I've been using the same basic Nokia candy bar phone for the last six years. I've gotten a bit tired of the pitying stares of Blackberry wielding schoolgirls on the Skytrain so I decided to touch my toes into the rarefied waters of smart-phones.

Power Buy was having a clearance of some entry level phones so I picked up a Samsung GT S3370; a very basic touch phone for less than B1800. It has GPRS-EDGE, no WiFi. My question is; do I have to get a special package from my provider (AIS) to utilize it's internet functions?

From reviews I have read, it doesn't function that great on the net but it does have some useful widgets such as Skype and Twitter.

Thanks

You will (may) have to configure the phone in order to use GPRS/EDGE data from AIS/One-2-Call. Typically this involves adding an APN, but you should review the user's guide for exact details.

See pg. 53 http://www.enovo.ch/documents/product_documents/Bedienungsanleitung_Samsung_Corby_3G_S3370_EN.pdf

Also, you may/will pay 1 baht/min for GPRS/EDGE access so maybe best to subscribe to a VOLUME (MB) data plan.

http://www.ais.co.th/vas/smartphone/

Maybe the easiest way would be to visit a Telewiz shop who are agents? for AIS/1-2-call.

They will check your simcard and replace it if necessary (they did for my 6 year-old 1-2-call simcard).

There are a large number of prepaid volume and time based options for internet access with 1-2-call (EDGE/GPRS). They can explain these options to you (maybe).

I pay 214 baht a month for 30 hours of internet with some mms and sms thrown in. This is more than enough for me as I do not travel much in Thailand and download what I want at home.

You need to buy a htc wildfire phone with Skype and Twitter, Android 2.1, HTC Sense UI, decent processor, loads of apps, well designed and realised device.

WARNING. Do NOT turn on the data functionality of your phone until you have a data plan.

I did, and it swallowed a huge amount of credit, that was an Android phone with all the bells mind, seems to spend most of its day chattering to something (even worse than the wife).

WARNING. Do NOT turn on the data functionality of your phone until you have a data plan.

I did, and it swallowed a huge amount of credit, that was an Android phone with all the bells mind, seems to spend most of its day chattering to something (even worse than the wife).

Would love to hear more details about your experiences.

In the Android world an end-user has a quite a bit of control over the applications which might utilize mobile data, more so than a chatty spouse. Obviously, with a time-based plan one can run through all their "hours" in, well, a matter of hours. For those with a time-based plan you've got to remember to toggle data off, or automate that process. I think everyone is well advised to get a volume-based plan, XXX MB per month. Then you can leave data on 7/24, but maybe use a program like Droidstats to monitor/control/provide alerts.

But I do agree with the recommendation to get a data plan before enabling an APN, as I did in my post above.