Mexico SIM Card Guide — What to Buy & How to Use It (Student Experience)
Bottom line: Get Telcel. That’s it.
No need to overthink it. Telcel is the biggest carrier in Mexico with the widest network coverage. It works pretty much everywhere.
Where to Buy
Easy. Just walk into any OXXO or 7-Eleven convenience store and grab one.
Yes, you buy SIM cards at the convenience store here. Mexico is just built different.
When you buy it, they’ll give you a card that looks like this. 
(see photo) Keep it safe — that’s your Mexican phone number. Lose it and you won’t know your own number.
How Does Billing Work?
No automatic monthly plans here.
You top up manually at a convenience store every month. I usually loaded around 200 pesos per month (roughly $10 USD).
Run out of data before the month ends? Just go back to OXXO and top up again. Simple as that.
How Did I Survive on 200 Pesos?
My school and apartment both had WiFi, so I didn’t actually use that much mobile data.
The main things I used data for:
- Calling Uber when hanging out with friends
- Backup when the home WiFi went down
For that kind of usage, 200 pesos a month is more than enough.
Rain = No Internet. Yes, Really.
This one caught me off guard.
One day the internet just… stopped working. WiFi down, mobile data barely working. I asked my Mexican friend what was going on and she said —
“It’s raining today~”
Apparently, when it rains in Monterrey, the internet gets bad. WiFi, mobile data, everything. And the locals just accept it like it’s totally normal.
Because for them, it is.
Just mentally prepare yourself: rainy day = internet probably going to be rough. It’s not your phone. It’s not your SIM. It’s just Monterrey.
Quick Summary
| Recommended carrier | Telcel |
| Where to buy | OXXO or 7-Eleven |
| How to pay | Manual top-up at convenience store |
| My monthly usage | ~200 pesos (~$10 USD) |
| Fun fact | Rain kills the internet. Completely normal here. |
👉 Next post: Cost of Living in Monterrey — How Much Does a Month Actually Cost?