General Reports

[QUOTE=Stew2]Good suggestion LF. I recently used a prepaid phone in Thailand - bought 123 call sim card for 50 baht at 7/11. So I don't think you need to pay $15 for the sim card. The minutes to fill it up are another matter.[/QUOTE]
I don't think you can buy a sim card (the device which stores the number memory on your phone) for 50 baht at 7/11, but you can buy 1,2, call cards there for 50 baht, 100 baht, or 300 baht, which give you your calling time. You can buy sim cards at Tuk.com or other stores that sell phones.

1-2-Call is the best of them, it works on AIS.

The SIM card is 50 baht and you get about 30 baht of credit with that, its then up to you to fill it up via pre-paid cards.

If you want to call abroad use the prefix 009.

If for IDD you use + or 001 then you will get charged "normal IDD" rates.

If you use 009 then country code, you will get charged at discount rates, makes a massive difference to the price of a call (009 uses internet telephony but works fine).

[QUOTE=Stew2]Good suggestion LF. I recently used a prepaid phone in Thailand - bought 123 call sim card for 50 baht at 7/11. So I don't think you need to pay $15 for the sim card. The minutes to fill it up are another matter.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Daddy07]I don't think you can buy a sim card (the device which stores the number memory on your phone) for 50 baht at 7/11, but you can buy 1,2, call cards there for 50 baht, 100 baht, or 300 baht, which give you your calling time. You can buy sim cards at Tuk.com or other stores that sell phones.[/QUOTE]


You can buy SIM cards at 7-11, Food Land and other convenience stores, I bought a replacement (DTAC-SIM) card from 7-11 last week for 99B.

[QUOTE=David 2]You're right on point...text messages come through perfectly.

I've never had anyone hear any pings...because the system doesn't know where I am when my phone is forwarded, and doesn't care. It just knows that when someone dials my cell number, it goes automatically to my home voice mail with its attendant familiar ring.

One big caution....to anyone with an iPhone...][/QUOTE]Ok, well, you've convinced me, I think I will take the risk of not turning my cell phone off (at least, others say it's a risk) and forward to home voice mail, because sending and receiving texts is kind of crucial to maintaining my cover.

What do you do about call waiting? I'd hate for someone to get routed to the Thai phone agency if I'm on another call. I'm guessing if I have call forwarding on then, even if I am on another call, the second call will still get forwarded, do you know? Should I turn call waiting off, or leave it on?

And yes, actually I am using an iphone. I was planning on just leaving the default "international data roaming off". Is that what you did? Is it enough? Or did you play it safe and the 20mb package?

[QUOTE=Lord Farquard]Get yourself a sim card from any of the local providers and put it in your cell phone, if you do not have a phone that will work, you can get one for about $40 at numerous places. The sim will cost about $15 and then depending upon which company you use $0.015 to $0.03/ minutes for the thai phone. It is a good idea in case you want to call the love of your life and see if see is available for the evening, and you will have your phone for calls home. Refill cards for the service can be purchased at any 7-11.

I find it a good way to meet some real hotties, I buy my refill card and I walk up with my phone in one hand and the card in the other and ask if she can help me to load the minutes into my phone, as I cannot read Thai and have never refilled the phone ;) It's a great ice breaker if you are looking for a "regular" girl. I think I have used that approach about 10 times and has worked every time but 2.[/QUOTE]Thanks for the suggestion. $55 is kind of more than i wanted to spend since i'll only be there 4 nights. If i have to i will, but still searching for a cheaper alternative.

Actually, I emailed the hotel where i'll be staying (president solitaire), and he suggested that upon arriving, i take the BTS to a phone store called MBK, and that i could purchase a very cheap phone and calling card for 500 Baht.

That sounds like the right price range for me. Anybody try this?

1-2-Call Sim cards on offer I saw today were 50 baht.

DTAC (Happy) were 99 baht.

