Mexico SIM card 2026: AT&T, Movistar or Telcel

Part of our Mexico eSIM guide: all articles and key facts →

A Mexican SIM or eSIM gives you a local number and far more data for your money than a travel eSIM. The choice is between three networks, Telcel, AT&T and Movistar, and since January 2026 it comes with a formality: every Mexican line must be linked to its user's identity. We read the operators' pages on 26 October 2026, together with the regulator's coverage report and its rules on line registration. Here is what each operator offers a visitor, what you need to show, and when a travel eSIM or your home plan is the better choice.

Peso prices are converted at the European Central Bank rate of 23 October 2026, the latest available on the day we checked: 21.0226 pesos to the euro, or about 18.78 pesos to the dollar.

Telcel, AT&T, Movistar, Altán: who is who?

Mexico has three mobile operators selling to the public: Telcel; AT&T México, which nPerf's measurements group with its Unefon brand; and Telefónica Movistar. A fourth network, Altán Redes, is a wholesale 4G network that other brands rent; the regulator lists it among the operators in its coverage report.

The regulator is the Comisión Reguladora de Telecomunicaciones (CRT). Its 2026 registration of mobile lines, described below, rests on the telecommunications and broadcasting law published on 16 July 2025.

For a visitor, the practical questions are simple: which network reaches where you are going, what a prepaid line costs, and what you must show to activate it. We read the operators' pages on 26 October 2026; Telcel's site refused our reader, so Telcel appears only through the regulator's figures.

How does Mexico's line registration work for visitors?

A Mexican SIM or eSIM must be linked to your identity before it works; as a foreigner, you do it with your passport.

Since 9 January 2026, every Mexican mobile line must be associated with an identified person, under the CRT's guidelines published in the Official Gazette in December 2025. Article 12 says that any SIM or eSIM sold can only receive emergency alerts, call emergency and citizen-service numbers and its operator's customer service until it is linked. For foreigners, the amended article 20 accepts a passport, a CURP for foreigners or a visitor or resident card bearing a CURP, issued by the National Migration Institute; operators record only "nombre, país de origen, número de pasaporte" (name, country of origin, passport number).

• AT&T México: its linking page says tourists need "pasaporte vigente de tu país de origen", that linking can be done remotely or in a shop, and that a prepaid line must be linked within 30 days of the first top-up. An expired document is rejected.
• Movistar: its linking page says foreigners can link "durante su estancia en México" with a valid passport, from their phone; a line activated after 9 January 2026 must be linked to have service, and top-up credit cannot be used until it is.
• Telcel: its linking page refused our reader on 26 October 2026.

Lines that were active before 2026 and never linked are being cut off by the last digit of the number, between 15 August and 31 December 2026; on 19 October 2026, the CRT reported 96.3 million lines linked. This calendar does not concern a new tourist line, which must be linked from the start.

Your home line on roaming and a travel eSIM from a foreign seller are a different matter: the guidelines leave roaming lines for a mechanism the CRT will define after the 2026 World Cup, and none had been published by 26 October 2026. In May 2026 the CRT said on X, as Expansión reported, that visitors on roaming "no tendrán que registrar su celular", but that "quienes compren un chip mexicano sí deberán realizar el registro".

Which network covers the most of Mexico?

Telcel, with AT&T close behind; Movistar falls away in the south. The CRT's report "Quién es quién en cobertura móvil" for the fourth quarter of 2025 is built from the coverage maps operators must file every quarter. It gives two measures: "guaranteed" coverage, where the operator must meet the regulator's quality indices, and total coverage. The table uses total 4G coverage, as a share of each state's population.

On guaranteed coverage, the gap is wider: Altán 88.1%, Telcel 86.7%, Movistar 69.5% and AT&T 69.1% of the population on 4G. For 5G, AT&T's total coverage reached 45.6% of the population and Telcel's 44.1%; Telcel's guaranteed 5G was highest in Quintana Roo, at 79.02%, against 36.77% in Mexico City.

The CRT warns that its figures cover each operator's own infrastructure; agreements between operators can extend real coverage. They measure population, not territory, so a remote beach or a mountain road can be outside every map.

Which network is fastest in Mexico?

Telcel, by a wide margin. In nPerf's tests for 2025 (1 January to 31 December), as reported by DPL News in January 2026, Telcel users averaged 47.46 Mb/s download, against 24.82 Mb/s for AT&T/Unefon and 24.13 Mb/s for Movistar. Movistar had the best latency (81.20 ms, against 86.37 ms for Telcel). nPerf's overall scores were Telcel 54,135, AT&T/Unefon 45,968, Movistar 45,722 and Altán 33,602.

These are averages of tests run by users of the nPerf app across the country; they say little about a given beach. We could not read Opensignal's latest Mexico report, which refused automated access, so we do not cite it.

For a visitor, the lesson is that a cheap AT&T or Movistar line is fine in cities and resort areas, while Telcel is the safer network for long road trips and the south. That also applies to travel eSIMs: Maya Mobile, Holafly and aloSIM use Telcel, while Nomad and Airalo use AT&T and Movistar; see our comparison of Mexico eSIMs.

What does AT&T México offer a visitor?

An eSIM you can buy online before you fly, AT&T Go, open to visitors from the US and Canada. On 26 October 2026, AT&T Go was sold in three 30-day packages:

AT&T says the line is available to "extranjeros de Estados Unidos y Canadá que visitan nuestro país", to resident foreigners and to Mexicans with an eSIM-compatible phone. You scan the QR code or follow the link on the page, choose the package, enter your details, install the eSIM and link the line; you can also buy it in the Mi AT&T app. The number is a Mexico City number by default, and another area can be chosen at checkout. Internet access is needed to buy it.

