Cellphones: Calling-Using-Buying-Importing-Activating-Renting

The best deal you can get is getting yourself one of the (free!) "recarga facil" cards at any Pago Facil place. These are credit card sized cards with a barcode and a number at the front.

Once you have one, you have to register your cell phone number with the company (also free;)) and then you are ready to go.

Every time you use this card to re-charge the minutes on your phone, you get 20% extra. That makes a big difference.:)

The other nice thing about the cards is that you can re-charge the minutes at every Pago Facil. I normally use Farmacity outlets for this.

As far as I know it is possible to use these cards for every cell phone company.

Another benefit of this card is that you can leave the card behind in Argentina while you are outside of the country. A friend can then keep the line active by just putting $10 every month on the phone. This is great for the frequent visitors.

PS You can use Personal "Lite" phones in the USA to send/receive messages and to make calls if you want. Makes it easy to make arrangements before you come over... :D

My cell phone is displaying ¨divert on¨ when I try to make a call, and the calls are not getting through. Can anyone, I hope, tell me what this means?

Thanks,

Bob

[QUOTE=AllIWantisLove]My cell phone is displaying ¨divert on¨ when I try to make a call, and the calls are not getting through. Can anyone, I hope, tell me what this means?

Thanks, Bob[/QUOTE]It appears you activated your divert call feature. See which one of the following codes you need to type in to undo the divert call feature. You might want to look at your manual. I think you might want to try the "Deactivate unconditionally divert all calls" code below. Also, here is a site that might be of help. Suerte.

[url]http://www.wynasia.com/gsm_standard_codes.htm[/url]

De-register all call diversions ##002#©

Set all configured call diversions to number and activate.

**004*number#©

De-register all configured call diversions (no answer, not reachable,

Busy) ##004#©

Unconditionally divert all calls to number and activate **21*number#©

Activate unconditionally divert all calls *21#©

De-register unconditionally divert all calls ##21#©

Deactivate unconditionally divert all calls #21#©

Check status of unconditionally divert all calls *#21#©

Divert on no answer to number and activate **61*number#©

Activate divert on no answer *61#©

De-register divert on no answer ##61#©

Deactivate divert on no answer #61#©

Check status of divert on no answer *#61#©

Divert on not reachable to number and activate **62*number#©

Activate divert on not reachable *62#©

De-register divert on not reachable ##62#©

Deactivate divert on not reachable #62#©

Check status of divert on not reachable *#62#©

Divert on busy to number and activate / td> **67*number#©<

Activate divert on busy *67#©

De-register divert on busy ##67#©

Deactivate divert on busy #67#©

Check status of divert on busy *#67#©

Change number of seconds of ringing for the given service before.

Diverting a call (such as on no answer) Seconds must be a value from.

5 to 30. De-registering the same divert will also delete this change!

**service*number**seconds#© (Service numbers, see below)

© = <send>

Brought in two quad band cellphones from the US. One is unlocked which worked perfectly, inserted my local SIM in the slot and I was able to use it immediately.

The other one is locked which obviously I had to have unlocked. An Argie friend accompanied me to Ave. Corrientes from the corner of Pasteur to Azcuenaga which according to him is the center of cellphone "unlockers", if there is such a word. He suggested that he do it for me because I might be charged the foreigner's price. After about 15 minutes he was out of store with an unlocked phone. Cost of unlocking the phone is 50 pesos including a SIM card.

I walked by Maipu y Florida this afternoon and noticed the CTI store is now called Claro. I went inside and asked if anything else has changed besides the company name. I was told the company name change took place on MAR 25th but everything else remains the same, phone number, PIN, airtime credit, rate. Etc. But to check the balance of your airtime, go to [url]www.claroargentina.com[/url] instead. The old CTI site still works for now. On my cell phone, the carrier still says CTI Movil.

Is it a good deal? Like AAA Apartment Rental offer on their website cell phone rentals anyone tried this? In peru at the airport, when you go to the baggage claim theres lots of girls offering cell phone rentals (I've never gotten it) I was wondering if its the same in BA. Is it better to buy an unlock cheap cell phone in BA. You can get one on ebay for like US$75 (is it cheaper in BA)

Thanks!

I bought a quad band phone on eBay for $10, and then paid 55 pesos to get the phone unlocked on Lavalle. Unless you really need a cell phone for a few days, I'd buy a phone before you get there, plus you can use it in other countries.

Unlocked Quad Band GSM phones can be gotten on ebay for as little as $25 for a used moto V166 or V180 or as much as you want to pay for better ones. I paid $42 for a virtually unused Moto V190 (which is quite a bit better than the V180) I have used it in several countries in Asia, as well as the Dominican Republic and Argentina - as well as the U. S. On T-Mobile.

I'm using a personal SIM card, that cost me 20 pesos, but came with 20 pesos of time.

Just returned from B. A. I'm trying to call some contacts with cell phones in Argentina from the states but I'm having no luck what so ever getting through.

Can anyone offer me any advice on how to call an Argenitne cell number from the states.

Thanks,

Bandit

Calling BsAs cell phone number 15-XXXX-XXXX from a landline in the US, use 011-54-911-XXXX-XXXX. From a cell phone: press and hold the "0" key until "+" comes up, then 54-911-XXXX-XXXX.

Next time, I suggest scanning the forum for your qestion before starting a new thread. Check out this thread:

[url]http://www.argentinaprivate.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2898[/url]

Hi have Nokia 7610 which is unlocked, so I'm pretty sure it will be fine in ARG. What's the average peso / minute conversion. I'll be down for about 5 weeks, so given a reasonable amount of in county conversation, what do you think that will run me.

Thanks,

C

They have a seperate transmission frequency to some other places. Nokia uses different codes so I can't tell you what to look for. However if you PM me I will give you the code on my phone. You can buy the cheapest Nokia here for about U$40 plus U$10 for the SIM. The best option if you cell frequency doesn't work.

Argento

I travel to BA about 4 times per year. If you have the sim card or chip registered with personal at their ofiice and in their computer under your name and passport number, it is easy to retrieve when is has been turned off because of non-use for over 180 days. If you purchase a chip that is not properly registered, you cannot reactivate it--it is garbage. You have lost your cel# and the purchase price of the card. A new chip costs 7 pesos. My ritual is to go to the personal store on Callao between Santa fe and Marcelo T Alvear and show a copy of my passport and reactivate my cell. I like keeping the same number. If I'm out of the country 90 days, the chip is almost always inactive and I have the personal people turn it back on.

At the store I can buy time in 99 peso blocks at a lower cost per minute than the 10 peso cards that you find on the street.

Both Personal and Movistar are good carriers. My fist chip was with CTI (now Claro)they have a better deal with you are traveling around the interior of argentina.

In BA, CTI's (now Claro) service is third rate. I would never use cti again after experiencing movistar and personal.

I know a guy who spends half his time in Santa Fe and half in the Capital Federal. He owns 2 phones: Movistar in BA and CTI (now Claro) for the country.

[QUOTE=WorldTravel69]They sell Sim Cards near the Retiro train station for about 5p.

I do not know about what number you will have and how to activate it.

I have also seen them being sold on Corrienties.[/QUOTE]Can anyone elaborate on this? Corrientes and Retiro are big areas to search.

I just need a sim, and I am not picky on the provider.