Cross-the-border business between San Diego and Baja California has grown significantly within the last 10 years. In 1992, a UCSD study found a cross-border market of about $4 billion, about $1.8 billion spent in Baja and $2.2 billion in San Diego. The South County Economic Development Council is updating that study to reveal an estimated $8 billion and no sign of slowing. The two regions have worked to overcome physical barriers and expand business and trade opportunities. More than 50 million cars cross the border annually; more than 40,000 each day. And nearly 300,000 to 400,000 visitors cross monthly.

So it’s amazing that right here in the wireless capital of the world, people can’t travel a few miles to the south and stay connected without, for the most part, making international arrangements and paying high charges. Even then, service often is spotty at best, getting worse as callers leave Tijuana and head south down Baja. With some wireless carriers, a south-of-the-border connection is impossible.

“The (wireless) boundaries are hurting productivity of the region,” says Flavio Olivieri, chairman of the SCEDC and board member of the San Diego County Workforce Partnership. “Cross-border business has grown because it’s diversified and consolidated. Before 10 years ago, you had an emerging manufacturing industry and you had a mature tourism industry. And in this last 10 years the industry, the cross-border industrial activity, has matured and consolidated.”

It is time, says the Tijuana resident and 10-year veteran of cross-border business, for the wireless service providers to catch up with an already booming and nearly borderless industry. “It’s essential,” he says.

Olivieri uses Nextel for his wireless service. It allows him to stay connected almost all the way into his hometown in the La Mesa area of Tijuana. Although the extended service, which reaches almost to Rosarito Beach, is by accident, it shows how easily companies could offer service without extra fees. Of the five most widely used wireless communication companies in San Diego, Nextel is the only firm with this capability.

Yolanda Walther-Meade runs a business that specializes in international event management, cross-border public relations and interpreting and translating services. Dividing her time between the two countries, she formerly used two cell phones, one for family and another for business. Tired of the juggling act, she investigated the options and found Nextel to have the “ideal solution.” Nextel offers customers hand-held units that work as radios and cell phones. Walther-Meade’s co-workers each have a unit and via a radio network they communicate throughout Mexico and the United States. She is able to speak with one or all of them at any time, much like a walkie-talkie. For all other communication, the unit serves as a cell phone. “The only disadvantage,” she explains, “is that when you’re on the radio, you can’t tell if someone is calling you (on the phone).”

Gary Swedback, director of NAI Mexico (BRE), also uses Nextel. He travels back and forth across the border daily making real estate transactions and says the service has its pros and cons. While he can make and receive calls in Tijuana — the service stops just before Rosarito Beach — without any additional charges to his monthly bill, he has problems with reception within the Interstate 805 corridor. He says he gets better service in Juarez than Del Cerro, Mission Valley and Chula Vista. “It has its trade-offs,” he says. “It’s a matter of efficiency and practicality.” For cell phone service past the Nextel area, Swedback’s company changes over to cell phones with service from companies in Mexico: Celtel or Baja Celular. “Then it’s a long-distance, international call.”

Nextel’s local service corridor includes Los Angeles, San Diego and Tijuana. However, it is more costly than most providers for monthly service. Swedback says he pays between $159 and $179 a month for about 1,500 minutes of airtime. Although that is high, he says other services end up costing more because of the amount of time he spends on the phone. Other providers offer monthly packages as low as $19.99 — you won’t find anything close to that price at Nextel — but they don’t include any free airtime coverage into Tijuana.

Walther-Meade and Swedback went with Nextel more than a year ago because it was one of only a few options with reception capabilities across the border. Now that other cell phone companies are adding international services to their features, consumers have choices and can select packages based on their international call usage.

“It’s not as if there is an invisible border that stops cell phone signals,” says Charles Nathanson, executive director of San Diego Dialogue. “There is a significant population living in San Diego and Tijuana who are actually residents in a binational city. They can’t live if they can’t communicate back and forth. Anything that improves communication is a huge boost.”

The Dialogue, a self-funded organization out of the University of California, San Diego, researches issues of importance and facilitates discussion among civic and business leaders and the community at large, to encourage the development and implementation of solutions. Its main goal is to improve the quality of life of the cross-border region. Nathanson says the best way to do this is to remove barriers to communication and transportation.

Already, commuter lanes have successfully opened travel across the border. Nathanson and Olivieri say it’s time to do the same with cellular travel.

“Calling, if made local, can be a substitute for crossing in some cases,” Nathanson says. He has a cell phone that is supposed to work while he is in Tijuana. It doesn’t, so when in Mexico he ends up borrowing from someone who has service with a carrier in Mexico.

Pegaso PCS in Mexico, which uses Qualcomm’s CDMA technology, is working to create a service that won’t charge roaming fees.

Olivieri sees the Pegaso move as more of a business than technological decision, one that acknowledges a need for affordable seamless communication. Most providers, he says, are still focused primarily on the profit from high international roaming fees.

