Originally Posted by luv2ctheworld
I went to BA a couple years ago and purchased a pre-paid. You can't buy it at a convenience store though. You need to go to the mobile store and get it. It was a hassle more due to waiting for customer service than the form itself.
My apologies if I am needlessly bumping this thread, but I've just returned from my trip and thought I'd share my experiences.
The quote from
luv2ctheworld could not have been more spot on.
TakeMeToEZE is also correct in saying that you do need to speak some Spanish to get the cards in Buenos Aires. The same is true in Rio. Although I don't speak Portuguese, my Spanish was enough to get the transaction done.
My first stop was Buenos Aires and went into the Personal shop on Avenida Corrientes only to find about a 40-45 minute customer service wait to get a SIM. Just around the corner was a CTI Movil shop where the wait was about 5-10 minutes, so I decided to use that service.
The SIM cost 10 pesos (a little over US$3) and to call back to the US was 1.25 pesos per minute (roughly 40 cents). Not the cheapest, but it could have been worse (in fact it got worse once I hit Rio). It was definitely cheaper than Personal. Plus, when buying 50 pesos of time, they kicked in another 30, so I got 80 pesos for the price of 50. The CTI card worked great during my weekend stop in Iguassu as well.
When I got to Rio I tried several different shops before hitting TIM, where I was finally able to buy a SIM. The SIM alone cost me R$19 (a tad under US$9) and the price for calls back to the US were R$4 per minute -- almost US$2 per minute. By far this was the most I have ever paid per minute using a pre-paid SIM. I don't know how that price compares to other providers in Brazil, but I can't believe they get any higher. I should have shopped around more, but I was getting anxious to get a card.
Luckily, I was only making the occasional call back to the US, so it's not like I spent a fortune.
So, to recap, in Buenos Aires, CTI gets a ^ while in Rio, TIM gets a
.
Anyway, I now have both SIM cards back home here in Sacramento and have no use for them so if anybody is going to one of those two countries and needs a SIM, let me know and I'll send it off to you. You'll still have to pay the per-minute rates, but at least you won't have to pay for the SIM itself.