Bringing Phones from the UK to Thailand.

[Thongkorn]

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I will be coming back to Thailand Next week. My family and friends in the UK. have given me their old phones. 20 in total, they are from when they renewed their contracts, or bought new ones, I will be giving them away to some poor Burmese and Thai people, In the area, where i do a bit of charity work, some times in a Hospital, it will be up to them what they do with them keep or sell, I don't care.

The Question is, would anybody know, would it be a problem to put them in my suite case, and do they all have to be charged ready for use, i read somewhere that they must be charged or they will/may confiscated. and would i have to pay Import duty. just weighing up if to bring them or not. any Intelligent answers would be helpful thank you in advance.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Thongkorn

[casualbiker]

Just charge them up. Just in case.. remember that 2g phones will soon (1-2 years) go off line. So 3g would be better!

[jonw8uk]

AFAIK the requirement for having electrical items charged to prove they are real is for flights to the US. I fly pretty regularly and have never had to turn my laptop/ipad on at security in bkk.

I would just stick them in ur suitcase, and hope (it's rare, but I'm sure they do scan cases, 20 phones may get noticed) you don't get pulled on arrival, if only because they want some import tax from you.

New or 2nd hand, it doesn't matter.

If you want to be all above board then yes, you should declare it. And you will pay a small fortune.

[2008bangkok]

Very charitable of you, if you have 3g phones i would buy 1 of each sim dtac, ais and true and just down which phone works on which network as some are 800/850 and 1900/2100 and not all phones take all frequncies for data

[casualbiker]

Very charitable of you, if you have 3g phones i would buy 1 of each sim dtac, ais and true and just down which phone works on which network as some are 800/850 and 1900/2100 and not all phones take all frequncies for data

850/2100..Dtac..true..Cat..Tot 900/2100..Ais

[BKKdreaming]

ummmm other than phoning a number will any have a Thai keypad to text ?

and can they be made to show instructions in Thai or Burmese etc ?

Very nice idea and I would even buy a couple, but without Thai not very useful except to us Yanks that do not use the same frequancies as Thailand

Edited November 7, 2014 by BKKdreaming

[build6]

You might need to check the phones have been unlocked. Often the actual owners of the phones are mistaken. UK HSPA networks are 900/2100 I believe, so if these are smartphones they may be AIS-only in Thailand (still better than nothing!)

I have flown in and out of BKK with up to 20 phones and multiple computers without issue (long story). I've never been asked to power them up (other poster is correct, its official policy for US flights only), but always have some charge in them just to be safe.