Judith Morgan Jennings commutes to work in San Diego from her home one mile north of Puerto Nuevo below Rosarito Beach. She uses GTE cellular long-distance service because it meets her needs. “I use it for a comfort zone, for emergencies,” she says. “Calling in Mexico is expensive. But so far, the service seems to be seamless.” Signing up several years ago was easy; she simply called and told customer service she needed a phone that would work on both sides of the border. Today, customer service is a bit more challenging.

GTE is no longer available in San Diego to new customers, and the company’s former customers have been transferred to AT&T, which bought out the area’s network and customer base. AT&T is still working to upgrade the system to its new digital service. Phone service and feature changes are challenging to accomplish over the phone and the company Web site is not yet accepting San Diego customers’ account numbers.

John Mendez, manager of corporate communications and public affairs for AT&T, says it is all being worked out. Hoping customers will bear with them through this transitional stage, three separate AT&T storefronts in San Diego are telling customers the change to improved service will be made by April 1. But, everyone knows, that is April Fools’ Day, and Mendez says things won’t be running smoothly until at least mid-summer. He does say that customers will be pleased they stayed with the company.

Customers who go into an AT&T store (still branded GTE for now) can set up several types of international roaming services. Using a prepaid calling card customers can place local and long-distance calls across the border in Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada, San Quintín, Tecate, Mexicali, San Felipe, and San Luis Río Colorado. Calls made from Baja California to anywhere in the U.S., Canada or Mexico are $1.95 per minute, deducted from the card. Placing calls in Baja requires a four-digit personal identification number so this feature must be set up before leaving the area. The pay-as-you-go way also allows users to have international calling capability wherever TDMA service is available.

AT&T customers currently face a 50-cent roaming fee and various long-distance charges. But keep in mind that AT&T still has not set up its system in San Diego. Going to Ensenada right now with your cell phone is a shot in the dark as it is GTE’s service that is currently working. When the transition to AT&T service is final, the cost will be about 25-cents a minute for long-distance and 99-cents for roaming. “It’s a $1.24 a minute flat rate price,” Mendez says. “It’s predictable; users know what they’re going to pay.”

AT&T has an agreement with Baja Celular in Mexico for cross-the-border communications.

While a flat rate plan may be predictable, a little shopping around can make a big difference.

Verizon Wireless provides Baja coverage to its customers through an agreement with Telcel. “Our customers can roam at very competitive rates,” says Nick Montes, manager of Hispanic marketing for Verizon. “Their customers can roam here as well.”

The agreement gives cellular customers on the U.S. side of the border a plan that allows them to call from Mexico to California for 60 cents a minute plus 39 cents a minute long-distance fee. “At about 99 cents a minute, it’s the same as using a pre-paid calling card and less than using a hotel phone,” Montes says. While in Baja, calls to Baja areas are only 60 cents a minute. Although coverage cannot be guaranteed while using another network, Montes says the Telcel coverage includes all major cities in Baja California — from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas. However, Montes says Verizon cannot guarantee Baja coverage, “especially since we are using someone else’s network.”

The Baja coverage is a feature that can be added to all Verizon cell phones for no extra charge. Fees are added only when the phone is used outside the original coverage area.

Pegaso, working with one of its main investors, Sprint PCS, is designing what is being called “border town pricing.” The agreement allows Sprint and Pegaso customers to use their PCS phones in major cities in both countries.

Scott Malone, director of sales and marking operations for Sprint’s San Diego operations, says it is the company’s goal to take down the border and create an easy and affordable communication plan for the San Diego market. While the company works on that initiative, long-distance calling fees while in Tijuana or adjoining towns vary from 39 cents to 95 cents a minute. However, Malone says, there is no roaming fee. The fee is not set because no single provider has yet been established. This arrangement is being worked out and the information was not ready for release in time to be included in this story. Before roaming in Mexico, users need to visit the store and set up access. Then, while in Mexico, users dial an international access code and enter a Sprint PCS phone number. For San Diego customers who use their phones in San Diego to place calls across the border, Sprint offers two zone plans. For a $3.99 monthly recurring charge and 22 cents a minute, callers can use their phone to call Tijuana and surrounding areas. Customer representatives say service reaches all the way to Ensenada. For more frequent callers, there is a plan for $7.99 a month at 15 cents a minute. Malone says Sprint is making a determined effort to create plans unique to San Diego for across-the-border communication.

It’s become obvious to the communications marketplace that San Diego and Tijuana relations are becoming more important as more companies work to facilitate relationships across the border. Almost all the companies contacted for this story were actively working on improving cellular communications across the Mexican border and into Baja for their San Diego customers. Only Cingular Wireless did not have any coverage agreements or cellular licensing for anywhere in Mexico at this time and no information was obtained to reveal their efforts to expand cellular usage. “If we can eliminate these boundaries, we can take advantage of working together,” Olivieri says. “The barriers are small. We need to eliminate them to unleash the potential of the region.”