Cellphones: Calling-Using-Buying-Importing-Activating-Renting
PrePaid SIM & Personal Lite
I made the same discovery on arrival in January. In addition to the bad news at Movil, the lines were packed should you want to establish service.
Wandered down Florida and found Personal, bought a Personal Lite subscription. One add-on to the experience, after getting the SIM card, the guy walked me out into the Florida median to buy some Personal recarga cards from a kiosk. SIM and cards in hand I still didn't have phone service. Had to wait a couple of hours, call the guy back at his little office and they read the phone number to me over the phone. After that I had a number for the phone and I believe it was after that when I could charge the phone with pesos and become active. The phone is registered in the seller's name, not mine, so calling up the phone company I always have to explain why it's not my name. One more issue to be navigated in Spanish.
A couple of other "issues": when you recharge the phone you must navigate the instructions in Spanish, then enter the special numbers you've scratched to on the back of the Personal Lite recharge card. Sometimes the computer voice will tell you you've entered an invalid number. DON'T give up, just re-enter the number, keep re-entering until it accepts it.
: sometimes trying to get to the recharge service can take more than one call. Your call may drop, repeatedly, before you get through.
: if you run out of money on the phone, don't expect to be able to re-charge it with fresh pesos and keep on going. It can take 30 to 120 minutes to get service back. If you, wisely, charge it up while you've still got some credit on there it's a seamless process and there's no interruption.
: with Personal Lite you can charge up to $100 pesos. You buy cards in $10 or $20 pesos sizes
Got my Sim card today, CTI Movil 50 pesos for simcard w/50 pesos of credit
If you don't want to read the long story. Here's the bottom line. Go get a CTI MOVIL simcard with 50 pesos of credit for 50 pesos. No need for names, passports or anything but 50 pesos. If you want a Personal sim card, shop since the price quotes varied from 25 to 40 pesos with 0 credits for me.
By the way, here's what I said in my California Spanglish to ask for the card:
"Yo queiro compra prepagos simcard." Some of them referred to the simcard as "el chip".
At first I stopped by a local mom and pop store Palermo by my hotel. She quizzed me about the phone but then said I could get a Personal simcard for 30 pesos and buy time in increments of 10 pesos each. Being the super cheap bastard that I am, I decided to shop. I went all along Florida street and asked numerous Telefonica shops and some Personal shops about a pre paid simcard. All the Telefonica shops said you can't buy one and all but one of the Personal shops said the same. The one that didn't wanted 40 pesos for the sim card. I turned on Correintes to head back to Palermo. I stopped by the big main Telefonica super center there. Everyone hear speaks English. Many of the conversations with the customers are in English. The receptionist said they sold prepaid simcards but I would have to get my phone approved first. I went to the tech window. The tech and I had a discussion about wheter my phone would work in Argentina. He says no, I say yes. He finally relents after he pops in a simcard and it works. He says I'm good. I asked him how much a prepaid simcard is. He says 20 pesos and that I should talk to an agent. I get to the agent and he tells me they don't sell prepaid sim cards anymore. I wished everyone else knew that before putting me through the process. I head out and stop by another local mom and pop. They are selling Personal simcards for 25 pesos. I almost bite but decided to check with another place since the prices are so variable. I stop by CTI Movil. I saw a ton of their shops but didn't stop because I didn't think they were an option. Jackpot. They sent me to a tech as well to check out my phone. We had the same discussion as the last tech which got resolved when she put her simcard in and it worked. I didn't mind at all this time since she was hot. Anyways, I got a CTI Movil simcard for 50 pesos that also has 50 pesos of credit. The best deal of them all. They didn't ask for my name or passport or anything other than 50 pesos. My advice is to just go to CTI Movil.
Variable service, Variable responses!
JGB, for the good of the board, just post which CTI movil store you went to. As a bonus, also post which hot tech agent you talked to!
Three weeks ago the CTI movil in Florida and Paraguay said they do NOT sell prepaid SIM cards! Go figure!
Another Choice for Calling the USA from Argentina
I need to accept business calls and personal calls from ba in the usa.
[url]www.telefonicaeurocom.com[/url]
outlines two services which might be helpful:
-I have a BA telephone number which rings in miami. the cost is us$ 13. monthly. This allows my business to have
a local ba number without paying to staff it. A second line is us$5.00 per monthly.
-You could have one BA line which rings at the office and another at home for us$ monthly.
Vonage is great. This is another alternative which may make sense for some one like my self who is servicing argentines from an office location in the usa or someone who is living in ba and needs to stay in contact with an office in the usa.
Telefonica also has a number of long distance international services--calling cards and international lond distance that are worth looking at. It is not as reliable as AT&T, but it's pretty good.
bob
Bringing your own cell phone
On my last trip I purchased a SIM card from Telefonica for $20 pesos and they gave me $50 pesos of airtime for free. I put the SIM card in my Nokia tri-band phone from the USA and it worked great. However, it's necessary to get your cell phone unlocked if you decide to do this.
Just another option,
-HGL