For Spanish
On August 1, 1997, Movitel, the cellular telephone service in Puerto Penasco, became local. This means that users can now get their service for local rates and will have to dial only a local 5-digit number. Before Movitel was using a cellular dish out of Caborca; now it has a local receiver and transmitter.
According to Fernando Morales and Lorena Heredia of Movitel, customers will now have to pay only about 1/3 of the former costs, about 25 cents (2 pesos) a minute.
August 1 was the day we stopped in to see Fernando. Luckily we came during the lunch hour so he had some time to talk to us, but he and Lorena said that it had been very busy all morning, with customers signing up and the employees making the necessary changes in phone numbers.
Lorena told us that Movitel has about 600 customers. 60-70% of them are Mexicans and 30-40% Americans. Many of the Americans live in places like Playa Encanto, Playa Miramar, or Playa San Jorge, where there are no telephone lines available. At least one customer that Lorena knows about has phone, fax, voice mail, and an answering machine all connected to his cellular phone.
Movitel has a number of plans available to meet different customer needs. One thing it offers is automatic dialing for local emergency services such as police, fire, and Red Cross, as well as customer service for their own company.
Movitel is associated with NACN (North American Cellular Network). It is the only cellular company that can communicate in Mexico, the United States, and Canada with the same number. A map of the system, which is constantly expanding, shows cellular coverage of the states of Sonora and Sinaloa, from Nogales and Agua Prieta in the north to Escuinapa at the southern tip of Sinaloa.
