santsingh
longtail driver
Posts: 9

#1 Posted: 10/8/2006 - 11:11


Hi, I am carrying my mobile phone with me around the world, buying SIM cards in each country I visit. At the moment I am in Malaysia and have bought a Digi card. I am heading to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Are mobiles able to be used in Laos and Cambodia? If so, is there a card that covers all these areas? Is there any other info that I might need to know in regards to this? thanks heaps :)

pauljaymes
hippy
Posts: 74

#2 Posted: 10/8/2006 - 21:46


Your dual band GSM phone will work in all of SE Asia.

My Singapore SIM (M1) has so far worked in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam as well as Malaysia. Unfortunately it has no credit and I have no way of topping it up as the website only allows top ups from Singapore bank accounts. I imagine (though I don't know for sure) that Malaysian SIMs will work anywhere too as there are quite a few Malaysian tourists int he region.

I bought a SIM in Thailand (DTAC Happy, 200B/$5, Thai landline call 3B unlimited, international text 5B) but they informed me on the helpline that I needed to use it for 30 days before they would enable it for use in other countries.

SIM cards in Laos were also 50000k/$5/200B but I didn't buy one. Coverage wasn't so good on the Singapore-enabled network and Laos GSM seemed to have the best. In Cambodia you have to get a Cambodian citizen with an ID card to buy a SIM card for you and although this isn't too much of a problem, your driver will do it for you, SIM cards seem to start at around $10. I haven't looked into it yet in Vietnam.

P

traceej
backpacker
Posts: 14

#3 Posted: 1/2/2008 - 09:32


hi there

I will be in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia this coming june, july and august. I am taking my telstra mobile phone on a plan, not pre paid. Do you know if this will have decent coverage throught those countries?

cheers
TJ

raypond
newbie
Posts: 4

#4 Posted: 1/2/2008 - 09:57


G'day Traceej,

Just back from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and our Telstra GSM phones worked well. Pre-paid won't work apparently. Way out on Halong Bay, in the mountains near Luang Prabang and at Angkor Wat we got very good reception.

Check the Telstra web site and somewhere you'll find a list of providers in each country and their charges - better to choose the provider you want rather than let your phone do it automatically.

The only problem we had was that some friends in Oz were getting our texts but were unable to reply to them. We think it was because they were with Vodaphone or someone else.

Cheers
Ray

traceej
backpacker
Posts: 14

#5 Posted: 1/2/2008 - 10:03


G'day Ray :-)

thanks so much for your reply. I'll be travelling alone for 10 weeks and it's nice to know I can text home when I need to.

hope you had a fabulous trip
cheers
TJ

ckay
newbie
Posts: 3

#6 Posted: 22/2/2008 - 18:08


Hello Traceej

I am staying in Laos. I just would like to share with you (and others) a 'tip' that, you can buy a new sim from TIGO for just 20,000Kips (about US$2) and entitle for a FREE SMS back to your home country. However, not all countries are free! You may check the web below:

http://www.tigolao.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=28&Itemid=39

Other network provider will charge 1,000Kip per each Intl. SMS sent.

Calling from Laos to all countries around the world is only 2,000Kips per minutes (US$1 = 9,000Kips)

Example calling to Thailand: 00-66-81-xxxxxxx whereby:

Lao Telecom network: dail: 006681xxxxxxx
TIGO network: dail: 1776681xxxxxxx (DO NOT dail 00)
ETL network: dail: 1886681xxxxxxx (DO NOT dail 00)

Sim card (new number) for Lao Telecom and ETL is 50,000Kips (about US$5.00) and TIGO is 20,000 (about US$2.00)

Enjoy your trip...

~ CK

Rufus
hippy
Posts: 71

#7 Posted: 23/2/2008 - 08:38


Don't buy Tigo as the coverage throughout all of Laos is not great. Thats why it is cheaper. ETL has very good coverage.

traceej
backpacker
Posts: 14

#8 Posted: 23/2/2008 - 08:45


Hi CK and Rufus

Thanks for all of the tips, I really appreciate it.

cheers
TJ

ckay
newbie
Posts: 3

#9 Posted: 23/2/2008 - 11:23


Hi Rufus

Yeah... u r right. Excuse me for left out this point. Tigo is good if in big or major towns whereby you can use ETL's coverage at most of the part of the country including the northern or southern which is weak or none on other network provider...

Thanks Rufus for this important point.

Regards ~ CK

kam_taxi
longtail driver
Posts: 7

#10 Posted: 12/3/2008 - 09:32


there's tourist sim card 100,000 kip value, LTC net work!