Settling Internet Service in Mexico City in 48 Hours

A tech-savvy engineer’s field notes on fibre, fallbacks, and a few Spanish menu hacks

“Will my Zoom audio glitch while I’m still unpacking?”
Every remote worker asks that the moment the plane touches down.
Good news: in CDMX, the answer can be a confident ¡No, señor(a)!—provided you follow a tight, two-day game plan.

I’ve landed in half a dozen countries with a laptop full of stand-ups and sprint reviews that cannot wait for local bureaucracy. Mexico City has been, hands-down, the fastest place I’ve ever spun up gigabit fibre—once I learned the local tricks. Below is the 48-hour, step-by-step blueprint I now share with every dev on my team who’s relocating here.

Day 0 Prep: Know Your Street’s “Last-Mile” Reality

Before you buy a single peso of data, check two things:

1. Building tech
   • Is your building lit with fibre (FTTH) or just coax (HFC)?
   • Condo admins usually know; asking the security guard works too.
2. MUG (Manzana Única de Gobierno) records
   Mexico City’s open GIS layer tells you which providers pulled permits on your block. It’s nerdy but golden—search “Portal de Datos Abiertos CDMX + telecom.”

If fibre isn’t in your building yet, temper expectations: the install may demand new conduit and run beyond 48 h. In that case, skip to the Backup Hotspots section first.

The Big Four Providers—Engineer’s Cheat Sheet

*Refunded on first bill if you pay with Mexican card.
**Telmex waves fees if you bring an existing unlocked modem—yes, Amazon US counts.

TL;DR Which One Should You Pick?

• Need instant fibre and speak basic Spanish? → Totalplay
• Value no-contract flexibility? → Telmex
• Tight budget and okay with coax? → Izzi or Megacable (negotiating down works)

I personally run Totalplay 1 Gbps in Roma Norte; 14-month uptime shows one four-minute outage.

Hour 0–4: Open the Ticket Before You Unpack

1. Mexican phone number first
   Install teams will call; pick up an eSIM at the airport (Telcel or AT&T) or corner Oxxo.
2. Use the provider’s WhatsApp bot, not the website
   The bot places you in the same CRM queue but flags you as an existing mobile responder, which support prioritises.
3. Photo-scan passport + proof of address
   “Comprobante de domicilio” can be:
   • Lease with your name
   • Airbnb receipt that shows the address
   • A neighbour’s utility bill if the landlord vouches.

Attach PDFs directly in the chat; ask for “alta de servicio con instalación express.”
4. Politely push the 48-h promise
Totalplay’s SLA says 72 h, but reps can flag “cliente estratégico—trabaja en sistema crítico.” No need to exaggerate; “I’m an engineer deploying health-care software” is usually enough.

Call-out: Mexico’s consumer protection agency, PROFECO, fines providers for missed install SLAs. Mentioning PROFECO (once, calmly) nudges the rep’s empathy meter.

Hour 4–12: Site Survey & Hardware Drop

Expect a two-person crew to show up unannounced within the window you negotiated. They’ll:

• Check fibre port (ONT) in the building’s telco room.
• Run a light test—ask politely to see the dBm reading; anything above ‑24 dBm is solid.
• Fish the line to your unit using existing conduits.

Engineer’s tip

Have two potential router spots ready:

1. Centre of apartment for Wi-Fi coverage.
2. By the desk for hard-wired dev machine.

Ask for a two-hole plate so you can relocate the router later without re-crimping fibre—most techs carry spares if you tip MXN $200 cash.

Hour 12–24: Router UI, All in Spanish—Let’s Translate

The stock Huawei/Arris router interface is Spanish-only. Key menu map:

• “Básico” → Quick Setup
• “Red de 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz” → Wireless settings
• “Filtrado MAC” → MAC filtering (disable, unless you’re nostalgic)
• “DMZ” = DMZ (duh)
• “Reenviar puertos” → Port forwarding

VLAN & Bridge Mode

Totalplay, Izzi and Megacable ship double-NAT. For lower ping:

1. Navigate to “Modo puente” (bridge mode).
2. Password is often adminTelecom or printed under “Contraseña WiFi 2.”
3. Enable Bridge; connect your own Wi-Fi 6 router (I travel with an ASUS RT-AX58U flashed with OpenWRT).

If you’re on Telmex fibre, request “ONT en modo bridge” during install; otherwise they lock it.

Pull-quote: “Spend 10 minutes in Spanish menus today, save 100 ms latency on every CI/CD push tomorrow.”

Hour 24–36: Stress-Test & Speed Guarantee

Run fast.com in 30-minute intervals. Record:

• Down/Up
• Ping
• Jitter

Anything >15 % below advertised on three runs qualifies for a “ajuste de velocidad” claim.

Then push a Git clone of a chunky repo—Redux’s 1.3 GB history works—and watch jitter. CDMX backbones are solid; if yours isn’t, support can move you to a quieter OLT port.

Backup Hotspots—Because Earthquakes & Mariachis Happen

Even with strong SLAs, redundancy is queen. My 3-tier fallback stack:

1. Unlimited Telcel 5G eSIM (MXN $799/mo)
   80-90 Mbps down in central boroughs; 30 GB monthly hard cap on tether, but they rarely throttle sustained SSH.
2. Fallback fibre via neighbour
   Swap passwords with your immediate neighbour (offer good mezcal).
3. Co-working day pass
   Issued in minutes; homework: map the five closest WeWork, Homework, Impact Hub.

When the 2024 tropical storm knocked fibre city-wide, my Telcel eSIM kept stand-up running from a café in Juárez. That disaster drill alone justified the MXN $799.

Fast Install Tricks Recap—The 7 Commandments

1. Local phone number before sign-up
2. WhatsApp bot > website > phone queue
3. Ask for “instalación express”
4. Leverage PROFECO politely
5. Tip the tech; expedite custom plate
6. Bridge mode to kill double-NAT
7. Log every speed test for future credits

Remote-Engineer FAQ (Stuff I’ve Actually Been Asked)

Q: Static IP possible?
A: Telmex offers one for MXN $149/mo business tier; Totalplay assigns IPv6 /64 which works with Cloudflare tunnels.

Q: Can I pause service while travelling?
A: Only Telmex. Up to 3 months per calendar year; keep modem plugged in.

Q: Is Starlink a thing inside CDMX?
A: Technically yes, but line-of-sight is brutal among high-rises, and latency is >60 ms. Keep it for beach towns.

Q: Power outages?
A: Buy a 900 VA UPS. CFE grid is stable but brownouts during rainy season exist.

Why 48 Hours Is Worth the Hustle

I’ve lived the nightmare of hotspotting from a prepaid SIM while Docker pulls crawl. Shaving deployment cycles from 10 minutes to 2 feels like reclaiming a slice of your life—and your team’s sanity. In the same 48-hour span, you could also start mapping local tax deductions or reading our Tax optimisation guide so you don’t bleed cash later.

And if long-term residencies are on your horizon, peek at the Caribbean angle in our piece on the Dominican Republic citizenship thresholds. Future-proof bandwidth meets future-proof passports—chef’s kiss.

Next Steps

The sooner you front-load this fibre mission, the quicker you can shift brain-cycles to tacos, Traefik, or TypeScript—whatever fuels your flow.

Ready for a relocation plan that covers all those nitty-gritty tasks (and more Jonathan-approved hacks)? Spin up your free BorderPilot plan today and enjoy a landing as smooth as your new gigabit connection.