Mexican operator Telcel (America Movil) has confirmed the prices of the new 5G service, launched on 28 February. The company is offering an initial seven plans under the heading of Telcel Plus 5G, ranging in price from MXN 599.00 (US $29.17) a month for 14 GB of data to MXN 1,499.00 (US $73.00) for 60 GB. All come with unlimited calls and SMS plus unlimited data for the most popular social networking and messaging apps (WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Uber).
Telcel said the new network will initially be accessible via around 40 smartphones currently available in its catalogue, including devices from Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Xiaomi, Oppo, Honor and Huawei. Customers will also require a compatible SIM (version 6.2 or higher).
The service is initially available in 18 cities across the country, covering nearly 50 million people, and the company is committed to bringing NSA (non-standalone) 5G to around 120 major cities in Mexico by the end of 2022.
Tarifica’s Take
Telcel’s new suite of 5G plans appears to be a vigorous and competitive offering that leverages the strengths of the new high-speed network technology while providing customers with reasonable pricing and a wide range of compatible devices.
Since subscribers now demand flexibility on many fronts, it is appropriate that Telcel is allowing them to choose between seven tiers of service; presumably there is a level where price and data allotment align for a wide range of customers. Even the lowest level has a quite generous amount of data by 4G/LTE standards, 14 GB, which makes sense in light of the fact that one of 5G’s chief selling points is its ability to transmit large amounts of data quickly, facilitating applications such as streaming video and gaming.
Zero-rating data for popular social media and messaging apps also reflects awareness of subscribers’ needs in today’s market. It will likely serve to attract customers by allowing them to sample what 5G can do without paying a lot for data at the outset; as they become habituated to enjoying more data, they will also get used to paying more and may ultimately ascend to higher tiers in the plan pricing structure.
The fact that the service is compatible with 40 smartphones should also boost uptake. Lack of availability of affordable 5G devices has previously been a sticking point for operators in convincing subscribers to upgrade from 4G to 5G.