Mexico City eSIM — plans from ₹299.00

Mexico City International Airport (MEX) has two terminals that are not connected airside in any convenient way, and a second airport, Felipe Angeles (NLU), sits well to the north; checking which one your flight actually uses is the first useful thing you can do with a data connection. Mexican operators sell prepaid SIMs in the terminals, and the process is straightforward, but arrivals at MEX are busy and the desks reflect that. An eSIM installed at home over Wi-Fi is already there, waking when your phone first registers on a Mexican network, with validity starting at that connection. You want it live before you leave the building, because Uber and DiDi both operate here and app-booked cars from the designated pickup areas are the standard advice, and because the metro has a station at Terminal Aerea but a long-standing rule against large luggage that catches visitors out. Metrobus and the Metro together cover the city cheaply once you are unencumbered. Country-wide plans are on the Mexico eSIM page.

Mexico's national operators cover the capital densely, with strong 4G across the whole valley and 5G available in Roma, Condesa, Polanco, Reforma and the other central districts. The Metro is the weak point: coverage is generally fine at platform and mezzanine level and unreliable in the tunnels between stations, so plan routes above ground. Congestion is noticeable around the Zocalo during events and on Reforma on Sunday mornings when the avenue closes to traffic. Day trips are well served: Teotihuacan, Puebla and Tepoztlan all have solid coverage, while the signal thins on the mountain roads over the passes and inside the caves and cenotes further afield. Xochimilco is covered on the canals.

Download Mexico City offline, because the numbering in the older colonias repeats across neighbourhoods and a wrong Roma or Juarez pin is a long detour. Keep data on for ride-hailing, for the Metro and Metrobus route apps,. Café Wi-Fi is excellent and the city is a comfortable place to work; hotspot from the phone is the better option for anything sensitive. The connectivity point that genuinely matters here is seismic: the city has an earthquake early warning system, alerts are broadcast publicly and apps that supplement it need a live connection, so keep data on rather than relying on Wi-Fi. Altitude and heavy use drain batteries, so carry a power bank. See North America destinations.