I am hoping someone can provide clarification around using mobile phones in Thailand. First, it is my understanding that you must have a mobile phone that has a sim card and that you can buy sim cards in BKK at MBK. Can someone verify if this is the case? And if so, will any phone with a sim card work with any provider? I currently use Sprint, which I am told none of their phones have sim cards, but I am coming to the end of my agreement, so if I sign up with another carrier, I want to be sure I can use their phone while in Thailand. Are there any other details I need to know before picking out a new phone and service carrier?

One other question, my brother has a phone with a sim card, but he is about to change carriers and get a new phone. Would we be able to take his old phone (that has a sim card) and buy a new sim card and get the phone activated just for us to use while in Thailand?

feargal - There are many threads about mobile phones in the Europe forums, so you can do a search there. No difference between Thailand or Europe, in general.

Two carriers in the US use the GSM standard - T-Mobile and more recently Cingular. Their phones have the slot for the SIM card. However, there are two other issues:

1. Frequency. T-Mobile USA uses 1900; Cingular uses 850/1900. A Thai carrier uses 900 and/or 1800. So, if your brother's phone is T-Mobile, it needs to be at least tri-band (900/1800/1900) for it to work in Thailand. If it's Cingular, it will be best if it's quad band (850/900/1800/1900), though a tri-band one may work with certain carriers in Thailand.

2. A phone sold by T-Mobile or Cingular here in the US is "locked" - meaning it will only accept SIM cards from T-Mobile or Cingular. To work with a Thai SIM, it needs to be "unlocked". Depending on the make and model of the phone, you may be able to get it unlocked for free or for little, by a cellular agent or some eBay merchants. [And a few phones, it's impossible.]

If you're going to travel relatively often, you may want to buy your own unlocked GSM phone. Ebay has plenty. Just search for "unlocked GSM tri-band". Some as low as $50-80. Geeks.com was also selling a brand-new Sony Ericsson for $80 last time I check.

I use Cingular and have a Nokia 3200 quad band phone. I had no trouble removing the SIM card in Malaysia and replacing it with a card from a Malaysian carrier. I made calls to the US and within Malaysia for pennies per minute.

The only thing I had to do was call Cingular and tell them I wanted to make calls with the phone from overseas. But I first did this in Costa Rica and used my Cingular SIM card (it was $2.00 per minute however). They did not charge me for unlocking but it was not a physical thing, it was done with merely a phone call. If you are replacing the card with one from another country, you don't even have to tell your carrier to do anything. If you have a phone that is tri or quad band and takes a SIM card, it is as simple as removing the card and replacing it with a new one. Your home phone carrier never even has to know you did it. The place you buy the new card from will set you up and get you on the local network. When you get back home, just take out the new card and replace it with your old one.

Right, but the key is that phone has to be unlocked. Sometimes the carrier will do it for you, sometimes they don't. Some make and models can be unlocked remotely, some require hooking up with a cable. There's no one definite answer.

You can try call your carrier first. And to make sure the phone is indeed unlocked, if it's a Cingular phone, find someone with a T-Mobile SIM; if it's a T-Mobile phone, find something with a Cingular SIM.

So if I buy one of these phones on e-bay, do I have to get service for it before I go to Thailand, or can I just get the carrier/service in Thailand when I'm over there?

Since you want to get a local SIM in Thailand, you don't and you won't get a service provider here.

Now, backing up a bit. If you just want to use the phone in emergency in Thailand, or very infrequent, then you may NOT want to buy a local SIM. For example, T-Mobile USA charges US$1.49/min if you use their service in Thailand. Sounds like a lot, but if you may only use the phone for a call or two, then you don't need to get a local SIM.

And in that case, you don't need to have your phone unlocked. Right now, if you want to switch to T-Mobile, you can get money back by buying a phone and signing up at amazon.com. Even with a phone like the popular Motorola RAZR, which is a quad-band phone, you pay $125, sign up for a plan that's $39.99 or higher, and you can get $200 back in rebate.

If you're thinking about switching carriers anyways, this is a pretty good deal.

I beg to disagree with rkkwan, if you buy a phone with a US SIM card and plan to use that card overseas, you will have to call your carrier and have it unlocked. I ran into a problem last year when I was in Peru and failed to call Cingular and tell them I wanted to use it there. While I was able to get a local signal, I was blocked from making any calls. When I returned home, I called Cingular and told them and they unlocked the phone. When I went to Costa Rica after that, I was able to use the phone with the Cingular SIM.

Rkkwan is perfectly correct, as usual. I have a TMobile here in the US, (even works in Houston, rkkwan )and I have used it in Thailand as well as China, India, Romania, Hungry, and Peru. I know NOTHING about sim cards, locked phones, etc, etc, etc. I signed up for TMobile's international plan (for free--but with additional usage fees) and the phone works the minute our plane touches down in any country we have visited for the last 3 years. My phone is a simple Samsung model. I love it!!!

laurieco - What you're talking about is not "unlocking" the phone for other SIM. You're talking about "enabling the international calling feature". You're correct that it has to be done, but it has nothing to do with the phone itself, but your plan. T-Mobile and Cingular does this probably as a safety feature against fraud. All it takes is a quick phone call.

