Thailand report

[SIMCollector]

Also for Happy sim owners you can find out your current balance anywhere, if you have global roaming enabled, using the shortcode :

*101#

This will give a reply in thai (well it does for me)

if your phone can interpret thai you can see your credit remaining on the first line before the thai word "baht" (I could wite the actual letters here but i dont knwo if it would be rendered properly on many peoples screens).
Then on the second line is when when your credit will expire (in the thai date system)
Finally on the third line is the number of days you have left in brackets and before the word "wan" (Thai for day)
There are 2 further lines as well. Of course this may be different on your phone depending on how many characters may be shown per line.

If your phone cannot render thai then your likely to see some symbol for each thai character, but the numbers mentioned above will be showen and you can tell from this your credit and how long you have till it will expire !

HTH

[djmonsi]

Have no clue. Got to do some research on the alliance and its benefits for customers. Regarding credit card top-ups hope this is of any use for some of the members. https://www.ezetop.com/ They got recharge services for many networks and the list keeps growing every month.

[SIMCollector]

Just logged into my DTAC online account...

The servive from transferring credit from DTAC post paid to prepaid (Happy) is, funnily enough, called : DTAC to Happy Refill

Not sure if this link will work as I'm logged in at the mo :

https://sonic2.dtac.co.th/bp3/bin/Dspc/HappyRefillIndex

Here are the full details direct from the website :

oday You can share your happiness to happy users through our dtac to happy refill service…
Convenience than ever! Now you can set up automatic refill schedule and amount

Choose automatic refill amount from 20, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, or 500 Baht per time including VAT (condition: Maximum refill amount is 500 Baht per billing cycle and refill amount must not exceed credit limit with dtac)

Choose automatic refill schedule from weekly to monthly refill

Refill service fee per time per one happy user = 2 Baht excluding VAT
>> Terms and conditions for Topping Up for happy users
1. Users of Postpaid 1800 system as individuals and juristic person (not including corporate organizations and SMEs) must be in service for at least 90 days, are able to top-up call credits to receiving numbers of dtac prepaid mobile phone system.
2. Call credits can be top-up starting from 20 baht, 50 baht, 100 baht, 200 baht, 300 baht, 400 baht and 500 baht each time (VAT included), not over 500 baht each billing cycle and not over the monthly fixed charge. Top-up fee is 2 baht (VAT excluded) per each receiving number.
3. The service provider will collect the call credits sent to the receiving number from the transferring number, including service charge which will be in the billing statement of each month.
4. The receiving number is not able to use the call credits for any discount purposes, promotions and cannot be redeemed or change into cash.
5. Users are responsible for checking the receiving number’s information before transferring the call credits. If an error occurs, users will not be able to claim the call credits in all cases.
6. The service provider reserves the right to change service fee, terms and conditions of service, and further more prohibit users to illegally / unlawfully make profit from using this service, or cancel service as deemed appropriate. It is recommended that the user should study additional information prior to subscribing any service by contacting 1678 dtac call center or dtac - feel goood

HTH

[SIMCollector]

Also FYI - the post paid promototion I'm on if GooodChoice59 (yes there are 3 o's in there) - this gives me 40 mins of free calls per months for 59 baht plus tax, which works out at almost 63 baht per month. Not much use to me as I'm not in Thailand - still it is the cheapest option to keep it alive. Plus I, or anyone who has a pre paid or post paid DTAC SIM, can send 50 sms free to DTAC nos per month.

I've just done an advance payment for my account as GBP is a bit strongish (still Sh1t compared to 2 years ago) to the Thai baht and the DTAC e-service is not accepting payments for some reason from 2/11/09 to 10/11/09 and I have no confidence that any related systems will work for some time after the outage, so best to make sure there is enough in there to tide me over the period and inevitable flakey time for repairs and excuses !

[SIMCollector]

Originally Posted by djmonsi

Have no clue. Got to do some research on the alliance and its benefits for customers. Regarding credit card top-ups hope this is of any use for some of the members. https://www.ezetop.com/ They got recharge services for many networks and the list keeps growing every month.

Thanks for the top-up link.

Had a quick look and it is good to see Laos and Phillipines on there - plus many other countries...

I think I'll dig out my Lao sims and see what happens...

I seem to recall that AIS have a big involvement in either or both Laos's and Cambodia's construction on a mobile communications infrastructure.