This is a useful read :

[url]http://reviews.ebay.com/Thailand-Cell-Phones-and-Useage-All-you-need-to-know_W0QQugidZ10000000004077590[/url]

[QUOTE=Mong1225]That sounds like the right price range for me. Anybody try this? [/QUOTE]Jumping in fast here, going to try to keep this short:

A.) Incoming calls in Thailand are free, International or not.

B.) Skype.com offers an International incoming/outgoing calling plan, ridiculously cheap. [url]http://www.skype.com/intl/en/allfeatures/togo/[/url]

C.) Phones in Thailand, even new ones, are as little as $20 USD.

D.) Thai phones are unlocked, so you can throw almost any stupid stand alone SIM in them and with a little tweaking they will work virtually anywhere.

So:

1. Get a Skype account, then a "Skype to GO" number, in the country, area, and location where you reside now. ($20, it works for almost everywhere.)

2. In Thailand, go anywhere, MBK is OK, and get a cheap ass Nokia, a 100 Baht SIM, then put 100 Baht on it: you are now connected.

3. Go into your Skype settings and have it do "Call forwarding" from your local 'Skype to Go' number to your new Thai cell number. (You can also set do to do voicemail as well.)

3.1. You can also do this with yahoo but I haven't tried anything but the normal calling system from Thai to International locations. (I have heard that IT IS cheaper than Skype, not sure yet, so sue me, I'm a lazy fuck.)

Anyway, this process is stupid cheap, and the outcome is that people can call you from home at local rates, and you pay super cheap 'Skype to Go' rates for them to call you, no matter where you are in the world.

Traveling pros do it this way, news people do it this way, and everybody SHOULD do it this way. I've been doing this for years and have many Skype to Go numbers worldwide.

Just so we are clear, and in my case:

Someone in Hong Kong wants to call me, they call my Skype number in Hong Kong (It's a real phone number.) then, employing call forwarding, the Skype network automatically calls my cell number in Thailand (or anywhere else, it's just a setting.) OR: Someone in Japan wants to call, they call my Tokyo Skype number, it calls my cell in Thailand, USA, Singapore, London, etc. Etc. If I don't answer within my settings allowed time, it automatically goes to voicemail (your own recording.) The people calling you have no clue where you are, they just think you are somewhere locally (unless you tell them, heh.)

Texting, you just have people SMS direct to your Thai cell, that's easy and it costs you nothing.

There you have it, sorry if there are any typos, I just blasted this out for you, hope it's not too confusing, but try it. This method is saving business people over 90% on their travel calls. It's cheap, but yes it really does work!

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[QUOTE=Mong1225]Thanks for the suggestion. $55 is kind of more than i wanted to spend since i'll only be there 4 nights. If i have to i will, but still searching for a cheaper alternative.

Actually, I emailed the hotel where i'll be staying (president solitaire), and he suggested that upon arriving, i take the BTS to a phone store called MBK, and that i could purchase a very cheap phone and calling card for 500 Baht.

That sounds like the right price range for me. Anybody try this?[/QUOTE]
MBK is a shopping mall where there are many phone stores.

Nothing personal, but I find it very interesting that the lengths people go to hide their forays. If it is going to be such a *****, why even bother. But then what do I know. Thankfully, I am not married. And if my colleagues and other family members ask me, I say yes, I will be in BKK for a few days for R & R. Who cares what they think. Just my 2 Bahts worth.

Have a great time Mong. Don't worry about the phone, and you will have even a better time.

[QUOTE=Daddy07]I don't think you can buy a sim card (the device which stores the number memory on your phone) for 50 baht at 7/11, but you can buy 1,2, call cards there for 50 baht, 100 baht, or 300 baht, which give you your calling time. You can buy sim cards at Tuk.com or other stores that sell phones.[/QUOTE]

Daddy07 - Actually this is wrong. You can (as others attest below) buy sim cards at 7/11 - I did it about two months ago. Brought in a cheap phone I had purchased in Cambodia and only went one place to get set up, so I am certain it was 7-11. I was astonished at how cheap the sim card was. The nice lady at the store actually installed it in the phone and got me started with my minutes card as well, so I didn't have the chance to ask a random target to help me figure it out.

