Futurephone, Skype, Mexico, and long distance romance
Skype Journal reader Arcadio Pesqueira Osuna called me last week. A 23-year-old software engineer from Mazatlan, Mexico (average February low is 67 degrees Fahrenheit), Aracadio works in Charlotte, North Carolina (34F/1C).
He'd been using minute stealer Futurephone to call his girlfriend in Guadalajara. "Sometimes I called Mexico for more than an hour daily with perfect voice quality, but their service is no longer available..." Then Futurephone shut its doors. "They didn't have a revenue model that could sustain free calls for a long period of time."
So Arcadio switched to Skype.
"I use Skype daily (pc to pc) to call my girlfriend in Mexico. And sometimes I buy SkypeOut to call my parents in Mexico to their landlines."
Love triumphs over tariffs.
About Mexican access to Skype: "I think that Skype is way overpriced for Mexico." Mexican SkypeOut costs five times Skype's global rate. While the global rate is about 2 cents per minute, it only applies in Mexico City and Monterrey. It's 3 cents in Guadalajara but it's 10 cents everywhere else in Mexico, and 33 cents to mobiles. "Sometimes it is cheaper to call the States from Mexico than calling a Mexican cell phone."
Broadband to the home is expensive too. Only 19% of Mexico's 108 million people have any internet access. Could Telmex's near monopoly be keeping prices high, mobile adoption up, and broadband adoption slow?
On his Skype wishlist? "Introduce a USA/Latin America deal. There's a whole lot of people from Latin America in the States that would rush to buy a package in which they can call back home. And on the other end, people from latin America would like to also have an unlimited plan to call the States. The 29.95 plan [unlimited United States and Canada] is awesome, but it's a shame that only can be used inside USA/Canada. It's kind of a waste because almost everyone here has unlimited nights and weekends."
See also:
Comments
He could try our allfreecalls.net
Posted by: Pat Phelan | February 15, 2007 03:58 PM
Before I went to Cozumel and Cancun in late November I researched the rates for mobile phone calls back to Canada on my Rogers plan: C$3 per minute! So I simply turned off my Blackberry and enjoyed the solitude.
On the other hand the hotel we were at did offer a plan to call back to US/Canada: unlimited minutes @ $20 per day or $65 per week. Otherwise you were looking at some very expensive per minute rates via the hotel switchboard. The Mexican phone monopolies (one for landline - Telefonos - and another for mobile - Telmex) demonstrate what happens in a country where there is truly little or no competition.
Posted by: Jim Courtney | February 15, 2007 07:11 PM
Hi Phil Wolff, I guess you forgot to include the connection charges! Is it a kinda coverup for skype? :( I think you already know global rates+connection charges are higher than 2 cents!
Posted by: U. Yogu | February 15, 2007 08:18 PM
I agree, Skype is a great way to call long distance for affordable prices, but customers should still browse around to search for the best service suited for them such as http://nationwideLD.com
Posted by: Fred Welsh | April 10, 2007 05:54 AM
Wow that is very low in mexico. I hope more high speed internet providers offer services everywhere in the world. I am glad i live in the new york. http://ispsurvey.com
Posted by: john | November 17, 2007 08:59 PM