elexianyx

If your plan comes with data, your wifi hotspot won't come into play. Staying in Taipei or major city would ensure your 4G if not max 3G access, and if you don't have signal in the remote area then there won't be wifi hot spot there as well...

ProleOnParole

Lots of urban locations have free Wi-Fi provided on behalf of the government. Ironically, these hotspots are often operated by CHT, sharing the hardware with their commercial service. In any case, if you have 4G or even 3G data, you're unlikely to bother with the Wi-Fi anyway.

s0ssos

I meant turning on the wifi hotspot (using my phone as an access point). In America sometimes carriers disable that if they give you unlimited data.

AnalogMan

s0ssos, thank you for clarifying, that's what I thought you meant (able to use phone as hotspot) but wasn't completely sure. Can you please mention what kind of phone you used? Since you mentioned hotspot doesn't work in the states on some carriers, I assume you have a phone that blocks hotspot on certain carriers but would like to confirm.

Taipei city has free WIFI but I don't generally bother with it. The only places that I regularly frequent which has TPE-Free wifi is the Metro stations, and wifi internet over is extremely slow in those places. Plus I have a ton of data to use up (I am an infrequent visitor), so I just run my Fire Phone as a hotspot for all devices in my traveling party

s0ssos

I used a Moto Droid Turbo 2. Works great. 4g almost everywhere.

In the US people on those grandfathered plans with ATT and Verizon have it disabled by the carrier. Not sure how the carriers can do it, but they definitely can.

elexianyx

If you meant blocking, none of the Taiwanese mobile company does that, so as long as you phone has personal hotspot(which moto does), then don't worry about the hotspot sharing block.

s0ssos

Yea, funny how it is so cheap here and you get unlimited 4g data, whereas in the US you don't and it is more expensive.

Zorak

Putting in a plug for advance ordering via Klook: https://www.klook.com/activity/1503-...taiwan-taipei/

Useful for e.g. the early morning US arrivals into TPE if you don't want to wait for the other counters to open up, since this pick-up booth opens at 5:30am. The last time I was in Taiwan we were happy to hang out and have breakfast while waiting, but on my current trip we wanted to transfer to THSR sooner.

fallinasleep

Are the airport unlimited data SIM plans the best deal available for a 30-day visit? Are these plans also available in town?

On my past (much shorter) trips to Taipei, I picked up a pocket wifi, but renting one from klook.com (the cheapest option) for an entire month will be approx USD 80 whereas the 30 days unlimited data SIM cards at the airport would cost closer to USD 33.

For an iphone 6 plus, are the three major carriers more of less the same in terms of data speeds?

Thanks.

bocastephen

The tourist plans are only available at the airport, once you go in town, you will pay much higher retail rates. We use Fareast Tone at TPE for the best price and data speed, but at TSA airport you are limited just to Chunghwa which is a similar price, but somewhat slower speed. Just stick to FareastTone and you can't go wrong.

ProleOnParole

There is no single best deal, it all depends. Most importantly, are you planning to visit Taiwan again in the next 6-12 months? If you want a general answer, what you can buy at the airport is hardly the best deal but it's convenient and might still be cheap enough not to bother looking for anything else. The other options are particularly worth considering if you don't really need unlimited data.

No, the airport plans are only available at the airport, and the regular plans are only available from the regular shops. Shops outside the airport used to require a 2nd form of ID but this requirement has now been dropped by Taiwan Mobile, from what I know.

$80 sounds like a lot. You should be able to get 30-day unlimited data at the airport at TWD 1,000 for 4G, or TWD 800 for 3G, i.e. $33/$27 respectively. These plans should allow tethering too.

Not sure what LTE bands your iPhone supports. CHT is the safest option as it runs on B3, B7 and B8. TMob and FET both use B28, so if your phone doesn't support it, you might get reduced speeds, or it could be falling back to 3G in some areas. If your phone can do B28, CHT and FET both support 40 MHz CA, while TMob is at most 30MHz. This is all splitting hairs really, the speeds will be good in either case.

This link might also come useful: http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Taiwan

Edit: according to this page http://web.archive.org/web/201409240...phone-6/specs/ all versions of iPhone 6 support B28.

bocastephen

CHT does not provide LTE on tourist plans - you will get 4G only, although suffice to say it's not that slow.

AnalogMan

I don't believe that is true. In Taiwan HSPA is 3G and LTE is called 4G. As of two years ago (last time I took a picture of the price board) the Chunghwa Telecom airport prepaid plans include LTE.

Regarding the carriers, I think Taiwan Mobile has the fastest speeds. Chunghwa Telecom and TWM have lower rates. If one plans to talk/text much, then FarEasTone is not a great choice. Post #102 in this thread has more details.

The airport SIMs are not renewable, I believe once the time on them is up, one has to buy a new SIM. SIMs from in-town locations can be refilled and kept indefinitely. This only matters for people who are interested in having a consistent cell number across trips to Taiwan though.

bocastephen

4G and LTE are different - on almost all phones, when the connection symbol says "4G", your speed will be slower, sometimes significantly so, then when it shows "LTE" - depending on network congestion and usage.

I've been using the FET tourist SIMs for a few years and always found the experience superior to CHT, both before and after Taiwan deployed LTE, more-so after.

fallinasleep

Thanks bocastephen, ProleOnParole and AnalogMan

Looks like I will pick up the 30-day unlimited data SIM card at the airport, and maybe a second SIM card that I can use mostly for voice and emergency data over a longer period.