Will my Cell Phone Work in Huatulco? And other Technical Questions
There are many things we take advantage of in our day-to-day worlds, and one of those things is connectedness! Anyone who has left their home country before might have discovered this the hard way when you arrive somewhere new and realize your phone doesn’t connect, there is no wifi, or you can’t receive messages. So you might be wondering, “Will my cell phone work while I’m in Huatulco?”.
To avoid these discomforts happening to you, I put together this checklist of things to do to make sure your technical affairs are in order before you leave your home, whether on holiday or for the long haul!
Will my cell phone work in Huatulco?
The short answer to this is, yes! It’s 2022, the world is quite connected and your phone from your home country will roam in Mexico and function normally. However, this is not cheap! Roaming costs are very expensive so even though your phone will work when you arrive in Huatulco, there are better options for staying connected.
What is a SIM Card?
For those of us blissfully unaware of how SIM cards work and why they are important, here is some good info!
- SIM Cards are a type of micro chip that connect a device to a cellular network. Most SIM cards are tied to a certain network, in this case we are talking about the TelCel phone network.
- Among other things, SIM cards allow us to process data, SMS messages, and phone calls through a device, usually a cell phone.
- SIM cards are attached to a phone number, so don’t lose your home SIM card, as you will most likely have to pay to get your phone number directed to a new SIM card when you return.
- SIM cards default to their home country code.
This is important and something a lot of people have difficult understanding. When you take out your SIM card and replace it with a Mexican card, any time you go to use it for SMS messages or a regular phone call, it will add the country code for Mexico (+52) to the beginning of the number by default, unless you specify otherwise.
This contact will not receive a message I sent them because I do not have the country code (+1) in front of the number. 
This message will go to my friend because I manually added +1 to the number in the contact.
Most phone plans in the US and Canada allow us to call and text Mexican phone numbers without extra fees, so you can feel good about keeping in touch with your friends back home! But, to ensure your messages and calls go through, you need to make sure your contacts have the correct country code in front of their phone number.
If is a good habit to get into now, when you meet new people and add their contact, always add the country code as well!
Note: the country code does not matter for messages sent over data services like Whatsapp, Facebook, or iMessage. This is only important for phone calls and SMS texting.
How to Get a Mexican SIM card in Huatulco (and why you need one!)
The most efficient and affordable way to stay connected in Huatulco is to buy a Mexican SIM card. Especially if you are coming from a place like Canada where we pay some of the highest fees for our cell phones in the world, getting a Mexican SIM card is a no-brainer!
If you are looking for an affordable and convenient way to keep your phone connected while in Mexico, you should definitely get a Mexican SIM card, I recommend TelCel!
About TelCel in Huatulco
While there are a few companies to choose from, TelCel is the best choice for getting a SIM in Huatulco because it is the biggest network in Mexico, and is the most accessible in terms of getting connected and loading your card.
Where to get a TelCel SIM Card in Huatulco?
Thankfully, it’s really easy to get a SIM card in Huatulco!
- At Chedraui
The TelCel store in Chedraui is popular with tourists and English-speaking immigrants because it is an official TelCel store, and they often have an English-Speaking person on staff. - In Town
When you are out and about in La Crucecita or Santa Cruz just look around for the recognizable “TelCel” Logo. Lots of corner stores sell phone SIM cards in Huatulco. - At an Oxxo
If you aren’t familiar with them, Oxxo is a convenience store chain, like the Mexican equivalent to a 711. You can buy a TelCel SIM here as well as recharge it when you come to the end of your package! - Online
If you are a person who likes to be organized before your trip, you can order your SIM card in advance and have it delivered to you! Here are a few reasons you should order your TelCel card online in advance:- Save Time! If you wait until you arrive in Mexico to buy your Mexican SIM card, you will need to do extra research to find a place and use up time on your trip!
- Order in your home language. If you are nervous about interacting in Spanish, ordering your card ahead can avoid mistakenly purchasing the wrong package.
- Similarly, ordering online allows you to look at all the options available to you, in your home language.
You can order just the SIM card, or with preloaded plans here. You will pay about $10-$15 more by ordering in advance than you would in store, but I feel that is worth the convenience!
                                                       WILL MY PHONE WORK IN HUATULCO?
How to Use your Mexican SIM Card
If you have never changed a SIM card before, never fear! That is why we have youtube. Check out these videos if you need a little extra help.
Pro tip: Most Android phones now have two SIM card slots, which is really handy! That will make it easier not to lose your home country SIM card as you can just add your Mexican one into the other slot.
How to change a SIM card:
How to manage a dual SIM phone
How to Reload your TelCel Account
Once you have your TelCel SIM card, you need to load it! Often you will pay for a package when you buy your card, but eventually you will have to reload it.
The easiest way to reload your TelCel card is online, but you can also do it in person at an Oxxo.
WILL MY CELL PHONE WORK IN HUATULCO?
Reloading your TelCel account Online
To reload your TelCel card, go to Telcel.com/amigo. Amigo (meaning friend, in Spanish) is the name for the one-off packages that TelCel provides. This means there is no contract or automatic renewal, you will need to manually renew every period.
Amigo Sin Limité packages are the natural choice for tourists because they are offered in increments from 1 to 30 days, so you can choose a package that covers just the time you are on holiday in Huatulco, or if you live here you can renew every 30 days like I do!
My favourite package is the “Amigo 200”. This package gives 3 gb of data for $200 pesos for a 30 day period, since I am usually around wifi I find this more than enough for me!
Some Facts about TelCel
If you are coming from Canada or the US, you might be pretty confused about how TelCel works because it is so unregulated compared to what we are used.
- You do not have to give your personal information, ever.
- TelCel will prompt you to make an account, but it is not required. All you need to do to pay for your service is enter your phone number, then credit card information. You will also provide an email to get a receipt.
