Mongers,
Could someone in possession of a Movistar GSM cellular phone please post what number is programmed into their phone to check their voicemail. I recently got a new phone from the USA and put my SIM card in the new phone, and the voicemail number did not carry over, I need to program it into the new phone. The number should be *followed by several numbers.
Suerte,
Dirk Diggler
Dial 555, by default password is 1234 for any cellphone
I was there a few yrs ago and got a phone. I don't remember the details. What is the absolute easiest way to get a phone for a week? I do alot of Clarin so I make many calls. I'm looking for a quick setup. Last time a guy met me at Art Suites and brought it over. All help appreciated.
Gg
[QUOTE=WhiteCat]I was there a few yrs ago and got a phone. I don't remember the details. What is the absolute easiest way to get a phone for a week? I do alot of Clarin so I make many calls. I'm looking for a quick setup. Last time a guy met me at Art Suites and brought it over. All help appreciated.
I think you are better off buying a phone and buying the phone cards for it. I bought a phone from Citi movil for 110ps it came with a twenty peso credit.
Whitecat-
If you are going to go with the buying a phone route, I recommend buying a movistar phone which you can get for $99 AR including $50 AR of phone credit. Movistar is the best service in Argentina, sort of like the Verizon of Argentina. I know several people who use CTI and they all assure me that it totally SUCKS. Personal is better than CTI but still inferior to Movistar.
Suerte,
Dirk Diggler
Although I do recommend having a cell phone (I agree with Dirk that it is worth buying a prepaid rather then rental, especially if you are planning on coming back) keep in mind that most Clarin ads will not send anyone on a "date" if they cannot verify your address by calling back a listed land-line number, preferably listed in your name.
This can be a problem in a hotel with no phone in the room, or in an apartment, because frequently apartment phones are blocked from calling cell phones (due to the surcharges on calls to cell phones)
You can ask in advance if you can call cell phones from an apartment you are planning on renting, but be prepared to be unpleasantly surprised when they say yes but it turns out to be no. In fact, many apartments which say they have a phone, although technically true, in real life have the service turned off and can't be activated in the time you have available on a week or two vacation, especially if you don't speak enough Spanish to do it yourself!
Since most of those Clain ads are for Privados, it may be worth the trouble to call, get the address and go visit the place. This will also let you pick your date, rather then taking pot luck!
If you do buy a phone, don't overcharge it with credits, as they expire after a month or so, and try to carry an extra 10 peso card with you, as running out of credits is a pain, and frequently (esp. At night) buying a card can be tough.
Movistar may arguably be the "best" service, but Personal is cheaper. This is hard to quantify, because per minute rates are figured in some cryptic Argentine way so it appears impossible to calculate the exact cost, but 10 pesos of Personal credit lasts longer then Movistar. This may be due in part to the fact that it costs less to call someone on "your" network then a different one, and most chicas seem to use Personal.
However, Movistar is the only service which will sell you a phone without a DNI, although used-phone stores will sell you a prepaid phone for any given network they have in stock.
Just my 2 centavos!
David
[blue]==============================================
Greetings everyone,
Let me append Dave's comments by adding that the land-line telephones at my apartment and at Capt Dave's Mansion [u]are not[/u] restricted and thus may be used to call cellphones.
Thanks,
Jackson[/blue]
[QUOTE=Capt Dave]However, Movistar is the only service which will sell you a phone without a DNI, although used-phone stores will sell you a prepaid phone for any given network they have in stock.
I have bought two cell phones from Personal without any problem of DNI?
Get Peter Coors to buy your cell phone for you. He just got a DNI. Oh wait a minute, that was a DUI.
Mongers-
The way it works with Movistar prepaid phone cards is that the more credit you buy, the more value you get for your money. For example, if you buy a $20 card you get a better rate on minutes than if you buy the $10 card. Plus with the $20 card you are given an allottment of text messages free of charge. If you buy the $50 card (harder to find at kioskos) you get an even better rate (essentially the same one, minute per minute, that a person using the $50 per month contract would get) All of this information was obtained by simply reading the back of the phone cards and by listening to the automated Movistar system.
Suerte,
Dirk Diggler
Please, can anyone recommend a shop where cheap cell phones are for sale along with a Moviestar chip?
Thanks,
Jackpot
I believe this has already been covered.
I think you can go to the main Movistar office on Corrientes 645. Without a DNI you can only get a prepaid phone IIRC. They also have branches throughout Capital, including at least one on Santa Fe in Barrio Norte.
Check out their site at [url]http://www.movistar.com.ar/[/url].
For all the CTI users beware of a recent change in their credit balance carry-over policy. Until recently, if you had a credit balance - it would remain in place even if you only recharged after the air time window expired. NOT anymore, recharge before the expiration or lose it - I learned the hard way.
Would be interested what Movistar and Personal are currently doing on this same front - if some others could provide feedback. When the CTI messaging system was down for most of this weekend, I failed to recharge before expiration - losing all my credit. The CTI response: "Sorry - but that is the way it is"!
Alan
Unfortunately, I experienced the same. CTI got less user friendly in several ways. First, about a year ago, they started to enforce the half year rule (after 7 months, I think it's 6 plus the running, of not using your phone your SIM card and with that your number expires) and now that.
In fact, that's nothing more than a hidden price increase.
Another thing, these days it was incredibly difficult to credit one's accoun t. 9 out of 10 times instead of accepting the "tarjeta's" code, I heard nothing or a mesage that they would be unable to process my request at the time. Also, the main office at Florida / Paraguay declared to be unable to sell me 50 or 100 peso cards due to "computer problems".
In short, presently CTI sucks.
El Alemán
[QUOTE=Alan23]
Would be interested what Movistar and Personal are currently doing on this same front - if some others could provide feedback. When the CTI messaging system was down for most of this weekend, I failed to recharge before expiration - losing all my credit. The CTI response: "Sorry - but that is the way it is"!
Alan[/QUOTE]Same happened to me yesterday with Personal. They told me something about 8 month validity. Will get a new one today for 5 pesos as they said.
Credit is lost. I am used to it from Brasil. I was so fed up that I let them expire now and I'm getting a new number every trip.
[QUOTE=Moore]This subject may have been covered but I can't find where.
I need to buy a US cell phone and I would like for it to work overseas as well. Everyone tells me to use Verizon (they seem to be in every shopping center) but I asked a sales rep about it and he said that since their phones use CDMA, they rarely work overseas. Shit even my happy meal Argentine phone works overseas, in USA at least. Its a cheap Motorola from Movistar but I guess it has GSM? No idea.
I had a T-Mobile phone issued by an employer a few years back and it worked everywhere I went, which was many countries / continents. It was a basic model with no color / camera and sometimes I had to change the band (on the menu options upon arriving to a new country, but it never failed anywhere I went.
What should I buy in USA then? The phone will be used mostly in USA, but it's very convenient sometimes to have a phone that works internationally, if just to make a single life-saving 2 minute call from a Budapest backalley.
Thanks for your advice,
Moore[/QUOTE]Get any motorola quad band gsm phone. Bands are 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHZ.
They are functioning, under gsm, every where in the world.