shoestring gringa

Well, I don’t know how secret this actually is, but it sure got by me until a recent evening when I was perusing the details of our latest, appallingly expensive, phone bill from TelMex. At first I assumed the cause was simply a large number of long-distance calls still coming in from when we were buying our house. But no, there was more. On the bill I noticed a section which shows the local numbers called, along with the number of calls made to each one. And one of these numbers, which had an oddly familiar look to it, showed 136 calls! It turned out to be the number the computer called for our dial-up internet access (recently changed to a low-speed modem connection when TelMex apparently got rid of all dial-up).

Feeling quite the Sherlock Holmes, I calculated that we had 136 local calls to dial up the computer in that month, plus 58 calls in all other categories (local, Mexican long distance, international long distance, to cell phones, and to 800 numbers), for a total of 194 calls.

Now, here’s the point I hadn’t quite understood before (and I bet plenty of other people don’t either). You supposedly get 100 calls included in your monthly service fee. But these are not “free local calls” like in the states (where the number of local calls is generally unlimited and actually IS included in the basic service fee). No, no, no. These TelMex “calls included in the monthly rent,” are not free, or indeed actually “included,” at all – in fact EVERY FREAKING CALL is billed separately according to the number of minutes talked and whether it was made at peak or non-peak times. (Non-peak is like between 3:45 and 4 a.m. or something – okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. Forgive me.) What is actually happening, people, is that there is a SURCHARGE for any calls exceeding the 100-call limit. And that surcharge is 1.48, one peso and 48 centavos each, which is say 14-15 cents US. Which added up, on this particular bill, to $139.12 pesos, or ~$13 US.

I’m just wondering now how it’s going to work with this new modem we have which is connected all the time. How are they going to make up these revenues they’re losing by getting rid of dial-up? I’m sure they’ve got something in mind.