Cell Phone Pics: The couple

Cell Phone Pics: The couple

Last year, on Thursday, July 19th, on the entry I am not conTigo, I gave a little overview of the cellular telephone industry in Guatemala. It was Manolo who mentioned then how small and advanced are the cellphones in Guatemala. They are very small indeed with so many features that sometimes they forget to actually work well the telephone part.

The cellular telephone industry is one of the fastest growing industries and they just broke a new record for Latin America: 10 million 150 thousand users or the equivalent of 75% of the population has now an “active cellphone“. The key word here is: Active. This makes Guatemala one of the most connected countries in Latin America. (Source: Guatemala bate récord de usuarios de telefoní­a móvil at elPeriódico {ES}).

The cellular telephone companies have been able to achieve this huge numbers of active lines through aggressive sales campaigns and inexpensive telephones. If you recall the entry Selling Cell Phones in the La Antigua’s Market, back in November 2007, in which they were selling mobile phones in el mercado (the market) for Q130/USD$18 with Q100/US$12.80 of air time. In other words, they were given away the mobile phone for free.

Next time you come to La Antigua Guatemala, make sure you bring your mobile telephone with you since you will be able to buy ‘Guatemalan mobile telephone number’ through a chip or SIM card that you can swap with the one inside your telephone for about Q25/US$3.25 (Q25 stands for 25 Quetzales. the Quetzal is the Guatemalan currency {follow the link for pictures of the coins and bills} and the exchange rate is now about Q7.80 per US$1).

© 2008 – 2020, Rudy Giron. All rights reserved.

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