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7 hours ago, cedros said:

He probably has, if not I will point that out to him. But he is certain.

If he has read the law he wouldn't make such an outrageous statement ....He is certain...Have him point out to you where in the law it says Telmex has the national exclusive right to fiber optic installation. 

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22 hours ago, IMBurnen said:

Used Total Play when I moved to the other side of Mexico and received excellent service. However, I lived in a real city so that might make a difference. I did like their customer service which was readily available and responsive. Good luck.

I do not understand. What makes a city “real”?

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  • 1 month later...

It’s arrived in west Ajijic.  

- Three weeks ago I got a TotalPlay flyer at my address near Ocampo and de Febrero, Ajijic.
- Two days ago, I saw a TotalPlay van on my street. Possible customer install.
- Telmex fiber ends two blocks to the east.

Considering becoming a guinea pig on this, though might wait for next snowbird season.

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EDIT: I have TotalPlay installed here in Ajijic!

I've moved an updated version of this information to its own dedicated thread.

Quote

TotalPlay installed my optical fiber line yesterday to Ajijic near Six Corners (where Telmex fiber is not available)

There was a phone number on the TotalPlay brochure delivered to my address.  I took a chance to WhatsApp that number, since it's easier for me to use translator on WhatsApp.  

Got a very fast response for my request of Ajijic fiber option.

Then, I had some questions answered for TotalPlay Ajijic, which I will relay.

  • Current install time is relatively fast this month
    About one week in June 2021, as demand is picking up. 
    Some people got same-day installs, others needed a few days, TotalPlay told me there is an uptick in demand from Ajijic.
  • No contract
    100% fiber optic (fiber to the home).
    Service is targetted to work-from-home people.  (Both ILox and TotalPlay seem to use business angle to get around Telmex resdiential monopoly?)
  • Prices for each download/upload speed:
    559 pesos/month for 40/4 megabit fiber
    779 pesos/month for 100/10 megabit fiber
    1049 pesos/month for 200/20 megabit fiber
    1799 pesos/month for 500/50 megabit fiber
  • Includes Telephone Lines
    Unlimited Canada/US long distance to both landlines and cellphones
  • Add TV for 170 pesos extra
    +Add 170 pesos to get TV and telephone included
  • Symmetrical speed upgrade option (upload = download)
    By default, upload speed is set to 10% of download speed. There is a symmetrical boost option where you can make uploads as fast as download:
    +250 pesos for 40/40 symmetrical
    +500 pesos for 100/100, 200/200 or 500/500 symmetrical
    Example: 1799 + 500 = fastest half gigabit symmetrical fiber
  • Temporarily boost upload speed on demand
    You can temporarily boost upload speed for only 2 day, 7 day or 1 month
    +25 pesos for temporary 2-day symmetrical 40/40
    +50 pesos for temporary 2-day symmetrical 100/100, 200/200 or 500/500
    +80 pesos for temporary 7-day symmetrical 40/40
    +165 pesos for temporary 7-day symmetrical 100/100, 200/200 or 500/500
    This can be good when you know you want to make big upload surge where you would like to upload 10x faster. (e.g. send gigabytes faster to Dropbox, OneDrive, YouTube, iCloud, Google Drive, etc)
  • Microsoft Office and Cloud storage included on 200 megabit and up
    The 200 megabit and up options include a bunch of business options including Google Workspace, Microsoft Office 365 (including 1 terabyte OneDrive).  Good if you want to store lots of photos too.
  • Speed upgrades are instantaneous.  They just press a button on their end.
    They can instantly upgrade your connection over the phone or via WhatsApp (via Google Translate)
    I was able to upgrade instantly via WhatsApp (see below)

I was offered a promotion where I could get double download speed (80/8) but I preferred symmetric speed (40/40) so I got that instead.

Speed changes are instantaneous (at least easier than Telmex), though you have to wait 3 months between download speed changes.  This is fine for snowbirds, you can pay 559/mo when away from your Mexico residence, and then throttle the speed back up when coming back.  No speed change fee.

