Phones Abroad

[Jester]

Jesus Christ Almighty
(I am being polite here)
I am f***ing sick and tired of the God Damned backtalk when I try to send a f***ing message to someone in Mexico.
Impossible to do even FROM f***ing HERE IN MEXICO.
Instructions and backtalk are in f***ing VERY FAST SPANISH even though ALL MY SETTINGS EVERYWHERE SAY ENGLISH.

Please someone take pity on me and f***ing CLUE ME IN

IF....
I f***ing drop the following undependable services:
my USSA cellphone (ATT)
my Mexican EVEN f***ing WORSE cellphone (TelCel)
my Mexican landline (TelNor)

THEN.............
Can I exist by just using "Skype"

Or else............. how the f**k can i:
Make calls
Send messages
Receive messages
Receive calls to voicemail (don't care if it's live or a voicemail)

What is the way to handle this shit when abroad.... ....goddammittohell?

I will spend ANY AMOUNT per month or call or message.
i just want to be able to f***ing CALL PEOPLE and give them a f***ing WAY TO CALL ME BACK................
.................without dealing with f***ing BACKTALK IN RAPID SPANISH.

Possible examples of Possible f***ing BackTalk IN f***ing RAPID SPANISH THAT I CANNOT UNDERSTAND:
-- your phone is out of minutes
-- the person you are messaging has turned his phone off. Go f**k yourself.
-- your phone has minutes but GODDAM DEMONIC CARLOS SLIM has frozen it till you refresh the minutes with a new purchase
-- the person you are calling has a cellphone that is out of minutes
-- the person you are calling is on the phone. We dont use busy signals here. Deal with it gringo.
-- the person you are calling has a cellphone with minutes but GODDAM DEMONIC CARLOS SLIM has frozen it till SOMEONE grovels and acquiesces to send minutes to them in order to refresh THE ALREADY PERFECTLY GOOD AND PAID-FOR MINUTES
-- f**k you Gringo
-- you are calling or sending a MESSAGE from the USA and you did not manage to know the f***ing SECRET CODE DU JOUR to contact Mexico

I am interested in solutions for mexico, but particularly interested for solutions that will work ANYWHERE

[Jester]

I am interested in solutions for mexico, but particularly interested for solutions that will work ANYWHERE

C'mon help me out here, Fellow Travelers.

What are the best trans-border solutions for continuous connectivity?

[lasttry]

I spend a lot of time abroad, but I not familiar with Mexico. In Spain, as I recall, the voicemail, out of service and similar messages are in rapid Spanish also. However, I can understand rapid spanish, at least if I more or less know what to expect. So that is my suggestion to you. I assume you understand basic spanish spoken slowly. If so, get someone to help you with the various rapidly-spoken messages from the telco until you understand them all. There can't be more than a dozen or so, right?

You might be able to get the messages delivered in english, but my experience is that everything with telco's changes every year. So if you get it set up with english this year, they'll probably change back to spanish next year, and the procedure for changing to english will be completely different then. That's my experience with teloc's, anyway. US telco's are also a nightmare if you want anything non-standard, btw. Thus it's better to bite the bullet and learn those spanish messages and be done with it.

Good luck.

[Jester]

Thus it's better to bite the bullet and learn those spanish messages and be done with it.

[Jester]

C'mon HA-ers.

LastTry is telling me (very rationally) how to co-exist with a local cell company.

But............... isn't there some work-around here?
Something that would work WHEREVER I went? WHATEVER the language was?
What communications setup would allow me to place calls and send messages that SEEM to come from a local number - but really come from me on a a smartphone at a wifi hotpsot, or from my PC via broadband?

Skype?
Virtual phone number?

I guess one needs a local phone number in-country so that the locals will return calls and messages....?

But at there must be an optimal way to dial and text foreign phones reliably via internet?