Visitors from Europe or Latin America are not named among those eligible. They can use AT&T Prepago on a physical SIM: 2 GB for 14 days at 100 pesos, 3 GB for 25 days at 150 pesos, 4 GB for 30 days at 200 pesos and 6 GB for 30 days at 300 pesos. AT&T says activating a chip requires a top-up of at least 50 pesos.

AT&T's network reached 91.3% of the population on 4G in late 2025, and its unlimited US calls are handy if you call home to the United States.

What does Movistar offer a visitor?

Cheap prepaid top-ups that also work in the US and Canada, on the network with the weakest coverage. Movistar’s prepaid page listed these top-ups on 26 October 2026, each with unlimited minutes and extra allowances for YouTube and TikTok:

Movistar says to activate a line "realiza una recarga mínima de $60.00, en una sola exhibición" and that you can "navega desde MX, EUA, Canadá y Puerto Rico". The page mentions an eSIM but gives no separate price for it. Linking is done from your phone with a passport, according to its linking page.

At 200 pesos (about €9.51) for 4 GB over 30 days, Movistar is cheap, but its 4G reached only 83.4% of the population nationally in late 2025, 77.96% in Yucatán and 40.66% in Chiapas. It suits a stay in Mexico City, Guadalajara or the Cancún hotel zone better than a road trip.

And Telcel?

Telcel is the network most Mexicans use and, in the CRT's figures, the best covered: 94.4% of the population on 4G in late 2025, and over 95% in Quintana Roo, Yucatán and Baja California Sur. It was also fastest in nPerf's 2025 tests.

We cannot give you its prices. Every page of telcel.com returned an access error to our reader on 26 October 2026, including its tourist eSIM page, telcel.com/viajar-a-mexico/esim. Xataka México reported in February 2025 that Telcel had launched an "eSIM Turista" for visitors, bought online and activated on arrival; the prices quoted then are more than a year and a half old, so we do not repeat them.

If you want Telcel coverage without buying a Telcel line, three travel eSIMs use its network: Maya Mobile, Holafly (with Movistar) and aloSIM. If you do buy a Telcel SIM, expect to link it with your passport like any other Mexican line, and ask the shop to complete the linking before you leave.

Buying at Cancún or Mexico City airport, or in town?

Buy online before you fly if you can; we could not verify airport shops or airport prices. None of the operator pages we read lists a shop at Cancún, Mexico City, Guadalajara or Los Cabos airports, or an airport price.

That matters less than it used to. AT&T Go is bought and activated from the phone, and Movistar's linking is done online. For a physical SIM, AT&T says linking can also be done in its points of sale; whoever sells you the chip, ask them to activate the line and link it with your passport on the spot, since an unlinked line only reaches emergency numbers and the operator.

Arriving late at night? Install a travel eSIM at home and switch to a local line later if you need one. Our Mexico eSIM comparison lists plans from $4 for 1 GB.

Local SIM, travel eSIM or home plan: which costs less?

A Mexican line is cheapest, a travel eSIM is simplest, and an American unlimited plan may cost nothing extra.

AT&T Go gives more data than any travel eSIM at that price, plus a Mexican number and unlimited calls to the US; the price is the linking step. A travel eSIM needs no paperwork and can be installed at home, which is why most short-stay visitors choose one.

Before paying for either, check your home plan. AT&T and Verizon include Mexico in their US unlimited plans; Canadians on Bell pay $16 a day, which a local line or eSIM beats within a day or two. Europeans and most Latin Americans pay roaming rates set by their operator, since Mexico is outside the EU's roam-like-at-home zone.

For long stays, the CRT's statement of 14 September 2026 is worth reading: it reminds users that wholesale agreements "prohíben estrictamente el roaming permanente", so a foreign eSIM is not a permanent substitute for a Mexican line.

How do you set up a Mexican eSIM or SIM?

Check that your phone is unlocked and supports eSIM, buy, install, then link the line before you need it.

1. Check your phone: it must be unlocked (see do you need an unlocked phone for a travel eSIM) and, for AT&T Go, on our list of eSIM-compatible phones.
2. Buy the package on the operator's page or app, with your passport to hand.
3. Install the eSIM by QR code; on Android, follow our step-by-step activation guide.
4. Link the line with your passport, through the operator's link or in a shop, and wait for the confirmation text.
5. Keep your home SIM for calls if you like, and set mobile data to the Mexican line.

If the eSIM stays on "Activating", see our fixes for an eSIM stuck on activating; if it installs but gets no data, work through 10 fixes for a travel eSIM not working abroad. A seller may ask for your EID: here is where to find it.

How we checked

We read the AT&T México and Movistar prepaid and linking pages on 26 October 2026; Telcel's site refused our reader. The registration rules come from the CRT's guidelines in the Official Gazette of December 2025, their amendment approved on 25 June 2026 and the CRT's press releases up to 19 October 2026; the CRT's May 2026 statement on roaming is quoted as reported by Expansión. Coverage figures come from the CRT's report for the fourth quarter of 2025, and speeds from nPerf's 2025 results as reported by DPL News, since nPerf's own Mexico report was not available to us.

Peso prices are converted at the European Central Bank rate of 23 October 2026, the latest available on 26 October (21.0226 pesos and 1.1193 dollars to the euro). We did not buy the lines or test them in Mexico. Operators change their packages often, so check the page before you buy. For the cheapest data without paperwork, see our comparison of Mexico eSIMs, and for the rest of your trip, our Mexico eSIM guide.