If you are all up current with your cell provider, call and have them unlock your phone BEFORE you remove it from the account.
Very important with Sprint which can't unlock phones that aren't on their network. If you have a Sprint phone that isn't activated or if you're out of the country, they cannot unlock it.
I think most of them bigs will do it for free or at minimum unlock the sim card slot for international use.
My understanding is that as of this year all US carriers are required to unlock phones under certain conditions. Up to now, Sprint would only unlock the SIM slot for international use. This meant, for example, that I couldn't even test a Telcel SIM in a Sprint phone in the US. Sprint also won't ever unlock a phone activated before the new regs took effect, so I won't ever be able to use my old iPhones with a Telcel SIM in the US.
You of course NEED a sim card slot. I *think* all the iphones from the 4s up have them?
Correct. Verizon had iPhone 4 without a SIM slot, but Sprint started with 4S, all of which (on any carrier) have a SIM slot.
With iphones too, you can back up from your current iphone WITH A PASSWORD to your computer and then blow that into any new iphones. If don't choose a password you will lose all your wifi passwords all over Cozumel that you might have collected as well as mail passwords. Don't ask how I know.
I've created a default Cozumel iPhone backup file. We have 2 old phones left over from upgrading in the past and loan them all loaded up with a Telcel SIM to guests or visiting family. The default backup has all my collected wifi passwords, some useful apps (including a shared shopping list app), Cozumel contacts including emergency numbers, map POI's, local settings for weather and clock, a picture of the house, and even some music (Junior Klan's "Cozumel"). When they're done with it, I brain-wipe the phone, and restore from the backup.
I also keep a Note with all the SSID's and passwords I've collected. This comes in handy when I'm traveling with someone and there isn't a waiter handy or it isn't on the bottom of the napkin holder. (I've started turning over napkin holders in the US to look for a password. Never works.)
I also think you can go to telcel and they will give you a smaller iphone sim for a free replacement.
I think they charged me something like 50 pesos for a new 4G nano-SIM to replace my old cut-down one.
And for ease of use, set up an account on Telcel's website with a credit card. Then it takes 2 seconds to recharge the phone whenever.
And wherever! You can use the browser on your phone or the handy Mi Telcel app. I've used it to recharge or to set up a data plan when I'm out and about - it's extremely useful. There's also a Recarga Amigo app that can be used to add credit to any Telcel number without the need to register it first online. It lacks the many useful features of the mitelcel.com site or the Mi Telcel app, though.
The mitelcel.com website has many features, not least of which is the ability to set up automatic recharges. Set it and forget it, and never have to worry about losing that number that all your friends know. You can also select specific other Telcel numbers that you can call or text for free; this is a total of 3 things, so for example all calls or texts (2 things) to my wife's Telcel number are free and texts (1 thing) to my son's number are free. The other numbers have to be on Telcel, but they don't have to be ones you control.
You can also have more than one phone on the one login. Telcel does some thing after so long with no activity where it suspends the account until you put money on it. So I turn data roaming OFF on the telcel in the states and let it connect, currently to Tmobile for voice. and then I also get the free text message when a recharge hits.
All of our numbers are linked to my wife's and my accounts, so either of us can manage credit, data plans, and other stuff either from the computer or from our phones. Each number has its own account, as well.
As long as the number hasn't fully died, each recharge not only keeps the number alive but also resurrects any credit that's lapsed. For example, 50-peso top-ups expire after 2 weeks, but I have automatic 50-peso recharges on all our phones every month. Even though the credit expires between recharges, it never really goes away.
Stick the Whatsapp on it and text, voice text or send pics international for cheap. I use groups on whatapp and include both my US and MX phone which make communicating easy.
Just about every one of my Cozumel peeps use Whatsapp, but an increasing number are also using Facebook Messenger and a few prefer it. It's also free.
Get a dual-sim phone; You can have both Mx and US numbers on one phone. Freely available on the net.
For those of use that live in areas of the US with no GSM signal (such as where I live and work and everywhere in between), that doesn't really work.
Ewww, looks like all ...android....
There are some nice Android phones out there, but I've become very invested in Apple ecosystem things like iMessage that I can do or manage from my computer, which is why we have loaner iPhones for people.
You can get dual-SIM widgets for iPhones that provide a thin cable that goes into the SIM slot and an external tray for the SIMs. That obviously requires some sort of case that can accommodate that. It seems like an inelegant solution to me.
