Has anyone used a cellphone that uses sim cards in Guatemala? I have one and wondered if it's worth bringing and how readily available sim cards are or if it is a complete waste of time. My dear old Mother loves for me to check in with here now and again, since she hears nothing but all the bad press about anywhere south of California. Thanks!!!
1
4boys1girl
as far as i know sims cards from the usa do not work, they have to convert the chip to something that can work in guatemala i bought a cheap phone brand claro in telegua (guatemala phone company, for Q140 and 100 minutes with it, i also bought a spared Q100 card, i used my phone to call my dear old mom in California as well, (seriously i did ) and spent 6 minutes of my 100 minutes, one thing there is not way that you can use your cell in tikal, no reception sorry. i tried did not work
2
delmonte
Like she said you can buy a cell phone from any of the three cell phone operators in the country for about $18 (Q140) including some air time that you can use to call anywhere in the world. Or you can bring an unlocked cell phone and buy like I did a SIM card which are readily available for about Q75 ($10). Then you can buy additional air time anywhere including pharmacies. My cheap Nokia phone worked better in guatemala than here in the states, but I didn't use it around Tikal. Good luck.
3
lovemydogs
You need to order a SIM card for use in Guatemala. Ours cost a lot and then didn't work. We bought a TIGO phone and found it worked very well for our calls home to our kids in the US each day. However, we never did get it to work for local calls. Other people we saw with Tigo didn't have that problem. No one could figure out why. Also be sure when you buy it, it's programmed in English if you want it to be. We were amazed at how good the cell coverage was. The only place the Tigo phone didn't work was in San Marcos de Atitlan.
We paid around $20 US in Guat City for the phone and didn't use anywhere near all our minutes. We gave it to our cab driver at the airport when we left!
4
delmonte
I bought my SIM card from Movistar in Antigua for Q75 ($10) including some air time, and it worked fine the whole time I was there. I was able to buy additional air time at pharmacies and it only took seconds to reload. Very clear reception, no dropped calls. And like I said before, my cell phone worked in guatemala better than here in the states.
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