Still Problems in Mexico???

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 25, 2005 Posts: 3

There were some problems with Telmex blocking Voip services in Mexico a few months ago. I've searched several places to see if this is still a problem but haven't found any answer. Does anyone know if this issue has been resolved? Are we able to use Vonage from Mexico?
Like many others, I travel to Mexico in the winter and want to be able to use my Vonage service from there.

Thanks for any info.

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:24 pm Post subject:

I believe that is still the case...but they are not specifically blocking it per se.
What they do is start choking your bandwidth, so it gets to the point were it is not worth using it. Being a government owned telcom I would not expect to see anything change until the pressure Vonage is putting Washington DC is so great it comes up at the government level.

Posts: 60 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 60

I certainly don't want to side with Telmex but some of the statements regarding their blocking of Voip is just plain anecdotal and has no basis in fact.

I lived in Mexico City for 25 years and have used Telmex's internet service Prodigy Infinitum (DSL) with no significant problems except occasional slowdowns from their claimed 512 to 100-200. Nothing slower than that after having a DSL account with them for 3 years.

I'm now living in Canada and have a virtual number in Mexico City from Vonage with NO, NONE, NADA problems. My family calls me daily since I've had the virtual number (3 months now) and there has been NO problem whatsoever.

By the way, Telmex was privatized many years ago and is not government owned. That they still ALMOST monopolize communications is still true but what do you expect after almost a century of being the only game in town. There are now a few limited options for internet access such as the Cable companies (the one in Mexico City also belongs to Telmex but outside of Mexico City, there are other companies), there are also other broadband solutions in the larger cities including some microwave examples.

One of Telmex's cellular phone competitors, IUSACEL offers an overpriced Voip service sold through the Radio Shack chain. There are also a few small Voip startups around the country.

If some people have had problems with bringing an ATA into Mexico, I would suspect that it was used in a town or village with a poor internet connection. Outside of the major cities (Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterey, Leon, Veracruz etc) broadband is still spotty with occasional failures and low speeds.

If you have any further questions let me know.

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:03 pm Post subject:

having a virtual mexico city number has nothing to do with this.

Posts: 60 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 60

Sorry, if you prefer to blame Telmex for problems with ATA usage in Mexico and not take into account bandwidth, line quality and other factors that's OK with me. It's always easier to point at a wrongdoer than analyze a problem.

Posts: 2251 · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:50 pm Post subject:

Anyone mind if I chime in here?

No? Good.

If you Google search this site for Mexico Blocking you will find lots of activity regarding this issue.

Most notably is this thread: ALERT: ISP Blocking VoIP Ports Again: UPDATED 04-25-05 which has thousands of reads and has been linked to by several major news organization.

All indications are that Telmex was in fact blocking and/or doing things to their network to prohibit the use of Vonage.

It also appears that Telmex has stopped doing this and is now playing a fair game.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 25, 2005 Posts: 3

dconnor wrote:

All indications are that Telmex was in fact blocking and/or doing things to their network to prohibit the use of Vonage.

It also appears that Telmex has stopped doing this and is now playing a fair game.

Thanks for the response! That's the info I was hoping to hear.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 18, 2005 Posts: 1

I've been using my Vonage phone since March 2005 from here in La Paz, B.C.S. Somewhere around April 2005, Telemex doubled the speed of the Prodigy Infinitum. From that point on, my phone has worked well.