I checked reviews, Totalplay has fairly good reviews in the Guadalajara region. The fiber line of Totalplay comes from Guadalajara.

You will need an RFC number handy (temporal resident, Mexico Resident, etc).  But even if you are not yet a temporal, you can have a friend who often stays with you take the bill name for now even if it's your own VISA card of your name.   

 

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On 3/13/2021 at 8:36 AM, AndyPanda said:

Now, why would they do that? They make an absolute fortune from what they've installed so far. Where did you hear that, if I may ask?

ILOX and Telmex have been extremely slow at adding new neighborhoods.  This has been going on for quite a while.  ILOX has been losing people due to poor quality of service. Two in our hood have changed to Wiz cable due to ILOX inability to fix product.  I can't even get streaming radio to work without buffering on ILOX.  I ask when they are going to expand and they say in the future but not right now.  Telmex is expanding but at a slow rate. I can get no answers from Telmex. Total play may change the game.  I saw one crew in my hood putting in a drop and asked him how to get it.  He made a few calls and installed it same day to two of us in the hood.  That is service.  They are hungry.  ILOX and Telmex are not. Total play has ten crews doing installs and each crew can handle 4 installs a day if all goes well. The only totalplay negative is the slower than ILOX upload rate. So for 100 down service you only get 10 up.  This won't work if you are doing serious uploading.  ILOX has the higher ratio for example my 350 service down has 80 up. 

I wish I could tell you more but they just don't talk to us common folks.  Even my emails to management at ILOX go unanswered.  I am now going to slow down my 350 service to ILOX but keep it for a backup.  I really have spent a lot of time researching this out and forget it.  Total play is the only service who would spend the time to talk to me.  

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On 3/12/2021 at 1:08 PM, AndyPanda said:

A kiosko at WalMart for Totalplay sign ups to day. Unmanned.

They were handing out phamlets

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On 3/11/2021 at 4:13 PM, Mostlylost said:

Telmex uses Carso (owned by Carlos Slim same as Telmex) for some of the installations.

As to the "rights" ..any company can apply to use the existing utility poles for their installations. For example ILOX is using CFE poles because they have received the right to do so. 

Everyone knows hotel employees know all the secrets. Better than a Harvard law degree the title hotel employee.   hahaha

They can apply and they can be denied.

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38 minutes ago, cedros said:

They can apply and they can be denied.

No they can't be denied if they meet the requirements.    It is regulated by communications law.  Just look at a CFE pole and see how many other cables are using the pole. That is how ILOX, TotalPlay, Izzy, and all the other cable companies are able to provide service. 

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On 5/11/2021 at 7:35 AM, lcscats said:

I saw one crew in my hood putting in a drop and asked him how to get it.  He made a few calls and installed it same day to two of us in the hood.  That is service.

Wow -- that is impressive!  

TotalPlay is still contacting me frequently, awaiting some paperwork -- the delays are on my end since I"m not an official Mexico resident / temporal resident (yet), being here on a standard 6-month visitor visa.

My current intention is to run it at 40/40 initially (the upload speed is WAY more important to me -- video, cloud, etc) -- and speed up to 500/500 during my return next winter.  Speed changes are free if there's at least 3 months in between speed changes.

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On 5/11/2021 at 8:48 AM, Mostlylost said:

No they can't be denied if they meet the requirements.    It is regulated by communications law.  Just look at a CFE pole and see how many other cables are using the pole. That is how ILOX, TotalPlay, Izzy, and all the other cable companies are able to provide service. 

If

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1 hour ago, cedros said:

If

???   And if you don't fill out the paperwork correctly you won't get a drivers license.  

Multiple companies have been able to meet the requirements to use the poles and distribute service.  Just look at the post above.

Carlos Slim's public companies do not have a monopoly on fiber optic service in Mexico no matter what your all knowing expert friend in a hotel says. 

 

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On 5/18/2021 at 11:34 PM, AndyPanda said:

That last requirement is ridiculous.

Mexico ID, yes.  I'm not a temporal resident yet, here on the 6 month visitor visa. 

