The mobile phone is already the channel with the widest reach in Mexico. The 2025 National Survey on the Availability and Use of Information Technologies in Households (ENDUTIH), published by INEGI, counts 103.2 million mobile phone users, 84.6% of the population aged 6 and over. Behind that number there are two facts every company that communicates with its customers should know: how people pay for their line and how they connect.
Key figures from ENDUTIH 2025
- 103.2 million people use a mobile phone (84.6% of the population aged 6 and over), 26.8 million more than in 2015.
- 97% of mobile phone users have a smartphone.
- 79.3% of users have a prepaid line; 15.7% are on postpaid.
- 86.1% of the population used the internet in 2025 (104.9 million people): 88.9% in urban areas and 75.2% in rural areas.
- 90.6% of smartphone users use instant messaging apps.
This is good news for digital communication: almost the entire adult population carries a device that can receive messages. But the way people connect changes the strategy.
Prepaid and Wi-Fi only: the detail that matters
According to the same survey, among smartphone users 72.8% combine Wi-Fi and mobile data, 16.7% connect only through Wi-Fi and 10.5% use mobile data only. Add the fact that eight out of ten lines are prepaid and the conclusion is clear: a significant share of users spend hours, or days, without internet access away from home or work, either because they have no data plan or because their balance ran out.
App notifications and internet-based messages do not arrive in those moments. SMS does: it travels over the cellular network and is delivered as long as the line is active and has signal, without using the recipient’s data or balance. That is why it remains the reference channel for what cannot wait: OTP verification codes, security alerts, purchase confirmations and appointment reminders.
What these figures mean for your company
- Real reach, not theoretical. A customer base in Mexico can be contacted almost entirely by SMS, including people who do not install apps or do not have permanent data.
- Channels that complement each other. Internet messaging is widely used, but it is not always available. Combining it with SMS as a fallback ensures critical notices arrive. We compare them in SMS, messaging apps and email for notifications.
- Short, clear messages. On a phone with little balance or no data, an SMS that makes sense without opening a link is more useful than one that forces the user to browse.
- Up-to-date databases. With the CURP mobile line registration under way, it pays to monitor delivery reports to detect suspended or deactivated numbers.
The gaps that still exist
ENDUTIH also shows that differences between urban and rural areas are still around 20 percentage points in activities such as paying, shopping or using financial services online. For organizations with customers across the country —government, healthcare, education, services and retail— SMS is a way to deliver the same message to someone in a big city and to someone with an intermittent connection. In practice, it is the most inclusive digital channel.
At Grupo Tecnophone we support companies and institutions in Mexico with critical messaging —OTP, alerts, reminders and campaigns— with real-time delivery reports and specialized support. If you want to measure the reach of your own customer base, request a demo.
Sources
- “En 2025, 86.1 % de la población mexicana usó internet (ENDUTIH 2025 press release)”, INEGI, June 16, 2026. Read article
- “ENDUTIH 2025: results report”, INEGI, 2026. Read article
- “El 84.6% de la población en México tiene celular y este sector lo usa más”, El Informador, September 22, 2026. Read article
