In the early 1990s before internet arrived in Mexico, it was quite costly to make a national long distance phone call and even worse when making an international call.
The telephone company was the only show in town and could charge whatever it wanted. But with the advent of digital technology the prices began to drop. First came the telephone calling cards followed by VoIP technology (Vonage, Skype, etc). And the majority of those calling NOB (North Of the Border) began using these alternative methods. You could have a United States or Canadian telephone number and make a call as if you were in the Canada or the U.S.
Once the phone company was no longer a monopoly, you can guess what happened. Long distance prices began to drop. In fact two of the three Telmex telephone-internet packages offer free phone calls to the States, but not to Canada. So now, all of a sudden, Telmex becomes an option again for phoning NOB. But along with this new option there can be confusion, because the long distance dialing procedures here are different than NOB.
When in the States or Canada, you may call anywhere in either country by dialing 1 followed by the three digit area code and the seven-digit phone number. Should you wish to phone long distance to Mexico, you simply dial 011-52 + area code + phone number for a land line but should you be calling a Mexican cell phone, you need to at an additional 1 after the country code, or 011-52-1 + 10 digit cell number
Now it’s just different enough when phoning in Mexico from a Telmex line to get confusing. Here, when making a long distance call within Mexico, instead of dialing 1 we dial 01 + area code + telephone #. Should one want to phone the States or Canada from Telmex, dial 001 followed by the NOB area code + seven-digit telephone number.
You can call the NOB 800-numbers too. But there’s a catch. That NOB 800-number, is only free in the U.S. and/or Canada. So from a Telmex line, you’re charged a long distance fee to the border to connect to the free service. And just to confuse things a little more, if you’re trying to reach say 1-800-123-4567 in the US, from a Mexican landline, you must dial 001-880-123-4567. In Mexico on Telmex you cannot use the 800, 866, 877, or 888 toll free numbers and get connected. Shown below are the numbers you must dial from Telmex to reach an NOB 800-number.
Up North Here in Mexico
1-800-123-4567 = 001-880-123-4567
1-888-123-4567 = 001-881-123-4567
1-877-123-4567 = 001-882-123-4567
1-866-123-4567 = 001-883-123-4567
The above information works in most but in not all areas of Mexico, The USA and Canada. Good luck. It can be a little confusing at first, but you will catch on.
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