daveesl

I've tried searching, but really can't find a definitive answer. I'm one of the Europe forum guys, but Korea is all new to me.

My daughter, who is in the Army, will be stationed in South Korea for the next 3 years. She has an unlocked Droid Incredible 2 (CDMA/GSM Quad Band, 3G-wireless) smartphone. Originally, she was to be stationed in Germany, but they just changed her orders this week.

So, from what little I am finding by searching the web it seems that South Korea may be on a different planet than most of the rest of the world as far as cell phones go (or I'm an idiot, which is most probable).

So, can someone please help on this? Is Korea like most of the rest of the world now, where GSM is standard and a person just buys a SIM card, or is it CDMA or something else? All I've found on the internet is things saying that South Korea is different than almost everywhere else, which I found hard to believe in such a technically advanced country.

Does anyone have a preferred provider? Since she will be there for so long, I assume it may be best to do some kind of contract. Verizon (her present carrier in the States) will be suspending her present contract until she returns (they do that for the military).

Thank you so much in advance!

Dave

Hanuman

I'm not familiar with the "Droid" phone but I was able to use my iPhone4 in S. Korea with a local prepaid Sim card.

Hanuman

Forgot to mention that my iPhone is an unlock version.

Hanuman

My daughter just corrected me and said that I used my local number from Thailand(Thai Sim card) with my iPhone in S. Korea.

daveesl

Thank you, I just talked with my nephew who goes to S. Korea fairly often and he said that her phone will work fine with a SIM card, just like Europe. Her phone is unlocked and quad band.

daveesl

Now I've found out that S. Korea does NOT use GSM, but instead uses CDMA 2100 for 3g. While you can use other 3g type phones, it looks like they nail you with roaming charges. While I haven't gotten a definitive answer and it does seem like SKTelecom may be offering plans for outside phones, most phones must be registered phones from Korea to get the best deals.

This kind of sucks, as she will be there for 2-3 years, just bought her Verizon quad-band (which at least Verizon will suspend the contract for a period of time, but not sure for how long) and while VZ does do roaming to S.Korea, paying $2 per minute for a call, $3 for a text message and $20/mb for data is highway robbery. And of course, they will not cancel the contract unless she pays a crazy fee of over $500. Don't these people realize that for our troops going overseas, they may not have an option in many areas?

Hopefully I can help her find a reasonable alternative. At least it will work with WiFi at no charge.

dave

gailmo

I have been watching this posting for several days. I teach in Korea every summer and have found that you cannot buy a sim and stick it in your phone as you can do in most other countries. And, as you have discovered, your GSM phone will work...but you have to pay roaming charges. I end up renting a phone while there for local in-country calls. You have to do this at the airport. It cost me about $80 for 6 weeks last summer. I still get random email messages from this company (SK mobile) and often I see that they advertise sim card rental. It might be worth checking into. I also believe that once she gets there someone will give her the best option for getting a cell phone.

I also use Skype to make calls to the US and other countries...very, very cheap - but you have to use your computer which might make it difficult for some people.

good luck!

Hanuman

I have some free time right now and did a search for you. As a temporary measure, before your daughter get settle in her base in S. Korea, she can use this with her Droid phone: http://www.onesimcard.com/cell-phone-rates/south-korea/

$0.45 per minute calling the US from this SIM looks reasonable especially when compared to the S. Korea roaming rate from my local service provider in Thailand.

Once she's there and have her local address I am sure she can get a local number which should have even cheaper calling rates.

daveesl

Thank you so much for this info. Yeah, as an experienced traveler in Europe I am so used to knowing which companies have the best deals. Once I learned that Korea has essentially 3 telecoms that have a "triopoly" on cell phone service and the hoops that people need to go through I was kind of amazed. Especially since S.Korea is a very technically advanced country.

I think for the time being I'll have her do the onesim option just to have service until she can get time to set up a long-term plan. I know that she can use her WiFi set-up without a problem and since I run a Fon hotspot at my home, I'll also be looking to see how many Fon spots are in Korea. That'll give a way to do free calling and such.

I did find a blurb on the net about SK setting up some kind of low cost system, but I don't know if they actually did it or if they canned the idea.

Once again, thanks all for this.

Dave

daveesl

UPDATE - Fon Spots - Well, this will work out pretty well. It looks like there are more Fon Spots in Korea than just about anywhere I've seen, including on most of the military posts.

For those unaware of what Fon is, it is kind of an international community of WiFi systems that are called the Fon Network. Those who use and supply Fon access are called "Foneros". Essentially you buy a Fon router and hook it up to your own broadband network. It is a dual sided wireless router, meaning one side is private (encoded just like a normal router), the other side is public. The two sides are separate from each other, so nobody on the public side can get into your private side.

You can set your Fon account up to offer free internet access to anyone (once they log in to the Fon Server) or you can charge for it. Most spots are free, like mine at my house. You also determine the amount of bandwidth you are willing to share on the public side.

Once you install the router and activate your account (the routers cost from about $30 to about $50), you are then able to access the internet through any other Fon router (Fon Spot) in the world, by entering your Fonero UserID and Password (you can also give this out to friends and family so they can use Fon spots). Those who are not Foneros, can also use Fon Spots to access, but have to pay for access. The Fon website provides a global locator map of every Fon spot on earth, whether it is turned on and if it is a business, what kind of business it is.

I've used Fon alot in Europe, but admit that sometimes the signals are a bit hit or miss. I was really happy to see the mass of Fon Spots in Korea, as any Wifi phone can access them. Then you can use something like Skype or Googlevoice to call out.

This may well be the big back-up or possibly even primary method she can use for communications at a super low cost, or even free, depending on what she does.

dave

daveesl

Oh, and to be a "Fonero", there is no additional costs or fees after the initial router purchase.

This is by no means an advertisement for Fon, just another way to communicate at a low cost from almost anywhere. Anywhere that there is a Fon spot that is.

dave

daveesl

I see now that the Korean telecoms have decided to block Skype and Vonage. I did find a work-around for Vonage, but it puts the monthly price up to about $60/month, which still isn't too bad, except you have to be at your computer. Supposedly Vonage is also trying to work a deal with KT to expand their 3g access from beyond the iPhone to Androids. But once again, the cost is pretty high due to the bandwidth usage.

I'm sure I can find a way around all this for her.

dave