We frequently get asked about staying connected while you are on vacation in Puerto Morelos. If you have your own unlocked smartphone, getting it set up is relatively easy. In Puerto Morelos, the easiest/fastest way to get a chip is at your local, friendly OXXO. They carry the Telcel Amigo chip. This is a pay as you go, no contract phone and data service. They chip is $150 pesos (about $8USD/$10CAD). This cost gets you the chip only, no phone time. If you need a little more hand holding or your Spanish isn’t great, you may want to go to a official Telcel office in either Cancun or Playa de Carmen to set up your phone.
To put phone/data time on your phone you need to charge your chip. You can do this again at any OXXO (there are several in town). All you do is tell the cashier that you would like to add credit to your phone. You will need your phone number to do this. Your phone number will be given to you when you buy the chip. Or you can charge the chip or check your balance online at https://www.mitelcel.com using your credit card. Once you activate the chip, your phone number is held for one year from the time you stop charging it.
Once you have added credit to your chip you now have phone time…. but to make your phone time last longer and cost less, you need to buy a package. You can do this online or by texting a code to 5050. When you buy a package you will get data, SMS, some social media time and calling. Calls within Mexico, the USA and Canada are all treated the same when you have a package. Packages start at as little as $20 pesos (30MB) for 1 day and go all the way to $500 pesos (4,000MB) for 30 days depending on the amount of data etc, you would like to use. If your data expires or you go through your allotted amount and you don’t text in a new code, your phone charges will go way up!
That is the very basics to get your started using a local Mexican cell phone and hopefully saving you some money while you travel. There are other cell phone companies in Mexico, this one just seems to be the most ubiquitous and easiest to get started fast. Now you can enjoy your stay and not worry about any huge cellphone bills when you return home.