Keep your Mexican phone number active while abroad
Keep a Mexican number active abroad: unused balance is credited for a year. Telcel, Movistar and AT&T each print a different clock for the number.
Checked against official pages on September 28, 2026. Rules move; when this one does, it goes on the changelog.
| Carrier | Accounts | If you do nothing | Cheapest hold | Roaming for codes | Twelve months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Telcel | prepaid | 119 days of incoming calls and texts starting the day after the Amigo balance or package expires, then 246 days fully suspended, then the line is deleted | A Saldo Amigo recharge or an Amigo package during the incoming phase or the inactive phase | Unverified | A Saldo Amigo recharge or an Amigo package before the line is deleted |
| Movistar | prepaid | Active on any incoming or outgoing traffic, even with no paid balance. Inactive 180 days from the last traffic, or 365 if frozen balance is there at the start | A call or a text in either direction, or a recharge that generates no traffic, before the inactive phase ends | Unverified | Staying active can be traffic alone. A recharge is the other way back |
| AT&T | prepaid | 90 days with no balance and no recharge, or 365 days of freeze for a remainder, counted from the day after validity ends | A package or balance recharge before the case the line is actually in runs out | Unverified | A package or balance recharge before the case the line is in runs out |
The pesos left on a Mexican prepaid line, and the number itself, are not on a single timer. Article 185, fraction XVI of the Ley en Materia de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión states the balance right: "A que, en los servicios móviles de prepago, el saldo no consumido a la fecha de su expiración, le sea abonado en las recargas que se lleven a cabo dentro del año siguiente a dicha fecha". Unused balance that has expired is credited onto a recharge made within the following year. That fraction does not say when the number is deleted.
Cancellation, when balance is still waiting
A second document limits cancellation. Section 5.4.1 of NOM-184-SCFI-2018, published in the Diario Oficial on 8 March 2019, says: "Para que la cancelación del servicio de telecomunicaciones sea procedente, el Proveedor de Servicios de Telecomunicaciones debe cerciorarse que el Consumidor no tiene saldo pendiente de ser abonado atendiendo a lo establecido en el artículo 191 fracción XVI de la LFTR; en caso de que el Consumidor tenga saldo pendiente de ser consumido, el Proveedor de Servicios de Telecomunicaciones solo podrá cancelar el servicio, una vez que transcurra en exceso el término de 365" and, after the number is spelled out, "días naturales siguientes a la fecha en que expiró dicho saldo".
Read the condition that is actually there. The wait of more than 365 days applies where the consumer still has balance pending to be consumed. The sentence cites article 191, fraction XVI, of the earlier statute. The 2025 fraction quoted above is the balance credit, and it does not contain those 365 days. The standard also does not say that calls or texts keep arriving during the wait. Brazil's regulation does require a reception period during a suspension. That duty is not this sentence.
Three clocks, and three different starts
What happens to the number is in the carrier's own lifecycle, and the three we could read do not share a day 0.
Telcel's Amigo policy, labeled as updated in 2024, gives 119 days of incoming calls and texts starting the day after the Amigo balance or package expires, then 246 days in which nothing passes in either direction, then deletion, then five cooling days before the number can be reassigned. Received calls that add up to 60 seconds restart the 119 days. The restart sentence names calls. Frozen Amigo balance is a separate count of 365 days from the original expiry date.
Movistar's prepaid contract, registered with PROFECO on 4 February 2026, keeps the line active for as long as it registers incoming or outgoing traffic, whether or not it has paid balance. Inactivity runs 180 days from the last traffic, or 365 days if frozen balance is already there when inactivity starts. A recharge with no traffic returns the line to active.
AT&T's prepaid plans page states two cases rather than two stages. A remainder freezes for 365 days counted from the day after validity ends, and then the remainder and the line are canceled. A line with no balance is canceled after 90 days with no package or balance recharge.
The 365 that appears in all four places is not one measurement. The standard's is "en exceso" of 365 days after the balance expired, and only if balance is still pending. Telcel counts 365 days from the original expiry. AT&T counts 365 days of freezing from the day after validity ends. Movistar's 365 is the length of an inactive phase that starts from the last traffic, and only when frozen balance was there at the start.
What we could read
Movistar's text is the adhesion contract on file at PROFECO, number 062-2026. Telcel's is the carrier's Amigo lifecycle policy, not a PROFECO registration we extracted. AT&T's recharge lineamientos and its prepaid plans page both returned HTTP 403 to curl on 28 September 2026. A browser fetch the same day returned the plans page, and that copy is what the AT&T card quotes.
Before you fly
- Treat a recharge within the year as the route for expired balance. It is not, by itself, proof that the number is still yours. Check the carrier's phase.
- On Telcel, sixty seconds of received calls restart the incoming phase. The policy allows texts during that phase and names calls in the restart.
- On Movistar, a call or a text in either direction keeps the line active with no paid balance. A recharge does too, even if it generates no traffic.
- On AT&T, read which case the line is in before you count. No balance is 90 days. A remainder is a 365-day freeze that starts the day after validity ends.