Bait in Mexico

The facts below come from the CRT, Mexico’s telecoms regulator, from the sites of Bait and Altán Redes, and from the press, with their dates.

What is Bait?

Bait is short for Bodega Aurrera Internet y Telefonía. Walmart de México and its Bodega Aurrera chain launched it in June 2020 as a prepaid mobile service, with SIM cards on sale in Bodega Aurrera, Mi Bodega and Walmart stores across Mexico. Bait’s site names Wal-Mart Innovación, S. de R.L. de C.V. as the company that runs the service, and the CRT lists that company under Grupo Walmart.

Whose network does Bait use?

Bait owns no network. It is a virtual operator on the shared 4.5G LTE network that Altán Redes designs, builds and runs, known when Bait launched as the Red Compartida and now called the Red de Todos on Altán’s site. Altán says the network comes from the 2013 constitutional reform on telecoms, which called for a shared network set up under a public and private scheme, and that it won the tender for it in 2016. Altán sells the use of its capacity to concession holders and to companies that serve end users, on equal terms for all, and its offers reach the public only through virtual operators. When Bait launched in June 2020, Altán’s figures put the network’s reach at some 60 million people, around 53.5% of the country. The coverage map on Bait’s site is credited to Altán Redes, and in April 2026 Mobile Time named Bait among the virtual operators on Altán’s network.

Where Altán’s 4G reaches

In the CRT’s coverage report for the fourth quarter of 2025, Altán’s 4G met the quality rules where 88.1% of the population lives, and reached 91.2% on all the coverage Altán reports. The report’s 5G charts carry no figure for Altán. By state, its guaranteed 4G covered 99.96% of people in Mexico City, 95.43% in Yucatán, 94.71% in Quintana Roo and 92.58% in Jalisco, and fell to 78.37% in Oaxaca and 71.55% in Chiapas. Those are shares of the people counted in the 2020 census.

How many lines does Bait have?

The CRT counted 10,899,197 active Bait lines in the fourth quarter of 2025, or 7.46% of all mobile lines in Mexico, and 12,703,622 active mobile internet accesses, or 8.65%. A line only counts as active if it carried voice traffic during the quarter. The CRT’s revenue table for the same quarter lists Altán Redes on its own, with 3,328.51 million pesos.

A phone and a linked line

Bait asks customers to check a phone’s IMEI, found by dialling *#06#, on its compatibility page, and says a Bait SIM in a phone that does not pass loses calls and data until it is moved to one that does. Bait also sells eSIM lines. Mexican lines must now be linked to their holder: in a bulletin of 15 October 2026 the CRT set the last dates by final digit, from 31 October for numbers ending in 5 to 31 December for those ending in 9. An unlinked line is suspended within 72 hours of its date, but the number is not lost, emergency calls still go through, and linking brings the service back at once. The CRT says linking is free and uses no balance or data.

Install the eSIMSwitch it on after landingNo connection