Sydfly

Mrs Sydfly will have to join a 2 hour phone conference from our hotel room in Bangkok next week and I was looking for a cheap prepaid phonecard that I could buy somewhere on the net if possible. I found a website of thaitelephone and they have 6 Baht/min rates to most countries including Australia. I haven't figured out yet whether I can purchase this card online though. I don't find this particularly cheap as we have phone cards down under that cost less than 1c/min to call overseas. Is 6 Baht/min as low as I will get?

seanthepilot

I think so, but will let the others beat the price.

I'm here to tell you, it's the same 6-7 baht rate calling with your mobile. Buy a local sim card and you have the convinience of the mobile too. I think Orange is the cheapest, but not all Sims allow Int'l LD.

I have 1 2 Call and if you dial 007 first, its 7 per minute, i think

transpac

Regardless of the actual pre-paid mobile provider (One-2-Call, DTAC, Orange) you can ring many countries for 6 baht per minute by dialing 008 (zero-zero-eight) then the country code and telephone number. A 009 (zero-zero-nine) prefix is 7 baht per minute. I think standard (001/+) rates are 9 baht per minute? (These prices might be exclusive of VAT, so add an additional 7%.)

You can check out the TOT (008) and CAT (009) websites for more details

You can buy a pre-paid calling card or a pre-paid SIM for your mobile when you arrive. Pre-paid SIMs are available in any mobile shop, while calling cards are available everywhere (Family Mart, Seven Eleven etc.). You'll just have to sort out the total baht value so you don't get cut off in the middle of the conference call. Maybe a One-2-Call pre-paid SIM and two 500 baht top-up cards? Or a 1,000 baht pre-paid card?

I'll try to check on current prices for pre-paid SIMs and calling cards today and post back.

I think 6 baht per minute is the lowest I've heard about.

Edited to add: You may have to pay local access charges to make the phone call from the hotel to the pre-paid provider. This is of course dependent on the hotel's policies but should be considered.

Prices quoted are calling to the U.S.A., however Australia is the same price if I recall correctly.

Sydfly

Thanks for all your help, transpac! You're right about the local call access. I didn't think that a hotel might not have an untimed local call rate like we do in Australia. So we'd better check on that one before making a call for 2h. And yes, we need to purchase a card that allows her to make the call without interruption, so I guess a 1000 Baht card would do fine.

seanthepilot

Make sure they don't double charge you if you're using the hotel phone.

Even though they understand the call is to a local acess number, i've still seen them worried about the international digits pushed and the percieved LD charges.

Thai logic isn't the same as western.

transpac

An Orange pre-paid SIM is b199 and comes with b50 of talk-time. A One-2-Call pre-paid SIM is b250 and comes with b50 of talk-time.

jtkauai

Another great FT thread. As a result, I just unlocked my Cingular cell phone, and will get a one-2-call prepaid sim on arrival in bangkok.

on the matter of unlocking, i first tried the free stuff you can google up (which didn't work), but ultimately went with a paid site. the guy was amazingly helpful, and got me unlocked and ready to go in a few minutes for $7. beats the heck out of buying an unlocked phone.

KonaHi

Unfortunately, now when you buy a sim card, you must provide a passport and go through a lot of sign language. I am told that this is due to terrorist concerns. Be prepared to spend a little time and energy buyin a sim card. Have a good time in Bangkok.

transpac

AFIAK this is correct, although I'm not sure it will add more than a few minutes to the transaction. I would have my passport, not a copy, in hand when purchasing a SIM. (I purchased a One-2-Call SIM two years ago so it is "unregistered". One-2-Call has 'on-hold' recordings mentioning the need for me to register my SIM at a shop and to bring my passport.) Further, I would recommend going to a service provider's shop ( so Telewiz for One-2-Call while DTAC and Orange just brand their shops as such ) rather than a dealer. I imagine this will soon be a requirement everywhere?

Most of the small dealer counters in MBK will unlock a phone for a small charge.