Asia - Asian Cell phones

Hi all,

I will be spending about 3 months in Thailand (Khon Kaen and Bangkok), a month in Cambodia, and a month or 2 elsewhere in Asia. Is there a cost efficient way to rent/buy a cell phone that will work in all of these places? Does anyone have any tips on how to do this?

Thanks :-:

if all three countries are GSM equipped and your US service is also GSM, buy an unlocked phone and get country specific SIMS when you arrive in that specific country....easy and cheap....

Hi all,

I will be spending about 3 months in Thailand (Khon Kaen and Bangkok), a month in Cambodia, and a month or 2 elsewhere in Asia. Is there a cost efficient way to rent/buy a cell phone that will work in all of these places? Does anyone have any tips on how to do this?

Thanks :-:

get a GSM phone (just hit MBK in BKK when you arrive and you can buy a cheap one there).

in each country, drop by a 7-11 and pick up a SIM card.

if you have a GSM phone that you use with Cingular or T-mobile in the USA, you can use that if you first ensure that it's unlocked and has the 900/1800 bands as well as the 850/1900 bands.

Since you said "elsewhere in Asia", just be aware that Japan is the only caveat. There you will specifically need a 3G phone. If you want an "all-in-one-solution", I bought an unlocked Motorla V980 (3G) on Ebay for about $130 USD so I could roam anywhere in Japan/Asia (or anywhere in the world) with my Tmobile account. The roaming charges are high ($.99 - $1.99 a minute) but you can keep your U.S. based phone number and texting is reasonably cheap.

Thanks everyone. I won't actually need a phone in Japan; maybe Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Laos, and maybe China or some other places.

So you recommend I buy a GSM phone on eBay in the US, or in BKK or SIN (not sure where my first stop will be yet)?

Does anyone know what SIM cards cost? How do you recharge them there? and roughly what does a minute cost (or a txt msg?)

Thanks again.

Thanks everyone. I won't actually need a phone in Japan; maybe Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Laos, and maybe China or some other places.

So you recommend I buy a GSM phone on eBay in the US, or in BKK or SIN (not sure where my first stop will be yet)?

Does anyone know what SIM cards cost? How do you recharge them there? and roughly what does a minute cost (or a txt msg?)

Thanks again.

oh; just to add. Will I have a problem recharging the phone if I buy it here because of the voltage differences?

oh; just to add. Will I have a problem recharging the phone if I guy it here because of the voltage differences?

most phone chargers can handle the different voltage inputs. the bigger issue is just the shape of the plug... you'll need an adapter in some places.

So you recommend I buy a GSM phone on eBay in the US, or in BKK or SIN (not sure where my first stop will be yet)?

Does anyone know what SIM cards cost? How do you recharge them there? and roughly what does a minute cost (or a txt msg?)


if you buy a phone in the US, there's always a good chance that it'll be "locked" for use only with a specific US server provider. you can usually pay a small fee ($10 or so) to get it unlocked (you can do this at MBK in BKK, for example), but i personally refuse to buy a locked phone.

SIM cards are nearly free in asia (unlike in the US where cingular charges $50 - $75 US for them), mostly you pay for the minutes. 7-11 is the most common place to buy top-up cards to add minutes to your SIM card, but plenty of other places sell them too.

overseas text msgs are about 10 baht. domestic ones are about 1 baht. i never paid attention to the price of phone calls. domestic calls are very cheap though.

In Thailand you can...

purchase a basic new phone for 2,500 - 4,000 baht. A tri-band (900/1800/1900)/GPRS phone for 4,500. These come with a charger, 110/220-50/60 so universal.

buy a SIM for 250 baht (has 50 baht of talk time on it, 30 days expiration)

buy top-cards, which add value and extend the expiration date), in demoninations ranging from 50 to 500 baht. You re-charge by scratching the card to reveal then send a text message or make a call with the PIN.

make local calls for 5 baht per minute or less

make int'l calls (to many countries incl. the USA) for 9 baht per minute or less

send local SMSes for 3 baht each or less, int'l SMS'es for 5 baht each or less

roam to other GSM countries, although calling is expensive and onerous. Recommend you buy a "local" SIM in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore, etc.

most phone chargers can handle the different voltage inputs. the bigger issue is just the shape of the plug... you'll need an adapter in some places.
Watch out though -- cheapo copycat chargers like the ones they like to sell in Thailand work fine with the voltage they're designed for, but will not be able to handle other ones. Get a more expensive branded charger to avoid this, and check the label which should say 100~240V.

Last time I bought a SIM card (at MBK in Bangkok in June) it cost 199 Baht including 50 Baht airtime.

Dial 008 or 009 instead of 001 or "+" for the international access code to get a price of 5 to 7 Baht a minute to the US and most other "western" countries. 007 will get you a price of 9 Baht/minute. So, for instance, if you're calling home to Montana, dial 008-1-406-XXX-XXXX.

To get your voice prompts switched to English, call the call center: 1-2-Call 1175, DTAC 1816.

Here's much more (http://www.pattayaexpatsclub.com/telephonetips.htm).