I’d like to know the cost of local calls within each country, and the range of costs of calling other countries in the region. I’m looking specifically at Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Lao.
In addition, if anyone is using a global phone in these countries, I’d be interested to know whether, in traveling between countries with GSM and CDMA systems, the phone switches automatically or has to be reset.
Thanks.
Where are you going to get the phone from?
Are you going to take a handset with you, or buy one from one of the countries listed?
The cost will depend on who’s connection and / or sim card you have in the phone.
Auto-searching will depend on the phone. I’ve not seen a phone that had manual switching for about eight years, but UK mobiles could be different to yours.
Side note, I would this Wikipedia article interesting. There seems to be atleast one GSM network in each of the countries you mention. You can get links to each network’s websites from there too.
That’s part of what I’m trying to decide.
If it’s any help, when my gf was in Thailand for a couple of weeks some years back she took an old GSM handset with her and bought a PAYG SIM for about £1 or so. She would text me when she wanted to talk and I’d call her with Skype Out. Worked a treat. If you’re looking to contact others rather than be contacted then that’s probably the cheapest way of doing it, roaming practices being pretty universally robbery.
There’s also outfits like http://www.mydivert.com/ if you need to be contacted without giving people new numbers all the time - no experience with these or similar services but they seem like they should work OK.
I still don’t have a mobile, but the wife does. It’s not expensive here, though. And if you arrive at the airport, you can rent a phone for the duration of your stay. I know people who have done that.
As for calling to other countries, it depends on which country, from Thailand. I THINK phoning, say, Laos is cheaper than phoning Vietnam. But I can’t be sure exactly how much cheaper. I’ve not really kept up with phone costs, but I do know they’re cheap, a lot cheaper than only 10 or even five years ago.
As for your basic landline phone call, the charge is 3 baht (about 9 US cents) per call. If it’s a pay phone, it runs on time, and you have to keep feeding coins. 1 baht per unit of time. There are phone cards you can buy in some shops that allow you to punch in a code, and the charge will be deducted from that. I use one of those. They may be about to discontinue them, though.
I live in Indonesia and have a mobile phone. It works when I travel to Singapore. As for the cost of the call, my monthly phone bill is about $120 per month and includes one or two lenghthy calls to the US each month.
For what it’s worth, one local phone provider just started this promotion for the next three months. Call anywhere in the world from your landline or cellphone between 6pm and 6am local time for 6 baht per minute. That’s roughly 18 US cents a minute.
Thanks, everyone. I went ahead and bought a new phone, and will see how that goes this winter. For my 2010 trip, I may also buy a phone there. Since Vietnam and Cambodia are on different systems, it’s a little tricky.