geofflaredo

Plenty of international travel experience, but up until now have not had to/chosen not to use mobile phone as an actual telephone outside of U.S. Iphone 6. Verizon. My situation: will need to use voice only, and pretty minimally, in Mexico City. Trying to figure out easiest/cheapest option for me. Change sim card? buy a "disposable" with preloaded minutes? buy whatever Verizon will give me cheapest and only turn it off airplane mode when needing to make a call? other? Any suggestions much appreciated! thanks.

gfunkdave

If you're going to use it just a little, then it's probably cheapest (and definitely easiest) to just use your existing account. Check with Verizon on what rates you can get in Mexico. Turn off data roaming to be sure you don't get hit with data fees (settings - cellular - roaming - turn off Data Roaming).

zebranz

Agree but if you are going to be making a lot of trips then you might want to investigate Mexico telco's. Then you can get local number and data in a plan/pay per use.

You will not be able to switch SIM cards unless you have an unlocked phone.

gfunkdave

Good points. The Verizon iPhone 6 is unlocked.

njxbean

If you will have wifi when calling, you can use Google hangouts to make calls for free back to the us.

tmiw

I don't know much about Verizon but in my experience international roaming with US carriers is ridiculously expensive even just for voice. T-Mobile is a bit better now from what I hear in that you at least get 2G data and texts free. When I traveled to Australia for business last year I bought a AU$30 Vodafone SIM card at the airport and used Google Hangouts to call back to the US, which worked well.

I'll probably do the same thing when I go to Puerto Vallatra next month, only this time with a SIM card from http://www.mexicosimcard.com/. From what I hear Telcel pretty much has a near monopoly in the Mexican mobile space and supposedly has good coverage. Buying when you get there is probably cheaper but you may need to know Spanish if you're not going to a tourist area.

edweird

If minimal use is 20 minutes or less of talk and no data or SMS, then just making sure you can roam on your existing service, and not using data is probably going to be OK. I'd check on the per minute rate though. If your cell hardly ever rings, and you only need short calls to coordinate meeting someone, or to say "I made it" then this is minimal.

If you think you're likely to go over $20 USD of roaming charges, then maybe getting a local SIM would be worth it.

dtsm

More than better. UNLIMITED data and text. Voice is $0.20/min. Almost [repeat almost] no need for prepaids, especially if short trip and use alternatives to voice, eg skype, line, google voice.

tmiw

Last I heard the data is only EDGE and not 3G or LTE (unless you pay extra). It's still a good deal though.

edweird

I've been using a T-Mobile Simple Choice plan with the Simple Roaming since last year, and agree with dtsm. Your phone might connect to a 3G network, but your data speeds will still be limited to something closer to EDGE speeds.

The fine print says "Standard speeds approx. 128 Kbps"

There's a Wiki in this forum that lists all of the places folks have used it. I'll be using it in my 8th different covered country next week. My bill will be the same as any other month except for .20 a minute for any voice calls. I'm a fan.

Dubai Stu

My memory was that a Verizon phone was only partially unlocked. As I recall you can only insert a foreign, not a domestic SIM into the phone.

dtsm

Verizon 5s and 6's work perfectly with TMO and AT&T

ajGoes

It depends on the phone. My Verizon Droid Maxx is universally unlocked and came that way from Verizon.

Jeannietx

Long time iPhone owner, very much longer AT&T subscriber, 4 devices.

I am going to be testing TMobile, the months of February and March in South America. After horrendous cell phone bills in various countries I decided to open a TMobile account and bought (outright) a Galaxy Avant as a test phone with TMobile.

Will see how it goes.

Dubai Stu

I think at 128k over HSPA+ you can check email, Facebook, or get directions. I would keep an eye on apps running in the background and use wifi where possible but it will get you by, particularly if you have wifi in the morning and the evening. Of course, no two people's usages will be identical.