Hi all,

Can you use your Australian mobile in BKK? Do I have to unlock it here in Aus first or is it cheaper to buy one once there?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Kath,

you can use your phones over there if you have international roaming. Only pitfall of this is if people ring you you end up paaying heaps for the call also.

What we did was went to the MBK and brought a new sim card for our phone. But later on we realised that some of our phones were locked. The mistake we made was go into the first shop we saw, and they did not speak much English. Later on we discovered a whole floor devoted to phones.

I have heard that it is cheaper to do it there. Then you just email your new phone number to home and people can contact you. They also have phone cards you can buy over there and you use a public phone box especially for tourists. They are everywhere.

Another alternative for people to ring you is to go to Coles or Safeway and buy one of those tourist phonecards. All supermarkets have brochures on them. Once you work them out (and u have to dial a lot of numbers) they are a hell of a lot cheaper than using your own home phone even if they are ringing your mobile.

Hope this helps


Karin

[color="Navy"][size="3"]Try and take over an unlocked phone and buy a local sim card. They are very cheap and calls are cheap too. (1-2-Call and DTAC are one we have used in the past)

Last year we used DTAC @ 199 baht which included 50 baht credit.

Get the sales rep to install the SIM for you. Also, if you put in the special prefix numbers (007, 008 and 009 … I think … double check this) you can dial internationally for reduced rates.

I need to do some business whilst in Bangkok and need my mobile. I'll have to see if it does international roaming.

I know that in Australia you are using different kinds of phone systems, so I would like to draw your attention to the fact that Thailand is using the GMS system, and make sure your phone is an unlocked GMS phone.

The most convenient thing is to buy a new local SIM card in Thailand (1-2-Call, or DTAC are the two biggest companies and gives you the best coverage). Price would be about 350 Baht including some 50 Baht free usage. Phonecards with additional time airtime can be bought almost anywhere for 100, 150, 300 or 500 Baht.

Send your family and relatives a SMS with your new local phone number - and you are connected to the whole world. There are discounts for overseas calls by dialing prefix 007, 008, or 009 before the country code depending of which local phone company you are using. But check that out when you get there.