In Mexico, it is unlikely that the man on the street who finds your phone will return it. It would have been very easy for someone to look through my stored numbers and find my home number or simply call any of the local numbers on the phone to find a way to contact me. I didn’t really expect that to happen, but I was hopeful. I waited two days before doing anything about the missing phone.  

On Tuesday morning I decided there had been adequate time for someone to get my phone back to me, and it was time to replace it. A friend advised me to go to the Telcel Customer Service Center at the Centro Maya mall in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Of course, there was the obligatory line to stand in, but the wait wasn’t terrible… about 20 minutes. Our customer service representative was very helpful and spoke much better English than my Spanish. He deactivated the lost phone, transferred my number to a new phone, and also transferred my remaining prepaid balance to  the new phone. The prepaid balance was about 300 pesos less than when I lost the phone, but I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to transfer the balance at all.  My cheap replacement phone, a Motorola C139, and the fee to transfer the phone number totaled a little less than $500 MX. So losing my cell phone was more like losing $50 instead of $100. Probably a more significant loss was my stored phone numbers.

Lessons learned – hang on to my cell phone and backup my phone list.

If you’re going to start new service you will need to go to the CFE office. The CFE office is located in an area that is primarily residential. It is located two blocks west of 30th and one block north of Consituyentes. From Mega, cross 30th on Constituyentes going west then walk two blocks to 40th and then one block north. 

This OXXO Store is located on 10th Avenue just north of 12th Avenue on the west side of the street. You’ll see these stores in many locations in Playa del Carmen. You can also pay your Cablemas bill at OXXO, but be sure you pay a couple days before the final due date.

We live in a condominium apartment with a small galley style kitchen, a combined dining and living area, two bedrooms,  and two baths. I estimate that it is no larger than 900 square feet, perhaps a little less. We also have a 5 x12 balcony, obviously with no effect on our electric bill. We have central air conditioning, which is somewhat unusual. Split units or window units are more common. Our apartment is total electric meaning that we have an electric hot water heater and electric stove. Many apartments have a propane gas stove and hot water heater. We have modern aluminum framed thermal windows that close and seal well. The windows also seem to be lightly tinted. The balconies and orientation of the windows largely protects them from direct sunlight. We used foam sealing tape to improve the seal on the wooden front door, but it still needs to have a door sweep added to the bottom. (On my honey-do list.) There are three in our family, which has some effect on our bill as our son runs his ceiling fan and floor fan constantly. We try to conserve air conditioning by using our two ceiling fans and a floor fan in our living area when it is occupied. Occasionally, we will open the windows on cooler nights. We haven’t had many of those since we arrived on June 1st, 2007.  

Our electric bill from July 10, 2007 to September 10, 2007 was $6,614 MN or about $660.00 USD. These were most likely the hottest months of the year, so we are anticipating that this will be our highest bill. However, we still expect the average to run between $250 and $300 over the course of the year. 

The electric bill from June 1, 2007 to July 09, 2007 was $3,857 MN or about $385.00 USD. During the eary days of June, there were a few days when we were able to sleep with our windows open. The humidity is a big factor and the air conditioning keeps the humidity down even when set at a higher temperature at night. We opted to buy a floor fan and turn up the AC a bit at night but keep the humidity down. My theory is that the AC will run more during the day when the windows are open at night because of the increased humidity in the house. Maybe true, maybe not, but I like the justification to run the AC at night when it’s warm out.

A note on the bill below. The graph compares 2006 to 2007 from the previous five billing periods and one future billing period. The wide range in electricity cost reflects not only seasonal variations in consumption, but also occupancy of the apartment.

The CFE website can be found at www.cfe.gob.mx/en/

Cellphones first.  One, we thought we might be able to use our Verizon cell phones here. We could, but because we were on roaming, we had difficulty with voicemail, local calls, and cost. The 611 customer service was also not available so it was very difficult to resolve these problems. Our opinion is that US cellphones are a bad option if you are going to live here.

Cellphones are available from TelCel from about $50.00. They are pay-as-you-go phones like the throw away phones you’re familiar with in the United States. Nextel is also available here, plus some small providers I’m not familiar with. Telcel is the most popular and most logical cellphone provider. We bought a $50.00 Nokia, but could have spent as much money as we wanted for a more advanced or tricked-out phone. There is an almost endless array of choices. The locals love their phones.

If you go with TelCel, we recommend you buy the $500 peso calling card. You’ll get double minutes when you activate so it’s the best discount available. Texting is very popular here, and is cheaper than voice calls. Your minutes will expire in 60 days, but you don’t have to use them in 60 days. Your minutes will rollover once you purchase another card.

For example, you purchase a $500 peso calling card and you get 1000 minutes when activated. You use 800 minutes in the 60 days and your phone locks up. You go buy another $500 peso card and get 1000 minutes plus the 200 minutes you had remaining at the end of your 60 days, so you now have 1200 minutes to use in the next 60 days. Unused minutes always rollover on expiration of the 60 day calling period. A good deal for Telcel. They keep you coming back to the trough at least every 60 days for more calling time.

Next, calling the United States. The preferred method is Voice over IP, acronym VOIP. The best solution is Vonage, but it is not available in Mexico. The work around is to subscribe to Vonage in the US, get your equipment shipped to you before you leave, and bring it with you. You can then set it up using your Internet connection here, whether you use Cablemas (the local cable company) or TelMex DSL for Internet service. There is a rumor that Cablemas will soon be offering VOIP to their subscribers for about $200 pesos a month. The catch is that it only includes 100 minutes of International calling, or so we were told by a Cablemas representative.

We’re currently using Skype for international calling on our TelMex DSL line. It works great, call quality is good,  and the cost to the U.S. is 2.1 cents per minute. We use it for both family and business calls and $15.00 USD a month in Skype credit has been more than adequate.  We also have a SkypeIn number (small additional charge) in Florida so our children can call us using a local number. Again, had we planned better, we would have brought a Wireless WiFi Skype phone with us. As it is, we are tethered to our computer with a headset, but it’s a small inconvenience for the money saved.

Skype and Vonage equipment is not yet available in Playa del Carmen or even Cancun. TelMex is very protective of its monopoly in Mexico. So again, you must get your equipment while in the U.S. and bring it with you or ask someone to mule it down here for you.

There are many Internet and international phone centers in Playa. Walk down any street in the tourist area, and you’ll probably see one.  The cost is in the 2 to 4 peso per minute range. For a permanent resident, this is usually a service rarely used. However, we have stopped in to make a quick call on occasion when it was more convenient than going home. When we first arrived, we used our laptop at some of these Internet centers for email and Internet access. There are also many places to get wireless Internet access in coffee shops and restaurants.

Calling the U.S. from either your house phone or TelCel mobile phone is expensive and probably something you will not want to do on a regular basis.