Movistar in Mexico

Most of what follows comes from the CRT, the regulator that publishes Mexico’s line counts and coverage maps, from Movistar’s own pages and from press reports, each dated.

Whose network does Movistar use?

Under an agreement signed in 2019, Movistar rents AT&T’s access network, the antennas a phone talks to, while it keeps its own core network, services and customers. Xataka México reported in October 2026 that the deal had been extended in 2024 to run until 2030, with capacity on 3G, 4G and 5G, and that the two companies still compete with each other. Movistar had started its own LTE in the Mexico City metropolitan area in September 2014.

5G since December 2022

Movistar presented 5G on 15 December 2022, starting in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara, with Culiacán and Hermosillo to follow within two weeks. It used AT&T’s 5G antennas and AT&T’s spectrum in the AWS band. Prepaid customers could use 5G from a recharge of 10 pesos, and postpaid plans started at 235 pesos a month, with no extra charge and no change of SIM, only a phone that supports 5G.

Coverage on the CRT’s maps

In the CRT’s coverage report for the fourth quarter of 2025, Movistar’s 4G met the quality rules for 69.5% of Mexico’s population, and reached 83.4% counting all the coverage it reports. The report gives Movistar no 5G figure. By state, its guaranteed 4G covered 99.18% of people in Mexico City, 87.39% in Quintana Roo, 79.91% in Jalisco and 68.08% in Yucatán, and only 31.65% in Chiapas and 28.02% in Oaxaca. The CRT adds that the report counts each concession holder’s own infrastructure, so the service a customer gets can differ with the agreements between operators.

Lines, owner and sale

The CRT counted 20,131,693 active Movistar lines in the fourth quarter of 2025, all held by Pegaso PCS. That is 13.77% of the country’s total, and Movistar also had 14.64% of the active mobile internet accesses. On 7 April 2026 Telefónica agreed to sell all the shares of Telefónica México, made up of Pegaso and Celular de Telefonía, to Melisa Acquisition, a consortium led by OXIO and Newfoundland Capital Management, for a firm value of US$450 million.

In early October 2026 Xataka México reported that the antitrust commission, the CNA, had approved the purchase according to sources, though the ruling had not yet been notified and the sale had not closed. OXIO says it will keep the Movistar brand. The same report notes that Telefónica México counted 21.7 million accesses for 2025, 7% fewer than a year earlier, while its contract accesses grew 3.6%.

eSIM and linking a line

Movistar sells eSIM with both its postpaid plans and its prepaid recharge offers, and the line is switched on by calling *611. Its linking page says lines activated from 9 January 2026 need linking to work from the start. Only two documents are accepted, the INE voter card or a passport, and a foreign visitor can link a line with a valid passport while staying in Mexico, by photographing the document and taking a selfie.

Install the eSIMSwitch it on after landingNo connection