can i use a US gprs phone here?

Yep, the main carriers all offer GPRS services. AIS is 1 baht per minute last time I looked, but you can also sign up for plans where you buy a certain number of hours per month. They are quite cheap (starting from 30 baht for 2 hours per month) but the downside is the service is pretty unreliable.

i am mostly concerned with the US cell phone compatibility with the local networks.....ericson, motorola, nokia ?

GSM network here.

Your GSM phone needs to have the 900 Mhz band at a minimum. Also the 1800-Mhz band is used in Thailand. US bands are 850-Mhz and 1900-Mhz.

So, dual band, tri-band and quad-band are the buzz words.

If you post your phone brand and model I can look it up for you and tell you if its network compatible.

The other thing you need to have is an "unlocked" GSM phone. This means "foreign" SIM cards will work in it. That is, foreign to your home network. Some phones are sold unlocked, some are sold locked by their network providers and they won't unlock them for you, and some are sold locked but they WILL unlock them for you (T-Mobile).

If your phone is locked and your provider will not unlock it for you, there is some chance you can get it unlocked when you visit. However I caution that this may mean that the service person will "flash" another version of software into the phone that may cause you problems.

If you want a recommendation, I'd say spend $25 on EBay for an unlocked Motorola P7389 tri-band phone. If something happens to it in Thailand its not a big loss. Leave the expensive fancy phones that clip onto your belt at home - too easy for phone snatchers.

kenk3z

thanks kenk3z, that 's what i was looking for, the 25 dollar phone!