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Does Mexico AT&T celular work while in the U.S.?


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Southland and Moneylost, yes, if it’s those 2-year prepaid all at once.

I prepaid for one of those gringo plans at AT&T that had free roaming Canada-USA-Mexico, prepaid for 2 years. It averages less than 15 dollars a month when paid for 2 years upfront.  Not bad for unlimited 3-country calling/texting + 6 GB data per month.  

About 400 Canadian or 300 USD.  Pay once, no bills for 2 years.  300 divided by 24 is literally barely above 12 bucks USD a month or so, averaged.  All those plans does include free roaming in the 3 North America countries.

I got it at the AT&T at Juan Alvarez 73 Ajijic, I was told that it included Canada-USA-Mexico roaming in the flat price.  

I also have a Telcel SIM in another iPad, Telcel is a bit faster, and to diversify my reception, but it is data-only and a hella lot more expensive per GB. For this reason I recommend one SIM of each. AT&T Mexico is the cheapest prepaid unlimited North America roaming available.

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It depends on when you sign up. We have Telcel Mexico Canada USA unlimited calls with 1gb data, on a monthly billing for $199 a month. Never have used up our 1gb data because we always connect to wifi when possible. 

Checked for a friend 3 months ago and that plan wasn't available at that time. 

The OP did not state what plan they had. Thus check to see if US roaming is free or extra charge per minute. 

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Mine is supposed to work in the US.  Last trip, it stopped working.  I went into an AT&T store in Houston (actually went to three stores), and no one could help as they have NO record of any plan purchased in Mexico.

The only thing that worked was WhatsApp.

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On 5/23/2021 at 3:38 PM, Zeb said:

Mine is supposed to work in the US.  Last trip, it stopped working.  I went into an AT&T store in Houston (actually went to three stores), and no one could help as they have NO record of any plan purchased in Mexico.

The only thing that worked was WhatsApp.

I made sure to purchase my AT&T SIM card from a real AT&T Mexico location rather than a reseller, and to keep my contract documents. Very important. 

I'll monitor how my AT&T card works when I return back to Canada.

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17 hours ago, GDouglas said:

I made sure to purchase my AT&T SIM card from a real AT&T Mexico location rather than a reseller, and to keep my contract documents. Very important. 

I'll monitor how my AT&T card works when I return back to Canada.

My plan was purchased at an AT&T retail store but, evidently, the records are not connected to the US.

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On 5/25/2021 at 4:24 PM, Zeb said:

My plan was purchased at an AT&T retail store but, evidently, the records are not connected to the US.

Try facebook.com/attmx -> 💬Message

Have this information handy:
1. Your MX phone number
2. Your IMEI number (number printed on surface of SIM card)
TIP: Sometimes the numbers on the SIM chip are too tiny to read, just use your smartphone camera to magnify the numbers!

If you can't write Spanish, use Google Translate as necessary to chat to them in Spanish

I figured out a problem this way. My AT&T stopped working because I ran out of data allowance, but data started working again once the billing month rolled over.  For your situation, it might theoretically be possible there is a monthly limit on number of roaming minutes / roaming texts while physically outside of Mexico. But I have not confirmed that part.

I could refill extra data via "8. Recargas" on the AT&T Mexico Chat Robot at Facebook.

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1 hour ago, GDouglas said:

Try facebook.com/attmx -> 💬Message

Have this information handy:
1. Your MX phone number
2. Your IMEI number (number printed on surface of SIM card)
TIP: Sometimes the numbers on the SIM chip are too tiny to read, just use your smartphone camera to magnify the numbers!

If you can't write Spanish, use Google Translate as necessary to chat to them in Spanish

I figured out a problem this way. My AT&T stopped working because I ran out of data allowance, but data started working again once the billing month rolled over.  For your situation, it might theoretically be possible there is a monthly limit on number of roaming minutes / roaming texts while physically outside of Mexico. But I have not confirmed that part.

I could refill extra data via "8. Recargas" on the AT&T Mexico Chat Robot at Facebook.

As I had my phone with me, they had he number and access to the SIM card.  I had someone go to the shop in Ajijic and add data.  That did not help.

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1 hour ago, Zeb said:

As I had my phone with me, they had he number and access to the SIM card.  I had someone go to the shop in Ajijic and add data.  That did not help.

There's also a less-well-known solution for SIM cards physically located far away from you... This post may not help you at this time.  But it will help other people with the same problem. Web boards are read by hundreds or thousands of people!

Via the Spanish-speaking Mexico chat robot, select 8 (Recharge), then it will ask you to visit couple of websites.  Intentionally ignore that specific advice. 

When it asks you if it fixed your problem (in Spanish), tell it "No" (did not fix problem) and the chat robot will transfer you to a AT&T Mexico human who can refill for you

Be prepared to chat to a Spanish-speaking AT&T support, with Google Translate.

Easier on a computer, so you can translate faster in two browser windows (facebook.com/messenger alongside a translate.google.com window side-by-side on a desktop computer)

If somebody else has the phone running with the SIM chip, ask them to give you the 15-digit IMEI number (Settings -> General -> About -> Scroll Down -> IMEI).

If the SIM chip not already inside a phone, tell your friend to photograph a zoomed photo of the SIM chip and send you the number or the photo (SIM chips has display 3 rows of 5 numbers printed on them -- that's the chip's 15 digit IMEI number)

Armed with the IMEI number, it is now possible to refill a far-away SIM card not in your possession!   

So in this case, 3-country catch-22 is possible to solve:
...Somebody physically in Canada on a Canadian Internet connection
...can refill a distant AT&T Mexico SIM card
...that is physically located in United States in family member's phone.

849260F8-4BAE-4157-907F-6583204DCD42.thumb.jpeg.c9b3e194d42e35abc5fb8f37472cfba8.jpeg

Or if you can't speak spanish, launch Google Chrome, and:
1. Start the chat first via facebook.com/attmx -> Message with a "hola" message.
2. Then immediately afterwards, go to facebook.com/messages to continue chatting in a bigger browser window.
3. Get a little help from the Google Chrome translator, by right clicking every message to translate them.

image.png.0676ed75c6b6fa9ead2f373a06b98c76.png

The great thing about chats is you can be slow back-and-fourth.

This buys you time to use Google Translate in the middle of a  live Facebook Chat.

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We live in Ajijic but ae visiting family and friends in Illinois after getting  a vaccine in Texas. I have a USA AT&T plan, so no problem. My wife has a Mexico sim and plan. When we crossed the border the phone let her know that it switched to USA towers but the data, whatsapp and such did not work until I told her to restart her phone. 

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