Can You Hear Me Now?

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Those of you that do not live in the United States are probably a bit puzzled by the title of this post. I extracted it from a famous marketing campaign executed by a large wireless carrier based in the States. At the core, its message was to promote the carrier's reliability and widespread coverage.

As you may have guessed, many folks travelling to El Salvador often have similar questions of the wireless coverage in the country. In a nutshell, there is a wide variety of available options, enough to suit anyone. Lets talk about this in more detail.

First, the question of whether or not it is possible to take one's phone. It is possible to take your current phone and activate it, given you meet certain rules. The first of these rules is that CDMA networks no longer exist in El Salvador. In the States, Sprint and Verizon are the primary CDMA providers. If you have a phone with either of those carriers, you won't be able to activate your phone in El Salvador.

So which phones can you activate? Those that use a GSM network such as AT&T, and usually contain a replaceable chip. That chip is your key.

Side note: If you are unsure if you have a CDMA or GSM phone, contact your wireless provider before heading out to El Salvador as locals will be of limited assistance in helping you answer that question.

Once you are in El Salvador you'll be able to purchase a chip that corresponds with one of the various local carriers and away you go. Note that your phone's contact list and other goodies you are accustomed to when you are at home are stored on your chip. Thus, replacing it means you lose access to that information, at least for the meantime.

The chips themselves are easy to replace and run about $5 a piece. In addition to the chip, you'll also want to buy airtime, which is sold in any denomination you like, starting at $1. Both are readily available at local neighborhood convenience stores and shopping malls. If you go to the latter, you can usually find places where they will help you replace the chip.

When buying airtime -- look for places that sell recargas -- you'll be asked to provide the name of the carrier, phone number and amount. Take your phone with you when you buy airtime as your request will be processed immediately and the only confirmation you will have of the purchase is a text message sent to your mobile. This is especially prudent given the fact that most places don't provide a receipt for such purchases. Not receiving that confirmation text message is your only way of arguing for a refund or that the request be resubmitted. 

By the way, the U.S. dollar (USD) is the official currency in the country, so all of the monetary amounts I reference are in USD.

The amount of talk time you get out of your recarga will vary greatly, depending on your calling habits. For example, incoming calls do not count against your airtime, so, if you primarily receive calls, $5 worth of airtime will easily carry you for several weeks. I've spent months at a time in El Salvador having purchased $20 worth of airtime upon arrival and only using about $2 - $3 worth of airtime at most in a busy month.

As for the carriers, the most popular are Tigo, Claro and Digicel. It is said that Tigo has the best coverage, but they also have the most expensive per-minute rates. Claro is a bit more reasonable, but most people believe it to have the worst coverage. Somewhere in the middle lies Digicel. I personally use Digicel because it has the best rates. I've never had any problems with coverage, although I primarily stay within San Salvador during my visits. I happened to have taken it on a trip to the Santa Ana volcano once and I was getting full coverage even in that remote of an area.

Speaking of rates, they usually hover around $0.03/min. or so, with free mobile to mobile calls for in network calls. Calls to the US and Canada can easily be made via your mobile and usually end up costing less than calling from a land line or the reverse, someone calling you from the US or Canada. Many of the providers run promos, offering calls to the US/Canada for as little as $0.05/min. (or less).

What about texting/SMS you may ask?

Well, it is available just as well, and hovers at around $0.05/message. One important caveat you need to be aware of: the aren't any anti-spam laws in place in El Salvador. 

It is customary to regularly receive messages from your provider, offering ringers (backtones) and a variety of contests. Replies to either will usually incur a charge. Sometimes the quantity of messages one receives becomes quite annoying. Unfortunately, the only way to stop receiving them is to request that your texting capabilities be turned off altogether, i.e. to stop receiving spam, you have to turn off your ability to send send/receive legitimate texts. Really stupid, but such is the way of carriers in El Salvador.

What if you won't be taking a phone (either because it is CDMA or just prefer not to)?

The good news is that there are plenty of affordable options available. Some phones are as inexpensive at $10. Yes, you read that correctly, a whopping $10. Of course, it is a very basic phone, so much so, you can't even change the ringer on it, but it gets the job done. If you get one, all you have to do is buy a recarga for it and you are all set.

The bad news is that you will need your DUI or national identification card in order to make the purchase. Due to the large amount of blackmailing that occurs over mobile phones, laws have been put into place to attempt to monitor who owns the mobile numbers floating around the country. This is all well and good, but obtaining a DUI is not a simple matter. It can literally take you half the day to get one if it happens to be busy that given day. If you don't have the time to go get your DUI, have a friend or relative purchase the phone for you.

It is worth noting that all of the above information relates to prepaid calling plans. Regular contract service is also available, but will be the subject of a different post. Likewise, there are benefits to obtaining a DUI, even if not used to purchase a phone, and will also be discussed separately.