So one of the big headaches I had was getting cell service when I got here.

The process is actually so unbelievably simple, it was just the language barrier that got me.

Prerequisite

As long as you have an unlocked phone that has a sim card slot you are set.
If you are coming from the US then you probably have either Verizon, ATT, Tmobile or Cingular as a provider. Verizon phones do not have sim card slots with the exception of a few. The other providers do use phones with sim card slots and you just need to call tech support before you leave and tell them to unlock your phone and they should do that. If they won’t then skip down to buying a cheap Asian phone.

Buying a cheap asian phone

You won’t be able to escape phone retailers here. Especially if you go to the MBK market. Basically just find a shop somewhere and buy a cheap phone. You are probably only looking for texting and calling anyways and all phones have this.

Purchasing a sim card

Go to 7-Eleven and ask them for a happy card. 7-Eleven’s are everywhere in Bangkok. No, really everywhere. Every block has at least 1 and they all sell sim cards. When you ask for a happy card they might ask you how much you want or something similar, just say sim card. They will pull out a bunch of thin square packages eventually that have like 10 digit numbers on them. These are the sim cards and the numbers are the phone numbers associated with that sim card. Typically sim cards cost 50 baht I think, or 100 either way they come with 50 baht of calling on them which is quite a bit if you are texting/calling in Thailand. If you plan on calling out to the US/Europe then you are looking at about 10-14 baht per minute or about 30-40 cents which is quite a bit, but usually they run promotions and if you dial like 4 + <us/europe number> its only 4 baht per minute.

Data Plan

If you want to have Internet and such on your phone then you will have to visit a booth for the company you buy your sim card from. If you get a happy sim you are buying from Dtac. I recommend Dtac as I’ve had awesome luck with them. They have booths at all major malls and usually have somebody that can speak very good English. Just tell them you want a data plan and they will give you a pamphlet with all the prices. You can do a per/MB plan or a per/hour plan depending on the type of phone you have. If you have a smart phone(Android/Iphone/Windows mobile) you will probably want to do a per/MB plan. Last time I did a 500MB plan and its looking like I will only use about 300MB. The plan cost me like 300 baht or LESS THAN $15!!!! If you have a blackberry you will need to do a blackberry plan as they need funky stuff to work. All other phones you can do a per hour plan for really cheap.

Refill Card

So you want to put more money on your sim card. You will need to visit 7-Eleven again. This time ask for a refill card. They will probably understand a number followed by the word happy. They sell 50, 100 and 500. Maybe they sell 200 & 300 too, I don’t remember. If you feel adventures you can try it in Thai. Remember there are tones with some of these so they may not fully understand ha unless you say haaa but go from a high tone to a low tone. When you say roy roll the r

• ha sib baht = 50 baht
• ning roy baht = 100 baht
• song roy baht = 200 baht
• sam roy bath = 300 baht
• ha roy baht = 500 baht