Japan, Australia and Vietnam see to put a lot of money in to Laos. In any of the mid to upper range hotels in Vientiane, signs will typically be also displayed in Vietnamese. In fact I bought the SIMs I have from a Vietnamese owned shop in Vientiane ! Probably to do the the similar politics ! Also I can see a rise of Chinese and Australian there as there is some big newly found gold mines in Laos that they have an interest in...

[SIMCollector]

After just being in Thailand for 6 months, it is very evident that DTAC (Telenor) are being particularly nice, welcoming to non-Thais who want to use mobile services in Thailand.

It seems to be straightforward if you want to have a postpaid account. These can be had with a minimal monthly outlay of around 60 baht - around £1.20. Plus you get 50 free sms to send to other dtac users per month and can send sms to other thai networks for 2 baht each though the online service.

If you don't want a postpaid then you can get the Happy (DTAC Prepaid) Simple SIM which with each topup is good for a further 12 months. These can now be bought for 49 baht each or in quantity (10 items+) for 40 baht each.

If you have a post paid account you can topup prepaid from your credit. Also pretty much most Thai Banks allow you to topup mobile phone services through their internet banking.

I used DTACs Edge service significantly, with a 100 hours per month package for 200 baht, and it was very good. I got constant data rates of 25-30 kbytes per second. This is not the maximum, but I suspect that the upper rate has been capped. This was in a number of areas of bangkok. Also I was able to use this service on the train to Malaysia, but at a much lower rate. Previously (4 years ago) I tried the same with DTAC GPRS and it just did not work on the train.

There were some SIM offers I picked up from the university I lived near, but I don't recall the network at the moment. They were good if you lived there, but the SIMs had a very short life. Also, I was able to get a lot of free SIMs from the 7/11 with my "Winnie the Pooh" stamps (don't ask !) which seem to be good for a long time, but only get a mobile number when they are activated.

Thailand has a 3G network, but the government are trying to work out how to make as much money for themselves out of it. Consequently the availability to the public is limited and having mush stopping and starting. There is free 3G available in some areas of Bangkok. And in some of the IT malls the main providers have demo stalls to get people interested in 3G. This is a big embarrassment to the Thais I have spoken to as they know the network is there, it is just the government who are trying to figure out how to take advantage of it, as far as I am aware and have been informed.

Anyway, I have recently seen a commitment that WiFi at 2Mbps will be available throughout Thailand in the next 2 years. I can believe this as a number of operators have WiFi in street furniture already. How this will work in the rural areas, I'm not sure.

Also the government has told all the operators to charge the same termination charges. Hutch (Hutchinson Wampoa) for some reason has been able to charge higher termination charges then the other operators, consequently calling them from other Thai operators has been more expensive. Hutch also seemed to have some of the better offers and has had a reliable CDMA data network in the Bangkok area. I haven't used this but I know of people who depend on it significantly.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by SIMCollector

Hutch also seemed to have some of the better offers and has had a reliable CDMA data network in the Bangkok area. I haven't used this but I know of people who depend on it significantly.

Yes, hutch deliveres reliable high speed data from 256kbps (rural) to 3,6 Mbit (urban) with quite good rates.

Also the 2100 MHz 3G Network from Thai Mobile is spreading a lot trough BKK area, you can buy 1 GB of data valid for 2 weeks for 99 baht only -> i-Kool : Price and Promotion

Chris

[Klaus Wegener]

Which Thai Prepaid-SIM can be recommended if the caller wants to get a free announcement that the Prepaid-subscriber (the called party) is not available when calling him/her and his/her phone is turned off?

Means deleting all diverts (##002#) should work. Which of them (AIS, DTAC, True) allows this?

I am asking because I experienced quite often that Prepaid-SIMs might have non-deletable diverts, means non-deletable voice-mail or SMS "missed-call notification". Might be that this is not the case in Thailand, very nice then, but as I would like to buy one I want to make sure that I get one where all diverts can be deleted and a free announcement is played when the subscriber (me) is not available.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by Klaus Wegener

Which Thai Prepaid-SIM can be recommended if the caller wants to get a free announcement that the Prepaid-subscriber (the called party) is not available when calling him/her and his/her phone is turned off?

You can disable the voice mail in the customer self service menu for all providers. There is no miss call notification as widely spread in germany.

Chris

[Klaus Wegener]

Hi Chris,

Originally Posted by dg7feq

You can disable the voice mail in the customer self service menu for all providers.

what is "customer self service menu"? Does this mean the menu of the phone (which actually does the same than dialling ##002#) or does "customer self service menu" mean a web-interface, with username and password, or even something else?

Thanks
Klaus