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).

Edwin says:

January 18, 2008 at 11:30 pm

Sweet, mobile love.

Hello Rudy. Hope you’ve been well.

Come over to KLDP. There’s something for you. It’s a tag thing which you don’t have to do but the message is great.

Sompopo says:

January 19, 2008 at 11:32 am

I hope the prices there are better than here. The wife and I are on a family plan which cost $55.00 per month. With all the fees and tax’s added to it the monthly cost rises to just over $70.00. To send one text message cost 30 cents and to send one cell phone photo cost 50 cents. Internet use is one cent per KB used. If you where to use all these features your bill could easily rise to over $100.00 a month. I have always referred to the cell phone industry here in the states as a “racket” but thats just me. I just found out the other day that in March they will be charging customers $5.00 to pay their bill if they walk into one of their stores to do so.

Charge on top of charge on top of charge…..Well, you get the picture.

Time Warner is about to do a test market on charging Internet customers by the amount of Internet usage instead of a monthly fixed rate like we have now. If it turns out well all the major players said they will follow suit. Just when will it ever end? I am not holding my breath.

Aldo says:

January 20, 2008 at 6:55 pm

Dear Rudy, let me say there is more than 75% of population having a phone or has now access to a one, including internet services.

When the latest statistics published on Prensa Libre today and La Hora next wednesday inform that there are more than 11,600,000 phones in a 12,000,000 million country (fixed and mobiles) and the porcentil increases when we realize the second largest city of Guatemala is Los Angeles California with more than 1 million “chapines” living over there and connected.

Congrats again for your Antigua Daily Photo message I enjoy every single day.

Aldo

Lessie says:

January 22, 2008 at 11:50 am

I love the perspective of this photo! The modern (and who doesn’t love a love theme?) against the old church. Today’s Antigua.

Cell Phone Pics: The couple

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