Buy sim in Thailand that can use in Australia?

[grain]

In a couple of months time I'm planning on making a visit to Australia, first trip back since early 2020. I no longer have an Aussie mobile number or landline phone. In the past I'd order a Vodafone pre-paid sim after I got back, that would arrive a few days later, and then I had phone credit and some data to use for a month.

 

My question is: can I order and activate a pre-paid sim for use in Australia here in Thailand, so I have phone credit and internet data to use immediately upon arriving back?

 

 

[Bruno123]

Thai SIM or Australian SIM?

 

Thai SIM: https://www.ais.th/roaming/sim2fly/en/index.html

[The Hammer2021]

You are trying to buy an Australian sim? Delivery might be an issue.

Just get a friend to sort it out.

You can use your Thai sim briefly on arrival in Australia.

Your arrival airport will have WiFi.

 

Isn't there  a buy sim on arrival option?

 

[chakeeoyen]

If your phone supports eSIM, download Airalo. No need to swap SIMs just make sure you set your phone to use cellular data through the Aussie "sim". 

[seajae]

when I was travelling to Australia fairly often I had a sim card sent to a friends address in the city I was arriving in(Perth) so I could pick it up and put it in my phone soon as I arrived, it was a prepay card that I could just add more credit to as needed. Used it to call my wife back here and the rates were pretty good plus I had good rates in Australia as well, just swapped it out when I arrived back in Thailand and re used it when back in Australia, let it go after covid hit as I could no longer get into or out of Australia, it was through Amaysim

 

 

[grain]

2 hours ago, Bruno123 said:

Thai SIM or Australian SIM?

 

Thai SIM: https://www.ais.th/roaming/sim2fly/en/index.html

Aussie sim.

[The Hammer2021]

Most airports  have a sim card shop

[grain]

2 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

You are trying to buy an Australian sim? Delivery might be an issue.

Just get a friend to sort it out.

You can use your Thai sim briefly on arrival in Australia.

Your arrival airport will have WiFi.

 

Isn't there  a buy sim on arrival option?

 

Yes Aussie sim. Can't have delivered to my apartment in Perth ahead of time as it will be unoccupied until I get there. I could have it delivered to some friend's addresses but I won't have a car when I get back, so I'll have to stuff around on buses or taxis to go and get it. I guess the best option will be try buy a pre-paid sim on arrival at Perth airport, or walk down to the nearest Coles after I get home and grab something to do me until I find a better deal.

[grain]

4 minutes ago, The Hammer2021 said:

Most airports  have a sim card shop

Yes, that's looking like the solution. Thanks.

[grain]

35 minutes ago, seajae said:

when I was travelling to Australia fairly often I had a sim card sent to a friends address in the city I was arriving in(Perth) so I could pick it up and put it in my phone soon as I arrived, it was a prepay card that I could just add more credit to as needed. Used it to call my wife back here and the rates were pretty good plus I had good rates in Australia as well, just swapped it out when I arrived back in Thailand and re used it when back in Australia, let it go after covid hit as I could no longer get into or out of Australia, it was through Amaysim

 

 

yes I did the same for years, I must have had scores of different Vodafone numbers over the past couple of decades. 

[grain]

47 minutes ago, chakeeoyen said:

If your phone supports eSIM, download Airalo. No need to swap SIMs just make sure you set your phone to use cellular data through the Aussie "sim". 

This is all news to me. I did check and apparently my Redmi Note 10 phone does support eSim. So this is something I need to read a bit more about. Thanks for the tip. 

[grain]

Just been looking through Vodafone Australia online site. It says you can buy pre-paid starter packs at Perth Airport. So that's a solution, but in the past I found the deals you got buying online were far better than what you got in the Vodafone stores. Buying online the cost was cheaper and you got heaps more data (which is what everybody wants most) So what I would ideally like to do, is order a couple of pre-paid Vodaphone sims and pay for them online but have them delivered to me in Thailand not an Aussie address. Then I could activate them at the Vodafone shop at the airport and have unlimited calls and about 50gig data for a month.

[StayinThailand2much]

Very interesting topic. I am pondering, whether I should use roaming with my DTAC SIM card (in Australia), or buy a pre-paid SIM card when travelling to Oz and NZ.

 

What is an inexpensive pre-paid SIM card I can buy in Oz or NZ? (Just for internet use, not for calls, good for about 2 months.) - I bought a pre-paid SIM card for NZ at Auckland Airport in 2019, but the internet quota was very quickly (within a few hours) used up. 

 

[Lacessit]

3 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

Very interesting topic. I am pondering, whether I should use roaming with my DTAC SIM card (in Australia), or buy a pre-paid SIM card when travelling to Oz and NZ.

 

What is an inexpensive pre-paid SIM card I can buy in Oz or NZ? (Just for internet use, not for calls, good for about 2 months.) - I bought a pre-paid SIM card for NZ at Auckland Airport in 2019, but the internet quota was very quickly (within a few hours) used up. 

 

I have two SIM's in my phone, Australian and Thai. The Australian one is an ALDI SIM, I've found they have the cheapest prepaid plans.

With the DTAC SIM, I guess it's a matter of suck it and see.

[grain]

49 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

Very interesting topic. I am pondering, whether I should use roaming with my DTAC SIM card (in Australia), or buy a pre-paid SIM card when travelling to Oz and NZ.

