The Telcel robbery we may never hear about

[colleen]

I searched the internet looking for information and found only this http://downdetector.mx/estado/telcel/Guanajuato. I guess people don't go to the Telcel office. I don't use my cell much and didn't use it on Saturday until in the evening when I sent and received a message, made a call and received a call when I wasn't in Pastita. On Sunday afternoon while in LaComer/Mega I ran into friends I hadn't seen in awhile. One of them wanted my number so gave me his and I called him. We each now had the other as a contact. No problem. By early evening I attempted to make a call from home, off the Panoramica in Colonia Pastita. I got a message saying "No network connection, emergency calls only". I tried several times and got the same message.

Yesterday, Monday morning I went to pick up a friend in Yerba Buena. She knew I was outside but I tried to call her. No problem. We went back to my house and I still didn't have a network connection. I dropped her off and went to Telcel. The woman near the entry gave me a slip of paper after doing something with my phone and sent me to a woman who spoke English. I told her what happened and she got a strange expression on her face and motioned to a jefe or ejecutivo to come over. This man was very open and I should have asked more questions. At that time I didn't know that I didn't have a network on Sat as well as Sun. He said that there had been a robbery (I should have asked where). Some large equipment knocked down a wall then stole all the antennas, cables, everything. He said it affects all of Pastita from Embajadoras up to where I live. He said "this will take more than weeks, it will take months to fix". All I was thinking is that I need a different provider where I can keep the same number and get the same unlimited international calls. When he said they were going to ask the US for help. I couldn't figure that out. What would they ask for? I knew that, even tho he was very open, I would be overwhelmed with the Spanish and not understand if I asked too many questions. It was only Pastita that was without a network.

I had a lunch date with amigas at 12:30 in Centro. On the way home, while near Hotel Embajadopras my phone rang. I made it a short call. How did I get a call? I was home in a few minutes and there was a network. I think that maybe, since even during the no network stage, I could make an emergency call, there must be a way that Telcel is working around the problem, maybe streaming thru the US or whatever they would do for an emergency. My local cop knew nothing of this and said that he has Telcel and has had problems with it. If this was not front page news, then Telcel doesn't want the info out there. Too bad I didn't ask questions even if I might not have understood all of it.

I called a man who was supposed to do work on my home on Sat. When he didn't show up, I was upset but if I called I'd only get an excuse. He said he called me over and over on Sat and never got an answer so he didn't come over. None of the calls were listed. Nothing was showing a missed call. Sat and Sun in Pastita didn't exist for Telcel but it is a very strong signal now.

Does anybody have any more info?

[RedRollinsRancher]

I have been here for over a year and finally bought a TelCell local number. I believe TellCel still allows (some) incoming calls when the pre-paid minutes are up. I have run into same issues as you described when visiting Allende. Perhaps the carrier allows a limit of incomings when one is out of minutes. I just chalk this up to another quirk of Expatriating to Mexico and refresh the cell as i would my GTO Butane service, purely on a mental accounting basis. jajaja buena suerte

[colleen]

Thanks for that reply. I changed to the same plan with AT&T. $150 pesos for 28 days. Unlimited calls to MX, US and Canada. I don't know how much internet because I don't use a cell phone to go online. And I have the same phone number. Sometimes things are very nice here, like the cows and 1 burro walking on the side of the Diego freeway this AM. We don't get to see that much anymore. I liked it when the cows would walk up by the bomberos and then cross the street holding up traffic.