I second what The Pro says below about using 009 to call internationally. I didn't know about that at first and was running my minutes down too quickly until someone told me to ignore the instructions in the brochure that came with 12call and use 009 instead. It cut the cost of calls significantly.

One more thing Mong - don;t b e afraid to bargain at MBK. There are dozens of stores there selling the same stuff. They should be willing to compete with a bit of a discount for your business.

[QUOTE=Mong1225]Ok, well, you've convinced me, I think I will take the risk of not turning my cell phone off (at least, others say it's a risk) and forward to home voice mail, because sending and receiving texts is kind of crucial to maintaining my cover.

What do you do about call waiting? I'd hate for someone to get routed to the Thai phone agency if I'm on another call. I'm guessing if I have call forwarding on then, even if I am on another call, the second call will still get forwarded, do you know? Should I turn call waiting off, or leave it on?

And yes, actually I am using an iphone. I was planning on just leaving the default "international data roaming off". Is that what you did? Is it enough? Or did you play it safe and the 20mb package?[/QUOTE]
If your phone is forwarded all calls go to the forwarded number...even if it's call waiting. The AT&T computer only knows to forward all calls, it doesn't differentiate between call waiting and regular calls.

As far as international roaming goes, AT&T suggests the following..

1. Turn data roaming off
2. Utilize Wi-Fi instead of 3G. I actually found this very easy as my hotel offers free wi-fi
3. Turn Fetch New Data "OFF" This is the most important one for me as I get SO many junk emails, and if you happen to be at a place where you're on 3G instead of Wi-Fi the costs keep mounting without you knowing it.

I didn't buy a package because I go down to the hotel's business center or to one of the many internet cafes to check my email. My hotel has 4 new computers in its business center, and they are complimentary for hotel guests. I actually prefer the internet cafes because there are usually some very good looking women in them, the connections are quite good, and the displays are large enough for easy viewing. They charge 1 baht/minute which is about $1.75 an hour. Great cheap entertainment, and they're open 24/7

In the event anyone is not aware if you have a True Move Sim you can use '006' for even more discounted International calls than '009'. I have 3 SIM cards, one with True Move and two with AIS (1-2 call). Using based on where I am and whom I want to have known that I am local. It is 3bt per minute I believe to 13 different countries. They also have a International SIM where the cost is 1bt per minute.

[QUOTE=Stew2]Daddy07 - Actually this is wrong. You can (as others attest below) buy sim cards at 7/11...[/QUOTE]
Run Mann & Stew2,

Thanks for the lesson ... (Sim cards at 7/11 for 99 baht ... that's cheap!) :)

[QUOTE=Barko]

1. Get a Skype account, then a "Skype to GO" number, in the country, area, and location where you reside now. ($20, it works for almost everywhere.)
[/QUOTE]

Great suggestion but I don't think you mean 'skype-to-go' number. You need a skype 'online' number, available in about 20 countries: [url]http://www.skype.com/intl/en/allfeatures/onlinenumber/#countries[/url]

[QUOTE=Bionicman][QUOTE=Mong1225]Do the rings still sound funky even when the phone is off? That's a dead give-away, if someone's phone savvy.[/QUOTE]In many countries this can be a weak point. Indeed! [/QUOTE]Case in point. A mate of mine had told me that he was going on a Management Seminar in our home country.

I called his number a few days later and got the " subscriber can't be reached " message that indicated to me he was definately not in his home country but was enjoying some action in Manila.

He freaked when I told him that I knew where he was. Was VERY nervous his wife would make the same deduction if he wasnt able to answer her calls.

I posted this in the Pattaya thread, but thought I'd link to it here in the General Reports in case people were looking for the best deal from your bank. Here are the posts.

[url]http://internationalsexguide.info/forum/showpost.php?p=902099&postcount=2584[/url]

[url]http://internationalsexguide.info/forum/showpost.php?p=902103&postcount=2585[/url]