seanthepilot

Buying a SIM card is as simple as 'Pie'. Buy your SIM and get them to activate it, set english as the default language (for SMS and Phone help) and then check your balance with them before you leave.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++

The SCAMs you speak of is when they take old/stolen/repaired phones, put a new faceplate on and sell them as 'good' 2nd hand phones. Of varying quality, some last years, some last days.

IMO it's best to buy new. MBK type stores often have smuggled in telephones, to avoid import duties. They can sell cheaper and still make a profit. Check the wall charger. I refused to buy my phone with the New Zealand charger, until he traded it with a North American one. All new phones will have a warranty. I've had no problems with Siemens, Samsung, Nokia service in Thailand.

Trajan

Does anyone know if you can get TWO sim cards for one pre-pay "1-2-call" number?

I currently have one "1-2-call" pre-pay sim card for my Pocket PC phone and one "True Move" pre-pay sim card for my laptop (embeded now into my Sierra GPRS modem PC card with tiny antenae) for internet connections when I am sitting outside of a Wi-Fi hotspot zone... (I cant wait for Wi-Max zones in Thailand so I can stop using slow GPRS internet connections)...

my laptop doesnt have bluetooth (if it did I could simply connect on a wireless basis to my Pocket PC phone for modem access and give away the "True Move" sim card)...

transpac

Maybe best to call 1-2-Call CSR at 1175, press 2, they can answer any question. I use a Bluetooth USB adapter, 600 THB, on my notebook to talk to my Nokia phone, and then use the GPRS/EDGE modem in my phone. I have a 25 hour GPRS plan (107 baht each month). Maybe it would be easiest to get a Bluetooth adapter? I am writing this post on a 1-2-Call EDGE (GPRS) connection running at 150 Kbps in the far Northeast of Thailand (where it is surprisingly cool).

Kenji

easiest way to by a sim card is at 7/11
happy is quite cheap and works fine, also intl.

Teacher49

Does calling a CSR at 1175 get an English speaking CSR?

Also, someone mentioned Taitel. I found a rate card for their calling card that lists calls from Thailand to the US at 1 minute for 1THB. transpac, you alluded to a control that made the rate more than that. Here is the link to the various card plans at Taitel. I would appreciate if you or anyone else can clarify.

http://thaitel.com/callfromother/from-thailand.php

The information on this thread is very helpful! Thanks to all.

billp

"Press 2 for English..."
You can also ask them to set your voice prompts in English.

Tiojelly

I purchased a SIM card at BKK a few months back. Transaction was seemless and the service was good, however I frequently (5-10 times a day) received messages on the phone ... most of which were not readable since they appeared mostly as either blocks or non alpha characters (i.e. symbols).

The messages almost appeared as if they wanted me to respond or answer and by doing so may have charged me money for the honor since it was asking for a Y/N response... although I was not positive about that.

I was curious if I just got a bad number with a bunch of subscriptions to services, whether the person I bought the SIM from (AIS Booth at the airport) signed me up for some service, or if some other thing was going on.

It was pretty annoying since I wanted to keep the phone on during the night in case calls or messages from home came in, and the notification for these unwanted messages is the same for legit ones.

Have others experienced this? Any suggestions for fixing -- aside from buying a new sim# which I guess should work.

jpatokal

Welcome to the world of SMS spam -- almost all operators in Asia do this, and a few even up the annoyance factor by calling you with a robot to sell the Hello Kitty wallpaper du jour or whatever. Buying a new SIM won't work, you'll get the same messages there too, so the solution is to give customer service a call (yes, they speak English), and ask them to block advertisements.

transpac

I receive, on average, about two unsolicted SMSes from the One-2-Call folks per month so clearly there must be ways to turn off the bulk of these message that you are receiving. Mine are probably related to my monthly subscription for GPRS (exclusive of the monthly billing SMS) and/or my use of some of their utilities (SMS toolbar, for example).

As mentioned just ring 1175 from your mobile, press 2 for an English-speaking agent, or 02 271 9000 from any phone. You can also contact them via email, [email protected] , and ask them for help limiting you message influx. I have found them to be incredibly responsive.

art2547

I know your holiday is over now, ('hope you had a good time), however, others might be interested in knowing more about GPRS and EDGE. Thailand has EDGE and GPRS coverage across the whole country. The best provider is Dtac, it is nearly 100% reliable, click connect and it always connects. The rates are very cheap, a 100 baht card will give 10 hours use.

AIS is cheaper, however, I cannot recommend them for reliability.

With regard to International phone calls, I always use CAT Hatari. The rate to the UK is 4 baht per minute. I would assume it is the same for the rest of Europe. Go into any 7-Eleven and ask for a CAT Hatari card, denominations are 300 baht or 500 baht. Reliability is very good and calls are of high quality.

I never use Skype even though I have ADSL, reliability is poor and there is always a lot of echo and feedback.

I guess you will be back in Thailand soon, it's a great country with wonderful people.

Regards, Art

P.S. I have a vested interest, I run the www.EdgeThailand.com website which sells EDGE and 3G cards as well as providing information about tariffs and promotions in Thailand.

KosraeTV

Skype has always worked fine all over Thailand for me, from the north to the south no problems ever. Even using Fring on my Nokia e61i and free wifi services I have had no problem using skype.

transpac

The last time I checked DTAC had pretty limited EDGE coverage, only 300 base-stations country-wide. Granted those cover the major metropolitan and tourist locales but seem paltry compared to AIS/One-2-Call's 100% country-wide coverage with EDGE. AIS is using this network for Push-to-Talk (PTT) services as these use VoIP. DTAC does have 100% coverage for GPRS.

I strongly recommended One-2-Call for EDGE because of my extremely positive experience with the service over the past two years. My cost, ~ 4 baht/hour, the great customer service and excellent data rates, even in some incredibly remote areas in Thailand, make it easy to recommend. (I am also a post-paid DTAC voice customer, their customer service pales in comparison to One-2-Call.) Obviously you need an EDGE-capable handset to get these higher speeds. I seem to average 150 kilo-bits per second.

Regarding calling cards you do need to factor in any local access charges, say if you are using your mobile phone to originate the call. This can quickly become more expensive than just using the '009' prefix straight-away. I guess if you want to use a public telephone, I still see a few of these around mostly on noisy streets, then perhaps there is a toll-free access number?

Tiojelly

Just got back from a visit and needed to get a new phone # since my last had expired.

The excellent news was that the SMS spam that was arriving at several+ per day no longer showed up at the new number... Also agree that 1-2-Call had excellent voice coverage in most places. It got pretty spotty or completely dropped in the mountains near Myanmar between Pai and Mae Hong Son -- but that was more the location as my Cingular Blackberry with GPRS/EDGE and my Verizon phones all lost signal as well.

I have not used the phones for data calls -- should really read up on that as it sounds like a better solution than finding WLAN's or paying hotel prices for internet service.

lananhne

I got a txt msg from my friend in thailand. He's using a prepaid sim card. The number shown in his msg is +66854086xxx. I tried to call back, and txt back. But it seems that my msgs never went through, my calls were always answerd by some thai speaking and "The number u dialed is not available at this time." Does anyone know what the problem is? Why can I still receive his msg from the same sim card?
Please help me, this is really urgent. I need to talk to him asap.

Tiojelly

Welcome to FT.

Looks like the number format is OK as I have received calls from that 854 prefix before. Perhaps it was turned off due to the time difference??? It's now early morning in Thailand so give another try and see if the phone is turned back on.

Good luck tracking them down.