Traveling with iPhone to Mexico

Hello Community,

Big thanks to @DWC1 for providing some great information and answering most of the questions @BD6879 had.

I wanted to add to what was provided as the initial post and response is several years old, and some of the content has been updated.  Please see the below links that will answer all of your questions if you are traveling to Mexico!

• New Mexico Roaming plans!
• How to Call, Text, and Check VM Internationally
• Travel Tips!

Thanks so much!

Tim, Community Specialist

This link will answer many of your questions:

http://www.att.com/Common/merger/files/pdf/international_calling/International_Travel_Tips_08232010.pdf

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@BD6879 wrote:

Hi all,

 

This is my first post on the AT&T forums. I switched about two weeks ago so we get could iPhones. I have been reading a lot of articles about this topic and I still have a few questions. Sorry if these questions are repeats. 

 

We go to Mexico about once a year. With our previous carrier, we couldn't receive texts or anything while in Mexico but we could make phone calls.

 

In order to keep extra charges to a minimum, I plan to keep data roaming turned off. Here are my questions:

 

1. While my phone is on in Mexico, will I receive calls normally as if I were in the states? I'm assuming that the caller need not add any country codes or anything to reach me... What about for me making calls to the U.S.? 

Callers continue to dial you as they do now.  No special codes required for people to reach you.  For you make sure all entries in your address book have +1 in front of the area code and you will be able to send texts and make calls both at home and abroad.

 

 

2. Will I receive texts normally as well? Do I need to add a country code when texting from Mexico to the US when sending a new text? Or will simply replying to a text message get the job done?

All texts will arrive as they do now.   Make sure all entries in your address book have +1 in front of the area code and you will be able to send texts and make calls both at home and abroad.

 

3. If I turn Airplane Mode on, will any functions of my phone actually work?

No.  You can try this at home to test.

 

4. If I have International Data Roaming off and Airplane Mode off, will my phone use any data at all? I read that people turn off data roaming and also turn off features like push e-mail. Is this overkill or something that I would need to do as well?

Turning data roaming off turns off all data functions when abroad.  No need to take any other steps.

 

Any other advice would be appreciated. I'm terrified of getting slapped by a huge bill because my phone was "secretly" using minimal data even with International Data Roaming turned off. My understanding of the charges (without any additional calling plans) are:

 

Receiving text messages in Mexico from the US: No charge, just deducted from my text allowance

Sending texts from Mexico: $.50 per text

Receiving calls in Mexico from US: $.99 per minute

Making calls from Mexico: $.99 per minute

International Data Roaming OFF: No charge for data (Correct)

Discount plans are available for any of the above items.

 

Please correct me if any of these are incorrect.

 

Thanks!

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Thanks. I had not seen that article yet. If anyone can answer my other questions that weren't addressed in that article, that'd be great!

If you are not a constant border crosser, but various members of your family does cross on occasion, there is an interesting inconsistency in ATT's plans.  It is cheaper for most people to take an ATT prepaid to Mexico than contract.  See:

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/gophone-international-roaming.jsp

If say you are a San Diego family and sometimes go back for a couple of days or one member of the family does, forwarding your ATT phone to a GoPhone and throwing it into Airplane mode before you cross the border could be the cheapest way to go.  

If you want data, check out ATT's international data packages:

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/dataconnect-global.jsp

Another option for data is to rental a MiFi device and have everyone use it for their data needs.  XcomGlobal rents Mexican hotspots.  You can also buy an unlocked MiFi device and use a local prepaid SIM. 

I just came back from Mexico and I used a SIM card for my iPhone 5 that I bought online from Mexico Sim Card.  I used almost 3GB of data and talk for hours and it came up to 70$.  How much do you think 150 minutes of talk and 3GB of Data would have costed me with At&t?

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@vbilodeau wrote:

I just came back from Mexico and I used a SIM card for my iPhone 5 that I bought online from Mexico Sim Card.  I used almost 3GB of data and talk for hours and it came up to 70$.  How much do you think 150 minutes of talk and 3GB of Data would have costed me with At&t?

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this will only work if your phone is unlocked, you either own a version that you paid full retail price for and bought unlocked, or you paid your etf and canceld your service with att. the iphone is locked to att so foreign sims will not work normally