Tigo Honduras - Using a local sim card

     The inexpensive availability of local cell service paired with smart phones and iPads has provided an easy and mostly reliable means of communication for cruisers and foreign travelers. We began cruising in 2008 with a Pactor modem and Kindles with 3g data service. The Pactor modem still gets used at sea, but the Kindles have become e-readers only. With the flood of iPhones on the used phone market, and the ease to unlock them, or buy one already unlocked, this has become our primary means of communication. Every country or island we arrive at, it's simply a matter of stopping in a local cell phone store getting a local sim card, popping it in the phone and voila! It's really that simple…. sorta.

      The catch is, every cell carrier, in every country have a slightly different method for using the sim card and activating the services. It can be difficult in the United States to decipher what services you are actually buying from the cell phone company and they are speaking English. The same is true for cell phone companies in the Caribbean except they are rarely speaking English. There are different codes to activate internet, or calling packages, sometimes there are great rates to call the US. It's just a matter of figuring out what the heck these codes and procedures are! Usually you can get an employee at the cell phone store to set it up for you, but that always leave you with the question of "Did they do it right?" I have had more than one experience of having data activated on my phone to find out later they didn't actually get it activated and the phone eats up any money left on the prepaid balance. The number one lesson here: Don't leave money on the phone that you don't want to lose.

      I am going to try and share the information that I have gathered in an attempt to help someone asking the same questions I had when I put my new sim card into my phone. This is not a complete step by step guide, but hopefully with help save someone else some time tracking down the answers.

      I know there is more than one cell phone carrier in Honduras, but when I checked in on the island of Guanaja, Tigo was my option, so it's Tigo that I have. It is pretty easy to go into any Tigo store or tienda that recharges Tigo phones to get more money put on the sim card, or buy little scratch off cards to recharge the phone. In keeping with my #1 rule to not have excess money on my phone I looked about for a way to recharge online. Sure enough on the home page for Tigo Honduras I found a little yellow button to recharge (recarga aqua). I went through the process of setting up an online account (Registrate). My first few uses of this were great. I did find that sometimes I had to clear out my internet browser cookies to be able to log back into the account. And then I've had some issues with it not allowing me to complete my purchase, telling me I have exceeded my monthly or daily purchase limit. If it works, it's simple and great, and if it doesn't… well not so great.

      Once I have money on the phone, to check the balance on the phone: on the phone dial pad key in #123# and CALL/SEND. A text screen will pop up with the money balance in Limpira (the Honduran currency).

      To make local calls just keep a little extra money on the phone card.

      To add an internet plan to the phone: on the phone dial pad key in #111# and CALL/SEND. A menu will pop up on the screen with numbered options. Internet is option 5, Hit the "Reply" button at the bottom of the screen. A new screen will pop up with the same list, type in the selection "5" and hit the reply button at the top of the screen. A new menu pops up with only two internet plan options, choosing "0 Siguiente" will take you to more options. One more selection of "0 Siguiente" will take you to the last three options. I either choose "7" For 2GB of internet for 1 week at L.150 or "8" for 4GB of internet for 1 month at L.500. You will receive confirmation text messages when the transaction is complete.

      After you have activated an internet package, to check the data usage from the phone or a connected computer you can go to www.tigointernet.hn. This may or may not actually show you the data usage on your phone. It may or may not be accurate.

      There are cheap calling packages to buy minutes to call the US/Canada, there are other country option packages as well but I have not explored the options and am not familiar with them. The tricky thing with the international minutes is that they expire at midnight the day they are purchased, so just buy what you need a the time you plan to use it.
#111# and CALL/SEND
Reply "4" (International) REPLY
Reply and choose your package USA/Canada 60 Minutes for L.30, USA/Canada 15 minutes for L.10 or explore the other options.