- Amigo Sin Limité packages include social media services for free! Any data you use on the following apps is not counted against your allotted gigabytes of data. If you do use up your regular data, these services will still work until the date your package ends:
- Facebook Messenger
- Snapchat
- TelCel works outside of Mexico!
- You can roam with your TelCel SIM card in Canada and the US. In fact, many Americans give up their US phone plans completely in favour of the cheaper TelCel plans. You can roam in Canada too, but unfortunately the data does not transfer. You only get 50mb of roaming data in your package for Canada, though Whatsapp will always work.
- You can pay for anyone’s package, as long as you have their phone number.
- I have done this for friends who are in a tough spot, or so I can pay my partner and I’s services at the same time. All you need to do is use their phone number and select the correct package.
WILL MY CELL PHONE WORK IN HUATULCO?
About Cell Reception in Huatulco
Generally, the cell reception is great in La Crucecita and the larger sectors (Tangolunda, etc.). There are a few areas where there is no service:
Bahía San Agustín
Bahía Maguey
Bahía Organo
Bahía Cacaluta
Bahía Chachacual
Most of the Huatulco National Park
La Bocana Beach
Additionally, it is not overly uncommon for the network to get bogged down in the high season when there are so many people, and once or twice a year the network will go down completely. Most recently, Huatulco was without service for 2 days due to Hurricane Agatha.
Remember, Huatulco is a small community on the Oaxacan coast, getting 21st century services to us is not always easy!
Will my phone apps work in Mexico?
Now that we have ensured you will stay connected during your stay in Huatulco, the next big question is “Will my phone apps work?”.
Again, happily, the answer is yes! Coming to Mexico and connecting your phone via SIM or Wifi will have no effect on the apps on your phone.
However; (you saw that coming right?)
There are some limitations you should be aware of. Let me explain:
How your cell phone applications work📱
Cell phone applications are added to our phones through some kind of application store. The App Store on iPhones and Google Play on androids are the most common, though there are others like Huaweii.
In order to access an application store, you must have an app store ID. This is usually your email address. Whether or not you remember logging in to it, if you were to open your phone’s app store right now, you would see a profile icon and find your email address there.
Here’s the tricky bit, the country you created your email account in matters. Not every application is available every where in the world, so when you login to the app store, you will only see applications available in the country you created your email account in.
Does that make sense? Confusing I know!
How to get Mexican Phone Applications
Now, if you are just visiting Huatulco, getting Mexican phone applications is probably not that important to you. However if you are here for awhile and want to use helpful applications like Yum Delivery or Mercado Libre, you will need a Mexican email address.📧
Thankfully, this is a very simple process!
While you are using the internet in Mexico, or while using a VPN set to Mexico, create a free email account through Google for the Play store, or through Apple for the App Store.
📧 Once you create the email, login to your app store with that account. With Google Play, you can have multiple accounts set up and easily swipe between them, but with iPhone I believe you have to logout of one account and login to another.
Once you have the Mexican apps you want, you can switch back to your regular app store account, this will have no effect on your applications. 📱
🍏 With Apple products, you will have to login with your Mexican account again to update the apps, but Androids will do this automatically.
How to Get Verification Codes in Mexico
If you are reading this, then you are already more prepared than I was when I moved to Mexico! Something I completely failed to think about is SMS verification codes for logins I commonly use.
Most accounts in 2022 have two-factor identification. This means that in order to login, not only do you have to enter a username and password, you also need to receive a message and enter the code sent to you, most commonly by SMS text message.📱
Now, if you were clever like me and got a Mexican SIM card when you arrived in Huatulco, you are now unable to get SMS messages to your home phone number. This is a problem! Everytime I plugged my Canadian SIM card back in, its cost me $14 in roaming fees – ouch!
Using a secured email address
Thankfully, I discovered secure email addresses. Most banks or other secured sites will not allow you to use a basic email like Gmail for verification codes, but they will allow you to have these verification codes sent to a secured email account.
I chose ProtonMail because it was free and super easy to set up!
Using an Autheticator App
Some online accounts allow you to use an authenticator app like Google Authenticator to generate a random number. This is very convenient, but can be tricky if you lose the device you have the authentication app on.
How to Call Toll-Free from Mexico
Ok, so we have our SIM cards, and we have our secured email account or authentication app, now we need to change the verification settings on all of our accounts.
You might be able to do this by logging into your accounts, but if you are like me it might be too late for that and you are locked out of your accounts until you verify through 2-factor.
You have 2 options:
- If you still have your home SIM card you can pop it into your phone and just pay the fee for the day.
- This will allow you to verify through SMS with your home phone number so you can login and change your verification settings.
- I made a list of all my accounts I needed to do this for and then did them all in one day, so I only had roaming charges for 1 day.
- If you don’t want to pay the roaming fees or don’t have access to your former phone number, you will need to contact your banks and accounts over the phone to change your preferences.
You dial the number on the back of your card – and it doesn’t work. Oh no! You can’t call toll-free numbers from within Mexico!
Well actually, you can call toll-free numbers from within Mexico, you just have to do it in a round about way. Toll free numbers are specific to the US & Canada, so you need to dial the entrance code (001) first. See the table below.
| If the number is: | Dial Instead |
| 1 – 800 | 001 880 |
| 1-866 | 001 883 |
| 1-877 | 001 882 |
| 1-888 | 001 881 |
If you are still having trouble calling your bank’s toll free number, I recommend calling a branch directly and having them transfer you.
I hope this helps solve some of the technical hurdles you have faced in your move or holiday in Huatulco! Now you know that your cell phone will work in Huatulco, and some other tips and tricks to make your transition to life on the Oaxacan coast that much simpler!
