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Foreign cellular running on pre paid card in LOS?


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Hi there,

I know most anything I can throw at this board has already been discussed on Delphi. But times are a-changing and I would really appreciate an update:

1)

How do I set about bringing my (sim-unlocked) foreign cellular to work in LOS?

2) How much will a pre paid card cost me?

3) What is the price of a second hand cheap shit gsm cellular in Phantip? (I'm not a Nokia snob wink.gif" border="0

 

Thanx

Dryson

[ May 18, 2001: Message edited by: Dry Son ]

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Every shop in Rayong area I have taken an Erickson T10 trys to tell me it would be just as cost effective to buy a new phone then get the Sing phone converted to use in Thailand. Anyone know a shop in Rayong or Pattaya are that will convert for the 200 baht?

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To Thaihome:

Sorry, I don't know any shops in your area that will do the tuning, I just want to caution you not to fall for the lie that buying a new phone would be equally cost-effective. Maybe you've gone to those official Shinawatra Corp. places where they always try to sell you a new phone. They don't like people tuning their foreign-imported phones, for obvious reasons. In Pattaya there should be plenty of shops doing the tuning, even if you pay a little more than in Bangkok. In Bangkok, the tuning cost 1,500 Baht two years ago, then the price came down to 500, and now to 200 Baht.

Mobile phones cost 3 or 4 times more in Thailand than in Singapore. I just bought a WAP-enabled Ericsson R320s in S'pore, for the equivalent of 5,500 Baht - it costs 20,900 Baht in Bangkok! And the other day those greedy buggers at AIS complained that so far only 5,000 people have signed up for WAP services. Freakin' idiots!

 

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Mobiles brought from abroad usually have to be tuned to the Thai system; on the 4th floor of Mah Boonkrong Shopp. Ctr. (MBK) there are plenty of mobile shops which will do the job for 200 Baht. They all say though that Nokia phones can't be tuned, for whatever reason that may be.

A pre-paid SIM card like "One-2-Call" will cost you 3,900 Baht; that price includes a charge-up card valued 800 Baht (valid for 2 months). A minute of local talk-time will set you back 5 Baht, to other provinces 11 Baht (maybe that's been lowered now to 10 Baht, I'm not sure). There's no charge for incoming calls.

Another available pre-paid system is called "Prompt", but outside of Bangkok you may not get connections so easily. "One-2-Call" works in every province, unless you're blocked off by mountains or stay on some remote little island.

With the pre-paid card you can't normally phone abroad, but you be can be called from abroad, again at no charge.

If you DO want to make foreign phone calls, you have to get yourself a "ThaiCard" or some similar phone card. With this you can log into the particular company's system (via a code nr.), which then allows you to phone abroad. It's a slightly laborious process, but it works.

A cheap second-hand phone in MBK (not Panthip), like the Ericsson GA 628, costs you 1,500 Baht. This is still quite expensive (for the same price you could get the phone new in Singapore), but 1,000-1,500 Baht more, they can give you a second-hand SIM card, though I'm not sure if that's a good idea. You might be bothered by unsolicited calls, for heaven knows who's number you get.

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AIS (one of the wireless providers) has a booth at the airport that seems to be open quite late into the evening. You can also go to their website : www.ais900.com In their roaming brochure they mention phone rental at USD 6.25/day 37.5/week 112.5/month. Although it is not mentioned I would be surprised if they didn't have a prepaid plan to sell folks.

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If you do not stay in BKK all the time DO NOT USE ONE-TO-CALL

If you don't use the phone for a month they will terminate your number and you will lose all remaining pre paid minutes.

one-to-call is a terrible rip off!!

Find some bar girl and put it in her name, you can then pay your phone bill at any mobile phone shop in any mall by telling them your number.

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To Tired76:

Wrong, mate! If you charge up your One-2-Call phone with a 500 Baht card, that value will remain valid for 1 month. If you charge it up with 800 Baht, that will remain valid for 2 months, and with 1,500 Baht for 4 months. I'm sure you would at least use 400 Baht worth of talktime per month, wouldn't you. I use much more and I always have a credit of some 3,000 or 4,000 Baht on my main mobile (the max. that you can charge up is 5,000 Baht); and at the moment my expiry date is August 2003.

The value that you charge up always extends the period of validity by 1,2 or 4 months. Even if I don't use my phone, say, for two years now the current value will still remain - until 9/03. Trust me, I have 3 phones with One-2-Call! And I'm proud to say I bought them all cheap in Singapore and thus denied darned Thaksin a lot of profit. cool.gif" border="0

[ May 26, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ]

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