Tiojelly

On re-thought... the 0 after 854 seems a bit odd...

KosraeTV

not really, if the poster put the right number of XXX's in, my thai number has 9 digits and every thai number I call has 9 digits (not counting country code of course).

No idea why you can not reply back or reach the number, ask your operator for help, don't know where you are calling from to help you. Some countries do not have a correct gateway address to allow text messages to go out to certain counties (like my home carrier had )

transpac

Where are you? In Thailand? Outside of Thailand? How do you know your SMSes never went through?

From outside Thailand you would dial (or send a SMS to): +66 85 408 6xxx (in the U.S.A. you might replace the "+" with "011").

If you are inside Thailand you would use 085 408 6xxxx.

(I put spaces in the number string to simplify the instructions, omit the spaces, if that wasn't obvious, when dialing or addressing a SMS.)

Use the leading zero in country, drop it if calling from outside the country.

In theory you should be able to reply to the received SMS, by choosing "reply". Your friend may not be able to make international calls, depending on their service provider.

idlopo

Well When u in the USA you should put before the +66 number the 011.
So the number will looks like 0116685...

SNA1K

I just returned from Thailand and have an AIS Sim card free to a good home if anyone wants it. It only has about 65 baht of credit on it but if anyone wanted to have the number before they leave they are welcome to it. PM me.

transpac

Try to match the expiration date with the travel plans of person who you give this to. I loaned a SIM to someone but by the time they mailed it back to me it was expired. You can check balance and expiration date in the U.S.A. (no charge), provided you can get a signal from T-Mobile or Cingular, enter *121# then send, wait for the response.

Michael

My old Orange number (now True) has expired, and I will have to get a new SIM card when I go to BKK later this week. One thing that I liked about my Orange SIM was that I could extend the life of the card by around 5 months (150 days, IIRC) if I topped up with a 1000 B card. Since I tended to visit BKK around once every 4-5 months, that meant I could keep the same number (indeed, I had the same number from 2003 until late last year).

My question: what are now the best pre-paid operators in terms of how long they will let you keep your credit / number without it expiring?

Thanks,
Michael

transpac

All the major providers here grant a maximum of 365 days validity. Further they all offer some sort of promotion-based, relatively inexpensive 365 day top-up option. I know DTAC has a 50 THB 365 day top-up option. However some of these promotons might have prohibitive per minute charges. How many times do you visit? How many minutes do you use typically?

You should probably visit a DTAC or AIS/One-2-Call shop in Paragon or Central World, where they have knowledeagble staff fluent in English.


I was trying to find related posts on other forums, still looking for some specific ones but did find these:

"If you are wanting to use a mobile and you are planning on visiting Thailand at least once a year, or even more frequently, a pre-paid DTAC Sim is the one to go for. You can dial *1013 and then extend your service for up to 360 days, ensuring the validity and functionality of your DTAC sim (and you keep the same number) for that entire period. The cost is 12THB per 180 day extension."

And for One-2-Call:

"Call their call center at *122# and send, and choose english (option 2)

Ask for the promotion called Sawadee Un Un, they will activate this promotion and when you then top up with at least 50 baht, your validity is extended with 365 days. Of course there is a catch: you need to make a phone call every three months to keep the sim active. No problem either, activate international roaming by entering *125*1# and then send. Now when you are back in your home country you can call by using 131 (country code) (phone number) # and send. One minute costs 50 baht, so make sure you have enough credit to make the number of calls you have to make in order to keep the sim active."


edited to add: Found the thread I was looking for --> DTAC 365 day validity


I think I am going to get a DTAC/Happy pre-paid SIM and add 365 days and then keep it as a spare/back-up/loaner.

dtsm

My One-2 Call cost about B320 with good number, B300 talk time and after first few re-charges, won't expire for another 12 months. I topped off with 300 each time and when I flew out last week, had about 70 left.

pvs001d

I used AIS prepaid (12Call) for all my visits - was always reliable. Last time bought Happy SIM in BKK airport and was not happy with it at all. It was 60 baht as opposed to ~300 for Ais, but all my international SMS sent from it (to US and UK) were not delivered and I was not getting any myself. Had to through it away and buy 12Call.

transpac

At least with AIS/One-2-Call each top-up adds time on the end of your current expiration date up to a maximum of 365 days. A 300 baht top-up will add 90 days to your exisiting expiration date. However, for low usage requirements while maintaining a number/service between visits to Thailand, there does appear to be ways to pay up to extend your expiration date with both AIS/One-2-Call and DTAC/Happy. Those were highlighted in my previous post. (I suspect TrueMove also offer such a scheme.)

