internet on my mobile in thailand

[Rix619]

hell-o dudes, i hope everything is going well to you all! i'm planmning my 4th strike in LOS (fly booked, 2 hotels booked - i still need to find out 1 more in Phuket ) 20 more days and i will go! as usual, as i'll arrive in LOS i will buy one mobile card for my mobile telephone but this time i would like to have (as in my country) internet on my mobile... do you know how does it work in LOS? i mean... what kind of card i need to buy? how does it cost to have a kind of "flat internet" on my device? is it possible with a rechargeable sim? Last question: now i've an Iphone 4s so i need to have a small sim card... is it easy to find out? My first stop in LOS will be Pattaya, so if you know any place where to buy it please advice me. Tnx in advance to all who will reply to my message!

[steve-c]

No problem, you can get a sim at the airport and put an internet plan on it or pay as you go. I got one for the phone and one for the i-pad, sim is free from airport but if you get from a shop there is obviously a fee (about 300bt). when you get back next trip you just re-charge the sims and you're good to go.

[Love_to_eat_Thai]

You'll get a card with your SIM, read it! Basically you duck into 7/11 and load up about 500baht credit, then SMS a special number (9789 for True?) with a code that corresponds to how many Mb of data you want. You then get a reply (in Thai ) telling you if it was successful or not.

 

Worked great for me in Patts & BKK last time, just make sure you're near a cute girl to help you read the reply.

[Rix619]

No problem, you can get a sim at the airport and put an internet plan on it or pay as you go. I got one for the phone and one for the i-pad, sim is free from airport but if you get from a shop there is obviously a fee (about 300bt). when you get back next trip you just re-charge the sims and you're good to go.

 

free at the airport? wow that's good to know! but where in the airport? BKK airport is HUGE this kind of sim is registered to a specific person (me) or is the one that if you don't recharge for a while will expire?

[Rix619]

You'll get a card with your SIM, read it! Basically you duck into 7/11 and load up about 500baht credit, then SMS a special number (9789 for True?) with a code that corresponds to how many Mb of data you want. You then get a reply (in Thai ) telling you if it was successful or not.

 

Worked great for me in Patts & BKK last time, just make sure you're near a cute girl to help you read the reply.

 

i was thinking the same... jump in a 7/11 and ask to them but in BKK a lot of people at 7/11 speack a very bad english and it's not so easy to be understood! tnx for the advice

[steve-c]

free at the airport? wow that's good to know! but where in the airport? BKK airport is HUGE this kind of sim is registered to a specific person (me) or is the one that if you don't recharge for a while will expire?

 

actually picked mine up at Phuket, not bkk, but should be available bkk as well, to be honest I've never looked at bkk for sims. sim is not registered to you, I've had mine 2 years and fire it up at a 7/11 each visit, its a typical pre-paid.

[Rix619]

tnx for thr info

[xtc]

I guess less than 1200 Bhat for unlimited 3G data plan for a month. You can get it from Airport itself but make sure your Iphone works in Thailand!!!

[Case]

Basically there is:

 

AIS (prepay is dept is valled 1-2-Call)

Truemove

DTAC (prepay is dept is called Happy)

 

Coverage varies from provider to provider and 3G coverage is going to be spotty in smaller centres. Most providers will drop down to EDGE / GPRS (ie. a much slower 2G connection) where 3G is not available.

 

All of the providers have similar plans and you can get around 5GB full speed 3G for 1000 baht per month. After that you can still keep using the internet but the speed drops down to 384kbps, until the next month rolls around.

 

If internet is important to you then get a sim card for each company and try out a single day plan for each one (50-100 baht) to see who gives you the best coverage and performance - then get the monthly data plan.