Connectivity — Mexico
What travelers need to know about connectivity in Mexico. What is legal at home can be a serious crime here — each rule links to its official source.
Connectivity in Mexico: restricted — there are real limits travelers must follow.
A Mexican SIM is sold dead. Since 9 December 2025 every SIM sold in Mexico can only reach emergency numbers until it is linked to an identified holder - as a foreigner you link it with your name, country of origin and passport number, in a shop or through the carrier's app, and it costs nothing. Lines nobody links are being switched off through 31 December 2026 on a schedule set by the last digit of the number.
No penalty falls on the traveller. Lineamientos art. 47 places the sanction on the provider, and no provision of the Lineamientos or of LMTR arts. 103 and 164 imposes a fine on the customer. The practical consequence is the one that matters: an unlinked line is disabled and can only reach emergency and customer-service numbers.
§ Mexico - Ley en Materia de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusion art. 103 (DOF 16-07-2025) + CRT Lineamientos de Identificacion de Lineas Telefonicas Moviles (DOF 09-12-2025, mod. DOF 30-06-2026)