I can't explain the DTAC service/SMS issues. Typically I find DTAC to be more reliable with SMS delivery than One-2-Call (I use both extensively) but I mainly do in-country texting. You may have had to register with DTAC for international texting.

One-2-Call (1175) and DTAC (1678) both have excellent phone and email support, in English, so if you have problems just ring them to sort it out.

ajc1970

1 year later, anybody know if 3G is yet available in BKK?

FYI, just read this article about it, so it'll definitely be here before too long: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008...s_30069183.php

transpac

With a new government they've decided to allow trials rather than issue new licenses. I think both AIS/One-2-Call and DTAC have announced they will be conducting trials in selected areas. Not sure what service will be offered, which hand-sets might work, nor the target trial customers. For pre-paid users I wouldn't hold my breath; I'd expect any trial to focus on post-paid/Corporate customers. For now, IME, EDGE on a One-2-Call pre-paid SIM using one of the monthly packages remains the best choice for mobile data. I continue to get ~ 150 kbps pretty reliably throughout the country, even in very remote areas. Again, I pay 107 baht for 25 hours each month.

yowstudent

Hey people

I will be in Bangkok from May 9th to May 16th. I was planning on purchasing a pre-paid SIM for my unlocked GSM device (specifically an HTC Prophet branded as a Qtek S200).

Now I had already done research and found One-2-Call through AIS via gsmworld.

However after navigating through their website I am at a lost for what the rates are and such.

My main focus will be the following:
Calls to Canada
Calls to Singapore
SMS to Canada
SMS to Singapore
Incidental local calls
(maybe some data, but most likely not)

Now, unfortunately, all the information I find is in Thai, and alas I am unable to read Thai. I did however find their xls file showing their international calling rates, i will copy and paste what it says.

CONTINENT:North America
COUNTRY: Canada
ประเทศปลายทาง: แคนาดา
COUNTRY CODE: 1xxx

CAT : 001
STANDARD (07.00.00 น. - 20.59.59 น.): 9
ECONOMIC (21.00.00 น. - 23.59.59 น. / 05.00.00 น. - 06.59.59 น.): 9
REDUCE (24.00.00 น. - 04.59.59 น.): 9

อัตราเดียวตลอดวัน
eFONE (009): 5
TOT: 007: 9
TOT: 008: 5

AIN : 005
TIME BAND SCHEME: A
PEAK TIME: 06:00:00 - 14:59:59 and 18:00:00 - 01:59:59
PEAK: 9
OFFPEAK TIME: 02:00:00 - 05:59:59 and 15:00:00 - 17:59:59
OFFPEAK: 9

-------------------------------------

CONTINENT: Asean
COUNTRY: Singapore
ประเทศปลายทาง: สิงคโปร์
COUNTRY CODE: 65

CAT : 001
STANDARD (07.00.00 น. - 20.59.59 น.): 22
ECONOMIC (21.00.00 น. - 23.59.59 น. / 05.00.00 น. - 06.59.59 น.): 22
REDUCE (24.00.00 น. - 04.59.59 น.): 22

อัตราเดียวตลอดวัน
eFONE (009): 5
TOT: 007: 9
TOT: 008: 7

AIN : 005
TIME BAND SCHEME: B
PEAK TIME: 07:00:00 - 21:59:59
PEAK: 22
OFFPEAK TIME: 22:00:00 - 06:59:59
OFFPEAK: 22

--------------

So yeah what does this all mean?

Whats it like Happy? Rates and such?

Thanks people!

transpac

Just use the 009 prefix as this will yield the lowest cost. Example: 00912125551212. 009countrycodecity/areacodenumber. Quality is fine.

It looks like calls to Singapore and Canada will be 5 baht/min (exclusive of 7% VAT). International SMSes are 10 baht each (I think). Local calls will vary by promotion/plan. Figure 2 ~ 4 baht/min.

Data (GPRS/EDGE) typically runs 1 baht/min unless you subscribe to a plan/promotion.

International rates are fixed so no difference by carrier.

No charge for incoming calls or SMSes.