The telephone usually didn t work. If it did work, a wrong number was the result. If by chance you got the right number, you couldn t talk, or if you were talking you were cut off, or you suddenly heard a third person entering the conversation. Strange long distance calls to Aukland or Timbuktu which after long and heated discussions with Telmex were always paid so the service wouldn t be cut off. Nowadays, Telmex is a private consortium of which Southwest Bell is a major member.
Service is better.
The service has improved so much that Mexico seems to be leaving the third world and beating on the door of the developed nations. So when I decided to move into my newly constructed home for the millennium, I anticipated no problems in changing my telephone. I was only moving a block over and two blocks down. There was a telephone cable running down the street. I would have a telephone drop of only some 60 feet.