no idea. The 3 prepaid months are not for the first 3 months of the service, they are the LAST 3 months of the first year. I just got my bill for November. So, for me, I prepaid next year for July, August and September. I know that it is very weird and I asked twice if I was understanding correctly as my Spanish is just OK to survive. Yes indeedy I did understand. So, to sum up, you need to pay for the modem, a pro-rated amount for the current month and pre-pay for the LAST 3 months of the first year of a 2 year contract. You can get 1  modem for the first year and up to 5 thereafter. Even weirder, you must pay a 200 peso fee to continue with the REQUIRED 2nd year. Somebody spent a lot of time thinking these things up. The modem, like a phone reports your location. If you move your modem to another house, for example, you must pay an additional fee- the amount I have forgotten. The service is very good but the speed is variable. Early mornings I have gotten as high as 85 megabits/sec. and in the evenings -about 9 pm- as low as 8. 150 gigabytes goes very quickly if you watch HDTV shows with IPTV as I do. Add to that the computer and tethered phone and the gigabytes fly out the door. I still will get ILOX  as planned and be happier with the unlimited data.

T.

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Política de Uso Justo 150000

This is from the Telcel website. Notice no units are given. Are you sure it is 150 GB, as that is a lot? Mudgirl was getting 6.5 GB per month on prepay plan for 500 pesos.The average SD movie is 1.5 GB. The site says it will slow to 2 Mbps once the limit is reached. Can anyone verify the limit?

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I don't find the speed goes down at all no matter how many Gbs I've used up. The speed will go up or down depending on how strong the signal is, and sometimes I lose the signal entirely and have to reboot the phone I use for tethering to my laptop. Maybe they can control the speed with their new modem option, but they don't using my phone as the hotspot.

And no, using the cell based pay-as-you go option isn't going to work well for those who want to stream a lot of stuff, as that will eat through your data quite quickly. But I'm online at least 2 hours a day, emailing, surfing the web, looking at forums, and the 6.5 GB for 500 p. is totally adequate for that.

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2 hours ago, M&C said:
 

Política de Uso Justo 150000

This is from the Telcel website. Notice no units are given. Are you sure it is 150 GB, as that is a lot? Mudgirl was getting 6.5 GB per month on prepay plan for 500 pesos.The average SD movie is 1.5 GB. The site says it will slow to 2 Mbps once the limit is reached. Can anyone verify the limit?

Yep . It is 150 Gigabytes when you convert the stated 150,000 megabytes to gigabytes. It may be, if they are using the old standard of 1024 megabytes per gigabyte, a bit less; about 146 or so.  If you find that hard to believe, stop into the Telcel office in Centro Laguna mall and speak to a representative.  Streaming HD is a data hog. For full day TV viewers, they would eat through that in less than 2 weeks. A lot of folks leave their TV on for background noise. Add computer and phone use to the total.

T. 

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mudgirl, the plan you have, and with tethering, is certainly one way to go and would work for me as I don’t stream movies. And while the cellphone ‘signal’ is probably the same with either, the ‘new’ modem plan is just that.... ‘new’. And different as to capabilities and restrictions and speed and cost and.....

Another ‘benefit’ of your use of tethering is that you can move around with it.... take your iPad and cellphone to the park and surf etc. Take it to the beach and you’re still good to go.

But for others who want a lot of gb’s for streaming  which they will do at their casa, and at a VERY attractive price once a modem is purchased, the two plans are night and day different.

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