 

What is an inexpensive pre-paid SIM card I can buy in Oz or NZ? (Just for internet use, not for calls, good for about 2 months.) - I bought a pre-paid SIM card for NZ at Auckland Airport in 2019, but the internet quota was very quickly (within a few hours) used up. 

 

Yes that's what I suspect if I bought a sim at Perth airport, they give free calls and text, but a teaspoon of data. Of course with data you don't ever need the free calls as you can use any number of apps to call and message people.

[grain]

50 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I have two SIM's in my phone, Australian and Thai. The Australian one is an ALDI SIM, I've found they have the cheapest prepaid plans.

With the DTAC SIM, I guess it's a matter of suck it and see.

I wasn't aware of Aldi sims and will look into them.

[StayinThailand2much]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

The Australian one is an ALDI SIM, I've found they have the cheapest prepaid plans.

So, you can buy them at any ALDI supermarket?

[Pitak Chirachat]

AIS SIM to Fly card. Around Baht 900 for 14 days in Europe. Total 5Gb. Basically you get in Australia out of the airplane and open roaming and the AIS SIM card will connect you automatically to the local network. Worked well for me 3 years ago and picked up 2 SIM cards last week for my upcoming trip to Europe. As I will be there for nearly 3 months I will also try Airalo which is e-SIM. You can download from Google or Apple store.

 

[Lacessit]

46 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

So, you can buy them at any ALDI supermarket?

Yes

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, grain said:

I wasn't aware of Aldi sims and will look into them.

They make it easy, I can top up my credit online in Thailand, and IIRC the credit last for a year before expiring. Thanks for reminding me it's time to check.

 

 

[treetops]

8 hours ago, grain said:

This is all news to me. I did check and apparently my Redmi Note 10 phone does support eSim. So this is something I need to read a bit more about. Thanks for the tip. 

How did you find this out?  I too have a Redmi Note 10 (5G Model) but I can't see anything about esim for this or the other models, but I could be looking in the wrong place.

[Eff1n2ret]

13 hours ago, Pitak Chirachat said:

AIS SIM to Fly card. Around Baht 900 for 14 days in Europe. Total 5Gb. Basically you get in Australia out of the airplane and open roaming and the AIS SIM card will connect you automatically to the local network. Worked well for me 3 years ago and picked up 2 SIM cards last week for my upcoming trip to Europe. As I will be there for nearly 3 months I will also try Airalo which is e-SIM. You can download from Google or Apple store.

 

Forgive me if these are stupid questions, but is there any advantage from buying a sim from AIS (or Airalo) over getting one on arrival (in my case in the UK)? When I've previously got one from such as Carphone Warehouse you get a local phone number. With the AIS sim what number can people call you on? What will calls to you cost them? I use a Dtac prepay here in Thailand, I see that they have a 'Go Travel' package 15GB for 30 days for 1176Baht, which would be all I need.

[grain]

8 hours ago, treetops said:

How did you find this out?  I too have a Redmi Note 10 (5G Model) but I can't see anything about esim for this or the other models, but I could be looking in the wrong place.

I'm not sure now, I found some info online and did some checks but I now think I'm reading it wrong, according to some sites no Xiaomi phones have this. feature.

[grain]

1 hour ago, Eff1n2ret said:

Forgive me if these are stupid questions, but is there any advantage from buying a sim from AIS (or Airalo) over getting one on arrival (in my case in the UK)? When I've previously got one from such as Carphone Warehouse you get a local phone number. With the AIS sim what number can people call you on? What will calls to you cost them? I use a Dtac prepay here in Thailand, I see that they have a 'Go Travel' package 15GB for 30 days for 1176Baht, which would be all I need.

Yes, this looks good, I'm also with DTAC pre-paid, I see they have a deal for Australia/Asia at 399Bt for 10 days, 6GB data, that would do me, I'd have data and phone calls immediately upon landing, and the I'd have 10 days to shop around and find a better long term deal (I plan on being 3-7 months in Australia)

[chakeeoyen]

2 hours ago, Eff1n2ret said:

Forgive me if these are stupid questions, but is there any advantage from buying a sim from AIS (or Airalo) over getting one on arrival (in my case in the UK)? When I've previously got one from such as Carphone Warehouse you get a local phone number. With the AIS sim what number can people call you on? What will calls to you cost them? I use a Dtac prepay here in Thailand, I see that they have a 'Go Travel' package 15GB for 30 days for 1176Baht, which would be all I need.

For me the advantage is not having to mess with getting a SIM card. I also don't have to inform family and friends of a new # as I already have one with Google Voice.

 

There are a few prepaid providers offering eSIMs within the US now. Everything is setup through their app. Maybe there's a UK provider or two offering something similar? With these country specific providers, or at least in the US, they also provide a local # for calling and texts.

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, Eff1n2ret said:

Forgive me if these are stupid questions, but is there any advantage from buying a sim from AIS (or Airalo) over getting one on arrival (in my case in the UK)? When I've previously got one from such as Carphone Warehouse you get a local phone number. With the AIS sim what number can people call you on? What will calls to you cost them?

They call using your Thai number (+66 xxx xxx xxx) without a package it costs ฿23 per minute to call a U.K. number when you are here and ฿56 per minute to receive calls 290 per gig data etc.

 

I bought an EE sim yesterday £0 + £10 (฿430),  5GB data, 500 minutes call time, unlimited text messages. All of these are valid for 30 days

[grain]

I was looking online at entry requirements for Australia, one of the requirements for the Digital Passenger Declaration is a contact phone number in Australia, I'll need that beforehand, so buying a sim at the airport won't work.