Mobile Phones

[thegrogmonster 111]

We have had our mobile number and sim card since 2002 and use it all the time when we are in Thailand. It is valid until sometime next year.

 

We have some friends who have gone to Phuket for holidays and we gave them our phone to take and use.

 

So I tried ringing them and it got answered by a Thai fellow who lives in Rayong and he said that the number we have dialed is his number. We then got the missus brother in Pattaya to call our number and he got the same fellow.

 

Has anyone else ever had their mobile number re-issued to someone else. We also had plenty of credit still on the phone.

 

Cheers,

Wayne

Edited October 22, 2006 by thegrogmonster

[dotcom_OD 0]

thegrog, I have a sim I always carry with me when I go to LOS. I usually set it up with at least 1000-2000 baht so when I come back it is good to go.

 

Hopefully it should still be ok, but I know there are date limits on sims if they are not used regularly.

[thegrogmonster 111]

thegrog, I have a sim I always carry with me when I go to LOS. I usually set it up with at least 1000-2000 baht so when I come back it is good to go.

 

Hopefully it should still be ok, but I know there are date limits on sims if they are not used regularly.

 

Due to the amount of calls the missus makes on the phone the time limit for our sim was for well into next year. I buy an extra sim card just for my phone each year and this one always expires and I just buy another each trip. But our main number still had plenty of credit and time left and was last used in February so the number should never have been re-issued.

Edited October 22, 2006 by thegrogmonster

[Gary 4,119]

I use AIS but I think D-Tac is about the same. A 300 baht top up only gives you about an extra 30 days before the SIM card expires. If you top up after the SIM has expired the balance you had will still be there. How long the SIM card is actually valid is another question. I had a spare that was seldom used. I had forgotten about it. It was used for GPRS Internet. I tried to top it off and got a message that the card was expired thus no good. A friend of mine now buys his SIM cards from a shop called Telewhiz (sp?). He pays 1,500 baht and it is good for an entire year.

[jacko 8,822]

I use AIS but I think D-Tac is about the same. A 300 baht top up only gives you about an extra 30 days before the SIM card expires. If you top up after the SIM has expired the balance you had will still be there. How long the SIM card is actually valid is another question. I had a spare that was seldom used. I had forgotten about it. It was used for GPRS Internet. I tried to top it off and got a message that the card was expired thus no good. A friend of mine now buys his SIM cards from a shop called Telewhiz (sp?). He pays 1,500 baht and it is good for an entire year.

 

I suppose you mean the 1500 baht lasts him including call costs, how much of the 1500 baht is credit?

 

I know when I top up my card, if my total credit exceeds 500 baht, my validity is for a year.

Edited October 24, 2006 by jacko

[Samsonite 181]

You can top up a DTAC SIM card out to one year in advance. You can get a better deal by buying the credits/time in a company owned DTAC store vs buying a top up card at 7/11. Unfortunately, while DTAC insists they have a store in Big C, I've never been able to find it.

[Gary 4,119]

I suppose you mean the 1500 baht lasts him including call costs, how much of the 1500 baht is credit?

 

I know when I top up my card, if my total credit exceeds 500 baht, my validity is for a year.

 

 

I'm not at all sure that a 500 baht top up will be good for a year. The entire 1,500 baht is credit and you have a year to use it up. The advantage is having the full year to use up your credit. If you could do that with 500 baht there would be no advantage.

[jacko 8,822]

I'm not at all sure that a 500 baht top up will be good for a year. The entire 1,500 baht is credit and you have a year to use it up. The advantage is having the full year to use up your credit. If you could do that with 500 baht there would be no advantage.

 

Well the text I get when I top up says the credit is valid for a year...but of course I do not know if that would be the case if I was not utilising the phone. I live here so I use it frequently. Likely different network/ suppliers have there own policy on when they cut a phone number that appears not to be in use. I have also previously registered my number by filling in some passport details and giving it to telewhiz, I wonder if people who did not bother, and the number appears not to be in use, are being cut off.

[torrenova 644]

Credit and SIM validity are not the same. My DTAC goes out for 1 year irrespective of my credit (SIM life has to do with previous credit, not current credit). Just dial *101# to see it. For 12call dial *121#

[farangkwaiyai 46]

I've never had any problems with one2call I never meet any other farang that have it!!

[Braveheart 0]

I've never had any problems with one2call I never meet any other farang that have it!!

That's all I've ever used in LOS.

