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Cell Phones, Internet, and Email in Loreto and La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Email and Internet in Loreto and La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Email and Loreto Internet access is alive and well. Living in Loreto or La Paz, or the entire Baja for that matter, doesn't necessarily mean living without technology. It came to Loreto about 9 years ago. Up to about 1 to 1-1/2 years ago, locals and business people did not use email or the Internet very much. They may have had the resource in their offices, but they did not incorporate the tools in their conscious daily activity. Now, that has changed drastically. Many private citizens (certain “alert”, “non brain-dead” people that is, not the vast majority) and many business people use email and the Internet in La Paz and Loreto regularly, if not daily. The reason for the “awakening” is that Mexicans hate to spend money and time by using the phone. They only “recently realized” that email communication was cheaper, less time consuming, and more convenient than using a phone. The fact that internet communication can be more efficient is a plus. More and more businesses are advertising with their own websites. Recently, I find more and more young people using the Internet in Loreto to obtain information in general and to locate products. La Paz internet usage is more prevalent than in Loreto. Very refreshing, but Loreto internet usage has only occurred noticeably within the last year and a half. TOP
DSL and cable internet in Loreto is available, but most people use telephone dial up. DSL and cable internet in La paz is more prevalent than in Loreto. In most all cities in the Baja, including Loreto, there are Internet cafes that have PCs connected to the internet that you can rent time while there. In La Paz, I was able to take quizzes on the Internet for a class that I was taking from a California community college. I paid $1.00 US per hour of use. The PC was a good one, it even had headphones with a microphone where I could have used Yahoo Messenger to have a free Internet phone-type conversation with someone back in the states or just use text messaging in Yahoo Messenger. The internet in Baja, actually, the internet in Mexico in general has arrived in full swing. TOP
Cell Phones in Loreto and La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Cell phones in Loreto are widely used and available. The use of cell phones in La Paz is complete and absolute. You might consider cell phones in La Paz as ubiquitous and cell phone usage as pervasive. No, really. Most all regular people don't use land lines, only businesses and government agencies use land lines.
Usage of US Cell Phones in Baja Mexico. Some American cell phone service is available in some major cities in the Baja, but it is very expensive per minute ($.86 to $1.50 per minute for local or long distance calls). Don't do it. If you have to, buy prepaid Ladatel cards and use them in pay phones; it's cheaper than using your US cell phone. Better yet, buy a Mexican cell phone as described below.
Cost of Mexcian Cell Phones in La Paz and Loreto. If you are going to spend ongoing time in the Baja, that is, if you are visiting for over a month or if you have a home in the Baja and you visit that Baja city frequently throughout the year, buy and get cell phone service from a Mexican cell phone company. I bought TelCel service. Cost me $50 US for the phone and I prepay for minutes by paying $10 to $20 for a prepaid card of minutes (100 to 200 minutes). When you pay $20 US or more you get some bonus minutes. The down side is that you lose the prepaid minutes if you don't use them within two months. The larger the prepayment amount, the larger the proportion of bonus minutes. Where the savings is, is in the plan that you buy. The prepaid minutes cards for cell phones in Mexico are available at many stores everywhere in Baja Mexico.
Mexican Cell Phone Plans. There are a wide variety of plans and permutations of stipulations in the plans for Mexican cell phones in Baja. Generally, the plan you should get depends on how many calls during the month to and from the US. Also, how many local calls to local (within the given Baja city) land lines or to local cell phones. The plan I have is a prepay plan that charges me $1.20 US per call to the US for a flat 20 minutes. If I talk for 2 minutes or 19.5 minutes, it costs me $1.20 US total for the call. Local calls to local land lines costs me $1.56 pesos per minute ($.16 US per minute) or $3 pesos per minute to a local cell phone. Compare that to $.96 US per minute by using my American cell phone and you can see why I used to pay $300 to $400 US per month whereas now, with my Mexcan cell phone, I spend about $30 US per month for the same amount of minutes. By the way, if you don’t use your prepay minutes within 60 days, you lose them. Some other plans handle it differently, though. What can I say, it's a phone utility like our own in the US.
Actually, I am not going to talk about Mexican land lines, because, well, just use your Mexican cell phone. That’s what all the locals do. Generally, only the local businesses and government agencies use land lines. TOP