But I had a Mexico friend who stays with us.  He volunteered to show ID for us during installation.  Also, your landlord may be able to help.

I now have TotalPlay installation scheduled for tomorrow, I will be beginning with 100/100 symmetrical at first.  I will post speedtests here once I have the fiber optic line installed.

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On 5/19/2021 at 8:54 AM, Dostortas said:

As long as a really big truck doesn’t go by, we should be good.  

C47169B0-EF16-4A65-82FF-48A0E28DDF66.jpeg

That is what happens were I live. Telmex can't use the CFE poles-so they string their wires from underground lines up and then across the street to various houses and then tall trucks break the lines. Unet is the worst as they string their thin easily broken lines whereever.  

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Okay, TotalPlay came today.   

My install was a bit complex so Friday got rescheduled to Monday.  Indoors install took 2.5 hours after they wired a really long optical fiber from several blocks away, but wired up they did.  Probably the first on my block to get it!  

I got the cheapest optical fiber plan (40/4) to begin for now because I am going to return to Canada soon....

Speed changes can be done by telephone (no truck roll), so I am only a phone call away from 500 megabits/sec.

Speed and latency is definitely as advertised -- and should be expected for what Netflix says is Mexico's fastest ISP.

 11470871353.png

 

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2 hours ago, GDouglas said:

Okay, TotalPlay came today.   

My install was a bit complex so Friday got rescheduled to Monday.  Indoors install took 2.5 hours after they wired a really long optical fiber from several blocks away, but wired up they did.  Probably the first on my block to get it!

How did you contact them to order their service?

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12 hours ago, headpooch said:

How did you contact them to order their service?

There was a handwritten phone number on my flyer and a name.  

(I suspect the flyer-deliverers are running on a commission and are always eager to accommodate to take your order.)

I WhatsApped that number (via Google Translate) and ordered that way.  I explained that I was deaf and preferred to do via WhatsApp than by telephone.  My first message was May 10th for questions, but then I decided to order last week.

24113DF4-8F96-4FE9-BDB2-914B1D2A0B98.thumb.jpeg.b4b283c72265df3427ba97978def7af6.jpeg

Today, I think the best way to order is via their website form, but I had a ton of questions first, which I needed answered. 

One thing.... The biggest hoop was that we did have to provide RFC of a Mexican friend of ours who often stays with us, and was able to vouch for us.  If you are a temporal resident you can apply for your own RFC instead, which makes things easier (like applying for a new bank account).  You can be a snowbird with an RFC that way, and they’ll accept it.  But that’s not until 2022-2023 for us.

I’m also deaf, so I prefer texting.  I love WhatsApp because it’s text and I can translate it.

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2 hours ago, GDouglas said:

There was a handwritten phone number on my flyer and a name.  

(I suspect the flyer-deliverers are running on a commission and are always eager to accommodate to take your order.)

I WhatsApped that number (via Google Translate) and ordered that way.  I explained that I was deaf and preferred to do via WhatsApp than by telephone.  My first message was May 10th for questions, but then I decided to order last week.

24113DF4-8F96-4FE9-BDB2-914B1D2A0B98.thumb.jpeg.b4b283c72265df3427ba97978def7af6.jpeg

Today, I think the best way to order is via their website form, but I had a ton of questions first, which I needed answered. 

One thing.... The biggest hoop was that we did have to provide RFC of a Mexican friend of ours who often stays with us, and was able to vouch for us.  If you are a temporal resident you can apply for your own RFC instead, which makes things easier (like applying for a new bank account).  You can be a snowbird with an RFC that way, and they’ll accept it.  But that’s not until 2022-2023 for us.

I’m also deaf, so I prefer texting.  I love WhatsApp because it’s text and I can translate it.

Thank you so much!

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I decided to get symmetric speed (40/40) but didn't want to do it by Spanish telephone.  So I tried WhatsApp and it worked.  

Here is my new speed (+250 extra peso per month).

Speed change was instant (Internet was down for only 10 seconds).

Now I can Zoom teleconference to my hearts content in perfect HD!

11475396550.png

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