# Cost of internet service in Mexico



## Traveler123

Hi, I've been following this board and several others (in areas such as Lakeside-Chapala and San Miguel). I have a pretty good idea about the costs of living for those cities from reading those forums. My question is about approximate internet costs in other areas of Mexico, not as populated by expats. Is internet available in other cities (such as Queretaro, for example) and if so, how does the cost compare to Chapala and San Miguel, which are close to US monthly costs for internet services. Any info on internet costs in other cities is welcome.


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## RVGRINGO

Internet service is available from Telmex, the various TV Cable companies and some private ISPs. You should not have a problem finding competitive pricing in any city of reasonable size. Even MP3 service is available from Telcel, for example, so that you can even go 'unwired'. There are internet cafés galore and WiFi in coffee shops, hotels, motels, etc. For prices, you might start by using Google to look for providers in your area of interest. Searching in Spanish will get the best results.


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## sparks

I pay $380 pesos for phone and Internet with Telmex in Jocotepec on the west end of Lake Chapala. In Melaque on the coast I was paying $560 for the same service. The difference could be new rates -or- there is more competition here


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## Guest

I live in Queretaro state. I have cable internet through the local cableTV company. They offer 1mg internet service for MX$199 per month, 2 mg for $249 a month, 3 mg for $299 a month, 5 mg for $399 a month, and 6mg for $449 a month.They also run an annual special that if you pay 12 months in advance, you get 14 months service (16%+ discount). 

They have given me very good service. Occasional outages from passing lightning storms (normally in the summertime), which have normally been restored within one hour. I can also pay them over the phone or online instead of trooping to their offices.

There are several other internet providers available locally, and also TelMex.

Note: we used TelMex for internet/telephones in the office, with a dedicated line - a mistake IMHO. High commercial cost, several outages between 2 hours and more than a day over the past two years, and we were a high-volume customer. Tough to deal with when there were 50+users without internet access, or telephones. TelMex was slow to respond or correct the problems, and they have a large local office with techs.


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## conklinwh

I think the key is whether there are viable competitors to Telmex or not.
Telmet will only offer internet services grudgingly and at much higher costs till competition shows up.
We are in Mineral de Pozos, a colonia of San Luis de la Paz, Gto. We are still pretty much dial-up at an inflated cost. There is no cable TV supplier. We have brought in both satellite & microwave folk but initial costs prohibitive. Only real option is "3G" from Telcel or USACELL and I put in quotes because we really get "2G" rates of about 200kb max.
Interesting that even our meager efforts have caused Telmex to do a survey of interest. We are struggling to get to their 50 commit requirement as we have only about 20 full time/part time expat homes and a total of about 2500 residents.


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## Queretaro

Also from Querétaro. We pay about $270.00 pesos a month for internet/cable with Cablecom. 2 meg connection. This prices is slightly lower because we pay 6 months in advance. You asked about internet availability in Querétaro as well. It is everywhere. In fact all the plazas in the centro have free WiFi.

And as far as general internet access in Mexico. From what I have seen from traveling, it is almost everywhere. I have stopped in small villages all over the place and there is at least 1 internet cafe. There are some exceptions, like the previous poster stated, but it is rare.


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## El Toro Furioso

sparks said:


> I pay $380 pesos for phone and Internet with Telmex in Jocotepec on the west end of Lake Chapala. In Melaque on the coast I was paying $560 for the same service. The difference could be new rates -or- there is more competition here


We pay the opposite: $389/month in La Manzanilla and $589/month in Ajijic (San Antonio). They are simply two different phone + ISDN packages. The $389 package out of Telmex in Manzanillo is terrible. We're going to have to upgrade to a faster connection. The higher-priced package on Lake Chapala has been serviceable and the price hasn't gone up in over four years.


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## conklinwh

I believe that the issue again is competition. Where Carlos Slim and Telmex have a viable competitor such as high speed internet over cable, there prices and even service get better.
Where they don't have competition, they don't.
To earlier note, you are right that most towns have internet cafe but not necessarily wireless or high speed. 
I'm nor back in Pozos and using 3G adapter although only get about 200kb so somewhat limited.


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## BryansRose

I'm in San Luis Potosi. I have a package deal with Cablecom that gives me unlimited local phone, their mid-range speed internet, digital cable TV with HBO and other premium channels, for 780 pesos a month. The TV is very reliable, the internet connection mostly so, but the telephone service goes out fairly frequently, and there are times when I can call out fine but people tell me they can't get through to me.


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## conklinwh

Telmex has bowed to some pressure but "magically" interconnect to and from Telmex land phones experiences some difficulty to point that when I was in San Miguel, most used cable to/from the US via Vonage or the like while maintaining a local Telmex phone.
I'm not surprised if what you are experiencing is via the Telmex gateway from your cable supplier.


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