Need help on making phone calls in Cozumel

[waynel]

Believe it or not, in 10 years of going to Coz I have never made a phone call while there. I'm getting the ATT "day plan" for international roaming. It's $10 per day, if I use it. No problem, but I'd rather not if I don't have to. I'm old school, I don't get on a computer or cell phone while I'm there. No tech at all. My situation is that I'm staying at Hotel Barracuda. I need to call Christi, or whoever at Bluext when I get there next Tuesday. Never stayed at Barracuda and need to make pick up arrangements for Wed. dive. Anyone know what a Barracuda land line to Bluext land line charge would be? Or to call my daughter at another resort in Coz where they are staying. They are diving with me Wednesday and I'll need to be in contact with her. Thanks in advance from "old school."

 

[kelemvor]

If you have an android phone and access to wi-fi you can use google voice for free. Search for "voice" in the market. Calls, texts. If you end up needing to make an international call to a regular phone it's 1 cent/minute.. at least that's what google charged me when I was in Cozumel in 2015.

Skype has a similar service, and I think you can use skype on both Android and iPhone if you're an Apple person.

 

[lionfish-eater]

hotel charges are trivial for local calls.
Stop a local on the street and ask them to call for you on their cell phone.
Download the skype app. put ten dollars on the account,use for free to anyone on skype or call anywhere from anywhere you have internet service.(most restaurants and hotels).

 

[JohnN]

If you have an android phone and access to wi-fi you can use google voice for free. Search for "voice" in the market. Calls, texts. If you end up needing to make an international call to a regular phone it's 1 cent/minute.. at least that's what google charged me when I was in Cozumel in 2015.

Skype has a similar service, and I think you can use skype on both Android and iPhone if you're an Apple person.

Not limited to Android. .
Google Voice on the App Store

 

[tridacna]

Call ATT and unlock your phone. Buy a SIM card when you're there. Insert SIM card. Problem solved.

This is a no brainer.

 

[amoses]

my phone is still under contract, so ATT wont unlock it. But I use skype. I did what Lionfish-eater was saying - I put $10 on it and I can call a lot of places from wifi for little to nothing.

 

[kelemvor]

Not limited to Android. .
Google Voice on the App Store

I must have eaten a bowl of stupid cereal for breakfast. I forgot that my wife has Google voice on her iPhone.

 

[JamesBon92007]

My girlfriend gets Mexico on her T-Mobile for $5/month. I found that I can text from Mexico on my $3.34/month T-Mobile plan.

tridacna's local SIM card sounds like a good idea.

I have Viber for WiFi calls and it's a couple of cents/minute to make most international calls. I originally bought $1 worth of service about four years ago and my balance is now 74 cents.

As someone mentioned many hotel rooms have phones and local calls are free or almost free. This is how I usually call dive ops.

 

[northernone]

It's virtually effortless to use the front desk phone. 1$ if I recall. Other solutions are great but none as easy.

 

[ColoDale]

My experience with hotels dialing local numbers is that some/many removed the outside line feature from the room phones. So I either call reception or operator and ask if they can connect me to a local number. If it a land line then use just the number. If it's a cell phone then make sure to tell them as they have to add a "1" in front of the number (10 digit Coz number). They tell me at that point there is a connection charge for a landline and sometimes a $1 per minute for the cell phone. To be honest with you, when I check out there rarely is a charge for any of the calls. Maybe I get lucky but this has happend many trips over the quite few years.
The hotels I have stayed at have a house phone in reception so dial the same yourself.

For calling another room at another hotel from yor hotle landline, use the same above. I haven't called many US cell numbers from my cell while in Mexico but as I recall, just dial the number as you would as if you were both in the US. This should be just the 10 digit number. Things may have changed and maybe someone here can confirm.

Our text charges vary depending on if it's a domestic US or international text (to a Mex cell phone).