Field report: GSM in Mexico

[Mychaela Falconia]

Hello FreeCalypso community,

Last week I got my gender confirmation surgery done at a Mexican
hospital, and I am now staying at a post-surgery recovery facility (a
place like an extended stay hotel, but with nurses looking after
patients) in Tijuana, the city in Mexico that is right next to the
border with USA.

Being the kind of girl who is *really* devoted to GSM, I could not
pass up the opportunity to explore the GSM situation in Mexico while I
am here, thus I am doing this exploration despite simultaneously
dealing with significant physical discomforts related to being less
than a week out of major surgery.  Here are my findings:

* There is just one GSM network operator in this non-Rhizomatica part
of Mexico, and this operator is Telcel, aka MCC-MNC 334-020.

* I and my family have legacy T-Mobile USA SIM cards (the kind which
one cannot get any more), and these SIMs roam successfully on Telcel
here in Tijuana.

* For those who are not fortunate enough to have no-longer-obtainable
legacy T-Mobile SIMs, I got good news: unlike T-Mobile USA, currently
available Mexican Telcel SIMs (the ones you can buy at any Telcel
store or wherever they sell these things - I had my medical tourism
coordinator people get me one) are NOT hobbled, i.e., they still have
the classic GSM 11.11 SIM application present, in addition to the
USIM/ISIM crap.  Furthermore, this GSM support is official: the
original Telcel paper wrapper in which my SIM was delivered says on
it: "Compatible con GSM, 3G y 4G" - GSM listed as officially supported
in addition to the 3G/4G abomination.

So if any other GSM/2G technology lovers decide to visit Mexico
(perhaps for 2G tourism!), Telcel is the way to go.

Hasta la Victoria, Siempre,
Mychaela aka The Mother