Mexique : la couverture mobile

Ce que veulent dire les chiffres de Mexique

Deux nombres comptent et un seul est celui que tout le monde cite. Le débit habituel, 44 Mbit/s, dit à quoi ressemble un bon moment.

Le dixième centile, 10 Mbit/s, c'est celui qu'il faut lire. C'est le débit du dixième le plus mauvais de la journée, quand l'antenne au-dessus de la gare est saturée et que tout le monde autour de vous est dessus. Un pays à médiane haute et à plancher bas, c'est un pays qui marche à merveille jusqu'au moment où vous en avez vraiment besoin.

Si le voyage dépend des appels vidéo ou du partage de connexion, organise toi en fonction du chiffre en heure chargée plutôt que du débit habituel.

Ce qui se passe en Mexique quand le réseau est saturé

La congestion n'est pas une panne, c'est un mardi soir. La question est ce que votre eSIM peut y faire, et pour la plupart des eSIM de voyage la réponse est rien : un accord de gros par pays, un réseau, et aucune issue sauf acheter une deuxième eSIM chez quelqu'un d'autre, debout dans la rue.

Ici le trafic Orbislo passe par Telcel et AT&T. Quand le réseau où vous êtes se dégrade, nous vous basculons sur un autre, en plein voyage, sans que vous demandiez, et nous vous le disons après plutôt que de vous interrompre sur le moment.

Les opérateurs mobiles en Mexique

• Telcel: Telcel, the América Móvil company Radiomóvil Dipsa, reported 83.3 million active mobile lines in March 2025 and took 39.8 percent of all telecom revenue reported in Mexico that quarter, the largest share of any company.
• AT&T Mexico: AT&T runs its Mexican mobile business through four licensed companies, which together reported 23.0 million active mobile lines in March 2025, second only to Telcel.
• Movistar: Movistar carries its mobile customers on AT&T's radio network under a capacity deal signed in 2019. Traffic began moving across in 2020, AT&T's 5G was added from 2022, and in 2024 the two companies extended the deal to 2030, each keeping control of its own transport and core networks.
• Altán Redes (Red Compartida): Altán Redes builds and runs the Red Compartida, a wholesale 4G LTE network on 90 MHz of the 700 MHz band. It sells nothing to the public; other brands resell its capacity, and it counted 17,961,116 active users on 30 June 2025.
• CFE: In January 2025 the regulator let the state power utility CFE take a 23 percent stake in Altán's trust rights without gaining control, on condition that CFE give up its own commercial wholesale concession and stop providing telecom services itself.

Les anciens réseaux en Mexique

• Telcel was the only operator still reporting 2G coverage in early 2025, reaching 92.4 percent of the population and 44.8 percent of the territory, while Telefónica reported none. A phone that can only use 2G depends entirely on Telcel.
• 3G was still widely switched on in early 2025, covering 96.1 percent of the population on Telcel, 93.1 percent on AT&T and 83.1 percent on Telefónica, so an older 3G handset still finds voice service in most towns.
• A government table of towns covered by the shared network at the end of 2024 still lists 2G GSM, run only by Telcel, and notes that the technology, though it has coverage, now sees little demand and little use.

La 5G en Mexique

• On 9 February 2022 the regulator moved 18 Telcel concessions from 3,450 to 3,550 MHz down to 3,350 to 3,450 MHz and authorised mobile use where only fixed wireless access had been allowed, on condition that Telcel protect satellite services between 3,400 and 3,700 MHz.
• Telcel switched on its 5G network on 22 February 2022 in 18 cities home to more than 48 million people, with a goal of passing 120 cities with 5G coverage by the end of that year.
• In early 2025 5G reached 38.5 percent of Mexico's population on Telcel, 28.9 percent on AT&T and 23.0 percent on Telefónica, yet no network's 5G covered more than 1.0 percent of the country's land area. Outside the big cities, expect 4G.
• The regulator's 2026 frequency programme, approved on 26 December 2025, includes the 600 MHz band for wireless access, chosen for its long reach, which the regulator says will make 5G easier to roll out across the country.

Le réseau en Mexique : à savoir

• Operators reported 142.3 million active mobile lines in March 2025: Telcel 83.3 million, AT&T 23.0 million, Movistar 21.1 million and Walmart's Bait 8.4 million. Since 2025 a line counts as active only if it carried voice traffic in the previous 90 days.
• By the regulator's early 2025 figures, 4G reached 94.1 percent of Mexico's 126 million people on Telcel, 90.1 percent on AT&T, 89.4 percent on Altán's shared network and 83.2 percent on Telefónica.
• Population figures hide how much land has no signal. Telcel's 4G, the widest, covered 42.0 percent of Mexico's territory in early 2025, Altán's 24.8 percent and AT&T's 24.6 percent, so long stretches of road, desert and sierra between towns sit outside each network's 4G footprint.
• The shared network covered 82.83 percent of the population at the end of 2024. Its contract, amended in 2022, now requires 85 percent by 24 January 2027 and the 92.2 percent first promised for 2024 by 24 January 2028.
• When the shared network passed its 70 percent milestone in November 2022, it had reached 82,119 localities of under 250 inhabitants and 10,592 localities of 250 to 5,000, the small rural places it was designed to connect.
• At the end of 2024, 94 of the 111 Pueblos Mágicos on the tourism ministry list used in the shared network's contract had more than 85 percent of their population inside its coverage.
• Indigenous regions are a known gap. At the end of 2023, 86 percent of Mexico's indigenous population had mobile coverage in at least one technology, and 4G reached 78 percent of localities with an indigenous population.
• After Hurricane Otis hit Guerrero in October 2023, the regulator reported that restoring mobile service depended on getting power back and reaching damaged sites, and satellite links were set up in Acapulco and Chilpancingo in the meantime.
• The telecommunications law published on 16 July 2025 created the Comisión Reguladora de Telecomunicaciones under the Agencia de Transformación Digital y Telecomunicaciones. The old federal institute, IFT, kept working only until the new commission's board was formed.