Cell Phone Help In Thailand

[James Perry]

Hi everyone. Here is the situation.

My wife and I want to buy a cell phone (preferably Nokia) in BKK that is unlocked so we can use it in Asia as well as in the United States. We want to be able to put a local sim card in when we are visiting in Thailand but then put in our normal cingular or t-mobile sim card when we are back in the states. Does anyone have any suggestions or places where we can get one? We want a new one...not a black market one or second hand one.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Jame and Tain

P.S. the places we would use it most are of course the US, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Japan. We have never been able to use a cell phone in Japan...so getting one that would work with their systems or frequencies as well as everyone elses would be great. Thanks again.

Edited February 3, 2005 by James Perry

[chanchao]

All cell phones now on the market in Thailand are un-locked; you can use them with any provider anywhere in the world provided that the network is technically compatible with the phone.

As you're from the US, you're looking at a tri-band phone.

That said, I think Japan is tricky.. Their nework I think is still different from everything else? Still, tri-band is the thing you should get.

I personally very happy with this phone:

http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-6260-en.shtml

Relatively affordable too for a Symbian smart-phone. They go for like 14K I suppose these days?

Cheers,

Chanchao

[James Perry]

Chanchao....

Thanks for the advice we really appreciate it.

Do you konw that all the phones on the market are unlocked with first hand knowldge? As in....have you yourself used your phone or any other one that you purchased in Thailand in another country with out any trouble?

I am just a little worried about buying a phone there...getting it back to the states and then it doesn't work here. There in Thailand they don't have the any of the "return policies" that we have here.

I will deffinatly go with the triband. Any more info you think of would be great.

[astral]

GSM 900 and 1800 phones will be fine.

The only exception to that might be the Hutch CDMA system.

My son wanted to switch to them, but when we went to check they were

charging 7900 for a phone on a monthly contract, and 13,900 for the same phone on a pre-paid deal.

Not sure how they can enforce that unless they are locking the phones.

[Tufty]

When friends come from the UK I take them to the phone dept at festival center in Pattaya and for a few hundred baht they unlock their phones. I don't know of anywhere in bkk but I'm sure there must be somewhere

[simcity]

i went to MBK with a friend of mine , he want to buy a phone , he have a australian sim card with roaming, his australian phone was working in bangkok ! he try few phones in MBK but could not work for him ...

not sure why ?