But that is not what we generally mean by "unlocking the phone". Unlocking means allowing other SIM cards to work with the phone.

rkkwan, I stand corrected. I think you're right about that. But on the other hand, I never asked Cingular to "unlock" my phone, only to allow me to make calls from another country using my Cingular SIM. Yet I was able to remove my SIM and replace it in Malaysia with no problem. Cingular has no idea I did this nor did I tell them I wanted to be able to do so. Perhaps my phone came unlocked?

Yes, your phone probably came unlocked. It usually doesn't happen, but occassionally does. You're LUCKY! The only reliable way to check a phone is to insert a SIM card from a different carrier and see.

Thanks for your feedback everyone! One more question, I seem to recall reading that when you call to have your phone unlocked, you should't tell them you're buying a sim card while your overseas? Is this correct, and if so, what do you tell them you need your phone unlocked for?

Having spent hours on this subject due to my 3 unsuccessful attempts to make calls in Thailand and India, I can tell you this:

Ameican phones, unless they are NOT normal(ie factory mistake) are locked into using only that specific carriers SIM card. To go to a foreign country and use a new SIM card, you muct have your phone unlocked. T-Mobile will give you a code and a proceedure to unlock the phone. If (as in our case) they give you the wrong code, your phone will be permanently locked and it can only be unlocked by physically taking it to your provider.

There are shops that can unlock your phone in Asia- they use a computer program or something. In India, bootlef unlocking ran about $25, but we couldn't use it since the permanent lock was on already. We bought a phone there for $50, and my daughter has used it sucessfully for months in India, and is now using the same one -- with a Thai SIM card-- in Bangkok.

If you will only be making a few calls, you might consider what is called international roaming. Your phone plan may or may not already allow this, but with T-mobile the default is "off" (for security)so you need to call them before you go and ask it to be allowed. It is quite expensive per minute, but no additional purchases are required. Be careful though...if this is turned on, you should leave your phone off while travelling. With T-mobile, if your voicemail is on and forwarding, you will be charged even for calls you don't actually answer.

In addition, you may not actually be able to get a signal when roaming. My Nokia phone is a tri-band, I had the roaming on, and I could see many network signals on my phone, but over four trips I could never, ever, get access to any of those networks. T-mobile has given me some hefty credits for the inconveniences, but we still don't know why it never works.

If you really want to have phone service, and will make enough calls that it is worth buying a SIM card (about $20), you should have your phone unlocked- and checked- by your carrier here, or buy an already unlocked phone.

It doesn't matter if you tell your carrier..They don't care what you do in Thailand, and if anything you will have a better chance of actually having a useable phone if they help you.

Since I visit Thailand frequently, and I want to talk to my friends in BKK by phone, I bought an "unlocked" phone in BKK at MBK and then bought the SIM card and calling minutes. It is a tri band phone. I used "happy" which is a Thai calling service. There are soooo many options at MBK, you just kind of close your eyes and pick!!

Anyway, I was recently in Europe. I also go there twice a year, at least, and I took my BKK phone with me. I was able to purchase a SIM card in Germany as well as calling minutes, and I was able to use my BKK phone in Europe as well!! I was very pleased, to say the least.

Each time you buy a SIM card, your phone number changes. You will need to email or fax back to the US to let everyone know your new phone number.

I have not tried to use the BKK phone here in the US as I already have a phone with U S Cellular, and I'm happy with it.

But I do like the "pay as you go" idea of my BKK phone in Thailand and Europe.

Hope this helps.

Carol

You should investigate this company. First, they provide you with one SIM card that works in zones (which are price accordingly). I am using them for a European trip (all countries within the same zone) and their rate of 97 cents a minute can't be beat. Even Cingular said it was a great rate.

Here's the link:

http://www.cellularabroad.com/cellAbroadppsc.html

They also have an 800 number for verbal assistance.

They cover Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and probably Antarctica!

We had our mobile phones unlocked while travelling in Sri Lanka a couple of years ago and then got a local sim card using pay as you go scratch cards. This proved to be so useful and much, much cheaper than using an international roaming option from our provider at home. Using the same unlocked phones we have bought sim cards in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Pay as you go scratch cards are widely available. We bought our Thai sim card in MBK and there is a huge choice. We just went to a counter where they spoke good English and bought sim cards which met our requirements of having good coverage and cheap international calls.

How much are the minutes normally with a sim card purchased in BKK? Is it cheaper than 97 cents a minute?

While 97 cents a minute is not bad (T-Mobile USA charges 99 cents for Europe, $1.49 for Thailand), it's still many times the rate of a local SIM.

From what I'm reading Orange Thailand charges 2.5 or 5 baht a minute (depends on time) for domestic calls. That's 6 or 13 cents. Calling internationally costs 22 baht ($0.56) to call USA.

The sim card definately seems the way to go. I spoke to my brother and he has a T-Mobile tri-band phone with sim card, he is about to change carriers and therefore get another phone. He is going to call T-Mobile to get the code to unlock the phone, then send the phone to me. I can then buy a sim card at MBK when I get to BKK. I should then be good to go, right? Am I missing anything in my plan here?

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