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USA cell phone in BKK


Old Hippie

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Old hippie:

I've had a little experience with this.

I was bringing motorola "flip phones" with me for a while.

it was when cell phones in Bkk were "big bux"

( by thai standards anyway).

We were selling them for abotu $50 usd ea. and some of the less than honest dealers were changing the info in them to work as a second phone using an existing account. ( just try not to be on the phones with the same ## at the same time)

But now phones/plans are a fairly good deal in thailand ( the service quality is not so hot though) so it does not pay to do any fiddeling with the phones.

If you have a "useless" phone, bring it and give it to someone. seems to be a real status symbol, regardless of wheather it works ( or even has a battery in it for that matter)

also, if you want to see if the phone is compatible, just turn it on in bkk and see if it gets a antenna signal.

Mite even work for 1699 calls to tourist police.

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quote:

Originally posted by Old hippie:

I have an old Nokia cell phone, analog and digital. I was wondering if it is possible to bring to LOS and establish an accout with a local provider. Or if I can give the phone to someone there to use? Any info on this? Thank you.

Is the phone you are speaking of a GSM phone?

USA GSM Networks, where they exist, use 1900mhz .

Most other countries use 900 and 1800mhz

You can find out more at www.gsm.org

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  • 2 weeks later...

Man, it would be so cool if the 2 way (radio)feature of my Nextel phone worked in Thailand. I could beep my friends here and give them the "play by play"! Hehehehe...unfortunately I found out the radio part isn't even nationwide! It only does the state where you have service.. (Florida in my case...) Oh well....

-=/NN

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  • 3 weeks later...

Gents,

I'm in the US and just bought a Nokia 8890 Tri-Band Phone (Supposedly the top of the line. My service provider is Pac Bell (Cingular) wireless and there is a removable chip in the back.

Can this phone be "chipped" in Bangkok.

I promise that I have scoured the board looking for the answer to this exact question before posting this so any help is greatly appreciated.

Respectfully,

Love2Butterfly

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The problem with foreign cell phones is that you cannot put in a Thai SIM-card in them and expect phone services tied to that card to work. Same thing is true if you bring your Thaiphone to Farangland: Your Farangland SIM-card will not provide service when used in the Thai registered phone.

Now, they do have "chipping services" in Bangkok, i.e. they will manipulate the phone to accept a Thai SIM card. To my understanding this is not a mechanical procedure but a manipulation basically done through a computer.

Nokia is known to be the most complicated phone to manipulate, but I believe you can find someone who can do it here.

But, if I had a top-of-the-line Nokia threeband phone I don't think I would let any MBK-schmuck manipulate it here in Bangkok wink.gif" border="0

It seems just so much more hassle-free to bye one of the AIS or DTAC pre-paid card and phone packages. You can get your hands on a Nokia 3310 - which is an excellent phone - for about 7000-9000 baht here (around four L/T:s), including talk time worth around 1000 Baht (which unlike a S/T will last a long time). wink.gif" border="0

If you want the latest model in the consumer bracket you can get the Nokia 3330 for around 12 000 Baht.

One more thing: let's say you do manipulate your phone here...you still can only use pre-paid phone services a la "One-2-Go!", unless you have a Thai work permit.

In case you want to open shop, you'll find all the neccessary stuff for manipulating phones at:

uCables

Straycat

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