...or having it sent - should be the same thing. Except: Here it isn't 

 

Has anyone made some personal experience of their own? 

We need to insert a short preface, to make sure as possible that we are aware of a few facts, such that we can actually talk about the same issue. So: Europe developped the GSM (or 2G = second generation) system late in the '80s, followed by UMTS - 3G, then LTE / 4G. So it's a standards body there (ETSI in this case) taking the lead, assisted by the industry, to make sure things will be as expected by all players, and truly compatible, thus technically and legally interoperable. This system has been incredibly successful the world over, today being used in virtually all countries of the world. In practice, it also means for you you can buy an appliance whereever you wish to, and you can use it whereever you want to. And right from the beginning, we have got a more and more global situation in this field, ie one where former national rules no longer really apply. If we largely agree here, we should be in a position to deal with the issue as indicated above. 

Throughout global travels, I've made the experience that carrying such a phone across the border is no problem at all. They won't even ask any questions. Even the few times I had one sent through the postal service, it caused no customs problems. 

The same seems to be true for Thailand - except, only for the first half: Carrying a phone over the border at the airport is unproblematic. Which it should be, because with around 160'000 daily pax at BKK alone, of which 3/4 have a phone = 120'000 phones, anything else would be unfeasable. 

But that doesn't keep thai officialdom - NBTC and those acting on behalf ot them - from treating the odd single phone sent via mail/courier as if it were a threat to national security. They insist on you applying for an import licence, for which to obtain you must make sure that your phone is listed in an official 'list' of theirs. If it isn't contained there, then there's no way. Again - while the same phone is carried over the border in its thousands next to them, but never mind. Of course, to assume that the list is not complete, or that a national list to judge a global system is a contradiction in itself, is per se not a valid argument in a system like the one in Thailand. 

Has anyone managed to overcome this hurdle?

 

 

15 hours ago, Tercera_Edad said:

Has anyone managed to overcome this hurdle?

 

 

It sounds like you want to buy a phone from outside of Thailand and have it shipped to you in Thailand? Is that correct?

 

What is the exact make/model/variant?

 

Can you buy the phone/model here in Thailand via the grey-market?

 

Customs clamped down on the importation of many devices capable of "networking" or any with a 'radio' a few years ago.

 

Some items trickle through. And some Thais import grey-market phones (somehow, maybe connections inside Thai Post/Customs?)

 

I don't think there is any reliable way to self-import a mobile phone - short of hand-carrying it into Thailand. And yes, we get the incongruity of being able to hand-carry a device into Thailand that might not be NBTC-approved.

 

 

Networking? No, but tethering: With my Doro 7010, I can access the internet with my laptop (when no wifi available) via the phone's 4G modem - the two connected via fx BT. I didn't want android but this function, so with a limited selection available on the market (at the time of purchase), this is one of the few that will deliver. 

In a nutshell: It's a standard 4G phone, thus a slave of the network like most others; thus no 'extras' that would allow it to bypass the network. If this is what the oversuspicious state assumes? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doro_(company)

 

Sometimes I can't help thinking that the GSMA (or whoever can do it) should block Thailand (and thus its networks) from participating in this system for a few days. That might help them to reach some new insights and consequently a more cooperative attitude. 

 

 

Weird? I bought a Chinese 4g phone direct from the manufacturer's website no paperwork needed.

If you're bringing something in then it's expected you'll take it out again when you leave.

If you send something in it's expected that it's going to stay so must conform to approved standards. If it's not been tested in Thailand it won't be on "the list" so no entry as you've discovered.

Rushing to conclusions?

bamnutsak:

Obviously, I don't know who you are, but what you said and how you said it gave me the impression that you might be more than another participant in this forum - maybe even some kind of official insider. Which could also mean that you can see the issue from both sides ('east & west' - cultural term).

As I see it, what we have with NBTC is classic official thai (asian) thinking/acting. A country that tries to approach first-world status should understand that, while traditions should and can not be totally discarded, excesses are a millstone around one's neck. What we're going through with NBTC's mobile phone rules (national 'list' in contradiction to global rules, and what follows from it), and the way they handle it at the expense of normal users (thus not the criminals they pretend to aim at), could indicate just that.

The idea would be to suggest them to grasp this situation as an opportunity to learn some of the things they don't know yet but should - like replacing their traditional authoritarian rules (as they interprete them), made worse by their paramount tendency to 'avoid losing face' (which, by the way, they actually have lost the moment they started lying, then repeating to [mix of] lie/remain silent, and in an authoritarian way), but with what would be considered in accordance with the rule of law? What about sending a few western observers to weed out their outdated traditions and help them reach the year 2026? I really would not want to lose already my second phone (exactly the same thing happened 2 1/2 years ago), just because those people consider their evil ways so important (to be preserved into eternity) that any other options have no chance of ever getting considered.