Adapting A Cell Phone For Thailand.

[chokdee69]

I've recently re located to Bangkok and I brought my expensive cell phone with me, now I wish to convert the phone for use in Thailand. Do I just buy a new SIM card or is there other adjustments required for the set up. Thanks.

[Naam]

that depends whether you phone has a simlock. to hack and remove this lock you pay around 500 Baht.

[garyh]

Get a sim card and put it in, if you are unsure take it to a phone shop ask them to do it, if the phone is locked you will the a message to this effect.

[astral]

It can also depend on where you bought the phone and the network it is designed for.

The latest GSM phones are quad band and will work in Thailand.

The CDMA network does not have such a wide coverage.

[mrclough]

You should find almost every modern cell phone produced within the last 10 years will work over here. Unless, it's from Nextell network which is completely different to GSM (Global system for mobile networks). Thailand operate pretty much on GSM 1800 so even if your phone was an old dual band GSM phone this would cover 900 & 1800 frequencies, thus making it compliant with the local networks.

As previously mentioned, the phone may be SIM locked to your home network. This, as mentioned earlier, is easily found out by inserting the sim card of your chosen network and finding out if it logs on or not.

If it does not work, you can get it unlocked but if you choose to let them do it via a computer this will instantly invalidate any warranty on the phone. another point to note about this method is that there many places over here which will sit you down and politely ask you to wait while they take your phone to bits and replace all the insides with inferior parts which may only last a few months .... beware!

You can however search the internet and get unlock codes or simply ask your home network for the unlock code.

If it's an iPhone 3Gs with software version 3.1.3 then you will have to wait as this cannot be unlocked yet .... anywhere!

If anyone knows somewhere that can do this, please update me.

Thanks