Cell Phones in Chile

You can easily rent a cell phone in Chile from any of the networks, Moviestar, Entel or Claro. They all have outlets in the airport. I can't advise on prices, but it would not be US1.50 a minute.

You can buy a basic phone which costs about 30.00 US$. Local pre-paid calls in Argentina cost 0.24 US$ per minute. I assume the price in Chile is about the same. International calls are about 1.50 US$ per minute. Renting a phone is very expensive.

Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.

Perhaps I did not ask questions at the right place but I could not find a cellular to rent last month in Santiago. I did not check at the airport and should have. Chile is too advance not to have cellulars to rent so I must be wrong. However, the cheapest option to call USA is to purchase a telephone card and use it from home at about 50 pesos a minute. There are also telephone centers in the main streets , every three blocks it seems, where prices vary between 80 to 150 pesos a minute. The dollar exchange was 512 pesos.

When I was in Chile a decade ago, the providers posted their rates in El Mecurio every Sunday and you choose your provider for the next week. I was on the ferry from Ancud to the mainland on Christmas day. There were about three dozen Isralie mochileros on the boat and I just gave them my phone. $.03/min anywhere in the world beween Xmas and New Years. The whole day cost me aout Us$20 and aout 50 folks got to call home. ONe of the greatest days of my life....g

I agree with an earlier post you may as well buy a phone here you can pick one up with the phone for about $30 with some credit. If you asked around, you could probably just get a sim card and use it in your old phone if its compatible. I was doing this to start with but the phone compnay blocked me for not using the handset i bought it with though.

I have been sending texts home to Aust and getting replies not sure about phone costs , but I would suggest passing the number onto loved ones at home and they can ring you on your Chilean mobile with a US phone card its a very cheap option.

Dave -
When you arrive in Santiago you need to go upstairs, from the baggage area, and there are 2 or 3 cell phone services you can select from. The one we used is really good and you only pay for each call. We traveled down to Pucon and the service worked in the lake region as well.

As far as your other thread - When we were in Pucon, we used "Politour" for our white water rafting and guide to climb the volcano at villarica. We had our own car for our trip, but after meeting some backpackers, they mentioned that they could catch the night bus from city to city (ideally for the long journey), sleep on the bus and then begin a new adventure when they arrived at the next city.

Hope this helps!

Carlos...