glorialf

Thanks to all of you, I THINK I have probably figured out how best to communicate with my elderly mother and pet sitter when away. Here's my plan-- please tell me if you think it will work.
1. I will purchase a New Motorola V188 unlocked cell phone -- can get it for $50 including shipping.
2. I will buy a sim card for it when I get to Bangkok and will use it to call the U.S.
3. I will give my pet sitter a prepaid phone card for thailand which she will use to contact me from my home phone.
4.Since I will be able to call my mother daily at this price I will figure that she won't need to call me and if she does she will just pay the international cost. Or I may also get her a phone card which someone in her building (she lives in a huge condo with lots of young people) can help her figure out.

Does that make sense? THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND ADVICE!

Hanuman

It make sense to me. One thing though is that you could easily buy a used phone in Thailand for roughly the same price and it might be better because you will be able to inspect the phone prior to purchase.

After you've got #1 - 3 on your list done may I suggest the following to help save some money for you.

To access the IDD or the "international direct dial" prefix, in Thailand the main and the one with the highest rate is 001. You can save a bit of money by accessing the IDD by using either 008 or 007(the cheapest). Check out the link below for the charges to call the USA from Thailand:


For the 007 access number: http://203.113.93.5/intercall/Englis...te007_eng3.htm

For the 008 access number:
http://203.113.93.5/intercall/Englis...uct008_eng.htm

At the moment the 008 number have a promotion rate for calling the USA for only 5 Baht per minute. Doesn't get much cheaper than that!

Kristina

Gloria-
I didn't end up buying a phone prior to going to Bangkok this year, but I thought you might find this link useful:

"How to Install a Thai SIM card in your mobile phone":
http://travelhappy.info/thailand/how...-mobile-phone/

glorialf

Kristina-- did you end up buying a phone at MBK? If so which phone and where did you buy it? And which service provider did you end up with.

Kristina

Gloria-
No, I didn't buy a phone. I brought my laptop and made plenty of calls using Skype though! Calls to a US landline were only 2 cents a minute.
It's free computer to computer when both users have Skype. My husband and I were even able to see eachother via web cam!

I am probably going to buy a quad band phone on ebay before my next trip (to Rome) however.

kuranosuke

hanuman, thanks for the tip. i've been using 001.

Elizabeth_S

One question - and perhaps it's irrelevant for Asian SIMs but when I did this same thing in South America I learned that a prepaid SIM card is blocked from making outgoing international calls..... you have to have it opened up.

It wasn't a *big* deal to have it unblocked (needed to go to a mobility dealer) but of course I found out the hard way (when I really needed to make an int'l call).

glorialf

Is that true or will any sim card work as long as my phone is unlocked?

Hanuman

Kuranosuke,

You're welcome!

Glorialf,

Your phone will work but to international calls it will depend on the type of sim card and which company you buy it from.

glorialf

So which sim cards should I get for international calls? And will I also be able to use them for local calls?

Hanuman

Glorialf,

Try googling "AIS Thailand" or "DTAC" Thailand. They have a lot of information there for you.