[jacko 8,822]

That's all I've ever used in LOS.

 

I use 1-2-Call in Thailand and have also had no problems. I have also enabled 'Roaming', or Freedom Planet service. My Thai SIM card now works in the UK, (and in Lao, Cambodia, etc) utilizing one of the local networks (maybe Orange in the UK). Of course I do not use it for calls to Thailand, but perhaps if you made a quick call or sent an SMS once a month, or just put the SIM card in and sat on the Network a while, this would prevent the number being disabled as not in use! My UK SIM is on O2, and also works in Thailand on the Orange Network, but call costs on Roaming mode, sent and received, are to be avoided.

Edited October 27, 2006 by jacko

[Samsonite 181]

Credit and SIM validity are not the same. My DTAC goes out for 1 year irrespective of my credit (SIM life has to do with previous credit, not current credit). Just dial *101# to see it. For 12call dial *121#

They must have changed their procedures as mine has always been directly related. The SIM will expired when the credit is used or on the current expiration date, whichever comes first. I have to add credit in order to extend the expiration date.

[farangkwaiyai 46]

I use 1-2-Call in Thailand and have also had no problems. I have also enabled 'Roaming', or Freedom Planet service. My Thai SIM card now works in the UK, (and in Lao, Cambodia, etc) utilizing one of the local networks (maybe Orange in the UK). Of course I do not use it for calls to Thailand, but perhaps if you made a quick call or sent an SMS once a month, or just put the SIM card in and sat on the Network a while, this would prevent the number being disabled as not in use! My UK SIM is on O2, and also works in Thailand on the Orange Network, but call costs on Roaming mode, sent and received, are to be avoided.

 

 

Ah nice one.... how do i get my one2call sim card working in england? I am here at the moment... or do i need to get a thai girl to ring up and arrange it while in LOS?

[jacko 8,822]

Ah nice one.... how do i get my one2call sim card working in england? I am here at the moment... or do i need to get a thai girl to ring up and arrange it while in LOS?

 

Not sure if you can do it while home.....I went in the office while in Korat and they sent me a lovely girl to talk to in English. She did it at the computer terminal there and then. My confirmation SMS said 'for more info call 1175'. Maybe you could get the GF to pop in the office (if you can get her to understand what you need) or call 1175...or do it next time you are in Thailand. Good luck!

[LukDod 0]

This may be helpful to those who leave Thailand for a while and want to maintain their current AIS-12Call number.

 

FWIW:

I reside in Thailand but make few calls, yet receive many, and those I do make are of short duration. Initially I was on the regular program whereby you buy a 300-Bt card and receive an additional month's extension. Yet, I rarely made 300-Bt worth of calls in a month. So I learned of AIS's 'nung nung' (sp?) program. This program provides that you receive a month's additional extension for every 100-Bt you add to your existing balance. Unlike AIS's regular program, where calls are about 1-bt a minute, the 'nung nung' program charges calls a premium of 5-Bt/minute.

 

On a average month, on the 'nung nung' program I probably make 100-150-Bt worth of calls. I usually buy the 300-Bt cards to add time and each one provides 3-additional months . My current expiration date for the balance and my phone number is Jan 4 2008!!! This approach may not be economic for those that constantly make phone calls.

 

This is much cheaper tham obtaining a 1500-Bt card from telewiz, as someone earlier posted, and the full amount can be used for phone calls.

[ozboy 31]

On my recent trip to los,sept/oct I bought a 12call sim card with the idea of keeping the same number for future trips,I paid about 300 baht for the sim and got about 50 baht credit with it I think,and also bought extra credit at the same time,the reason I bought 12 call was that i was told it had a 1 year validity on the sim card,no mention of whether you had to have a minimum credit balance on it or not.The only problem I had was that on many occasions i had great difficulty both sending and receiving sms messages to australia,no problems to thai numbers,and talking to a few people living there they said they had no problem with 12call however they werent sending messages overseas,I had that many problems with this that i ended up buying a new phone believing it was the phone acting up but it wasnt,as i was told later by someone that this network belonged to thaksin i wondered whether the o/s messages were being blocked somehow as this was just when the coup was taking place and as i ended up disposing of the sim when i left thailand,because of the difficulties i had, i will never know lol.Also i found out that 12call was costing I think 9baht per o/s sms against either 3 baht or 5baht for dtac,and dtac sim was valid for either 1 or 2 months only.

ozboy