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New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 3:50 pm
by BKK Phil
Hello:

Will be arriving in PNH soon on E-class visa with my AIS-THAILAND issued Chinese made Lava Iris phone.

--What will it cost me for a Cambo SIM?
--Cost of start-up telephone service? Pre-paid method best for me at the outset.
--Any paperwork requirements at the outset?

Thanks.

BKK Phil

Re: New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:02 pm
by cptrelentless
Come out the airport exit after you land and bear right. There's four or more phonecard booths in a row. Generally SIMs are free as you buy top up at the same time. You're supposed to show your passport.

Re: New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:08 pm
by Kammekor
cptrelentless wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:02 pm Come out the airport exit after you land and bear right. There's four or more phonecard booths in a row. Generally SIMs are free as you buy top up at the same time. You're supposed to show your passport.
Be careful with the tourists sims 'given away' at the airport. Most of them will not allow you to 'exchange money' for time limited use, like 1 USD to 150 USD for use on net calls within one week, or use on 3G for one week.

The sims 'sold' regularly in town are fine.

Re: New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:44 pm
by yongchi
The main providers are Cellcard, Smart, and Metfone.
All three companies should have booths at the airport.
I have used all three, and in Phnom Penh, all three should work just fine.
A standard prepaid Sim card should be 1 or 2 dollars. If you stay here longer, don't buy a tourist SIM.
If they don't have a standard SIM at the airport, head to town. Almost all phone shops have SIM cards and top-up cards ($1, $2, $5) available.
They can also help you put it in your phone and activate it.

By law, you need to register the card with an ID in your name. For a foreigner this is usually the passport.

I have used all three companies.
Currently I use Smart and Cellcard.

Cellcard:
For $5 top-up, you only get 1 month validity.
You can change $1 into $100 (you pay $1 and get $100, validity 2 weeks) for 4G Internet and within-network calls.
Depending on your location the 4G performance varies: often it's really great, but in some locations it sucks.

Smart:
They have a long-validity plan, which gives you 180 days. (Can be activated in any Smart shop after purchase).
You can change $1 into $30 (Smart XChange validity 10 days) for 4G Internet and within-network calls.

If you are based in Phnom Penh and only use your phone a little bit, I would go for Smart. Their international calling rates are generally also great.
And if you switch to their "extra-long" plan, you can leave the country for a couple of months without worrying about your SIM card expiring.

If you want a lot of data, the Cellcard $100 exchange is great.

In the province, depending on where you are, you may get better coverage with Metfone.

For the time being, I have stopped using Metfone, so my experience with them may be outdated.
I liked them as well, but just had too many SIM cards and most of my friends were on Smart.

Re: New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 6:33 pm
by Clutch Cargo
Smart: You can change $1 into $30 (Smart XChange validity 10 days) for 4G Internet and within-network calls.
Or $2 into $60 and valid for 25 days..this is the one I use.

Re: New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 7:05 pm
by paul2d
Kammekor wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:08 pm
cptrelentless wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:02 pm Come out the airport exit after you land and bear right. There's four or more phonecard booths in a row. Generally SIMs are free as you buy top up at the same time. You're supposed to show your passport.
Be careful with the tourists sims 'given away' at the airport. Most of them will not allow you to 'exchange money' for time limited use, like 1 USD to 150 USD for use on net calls within one week, or use on 3G for one week.

The sims 'sold' regularly in town are fine.
What exactly does the 1 USD to 150 USD mean? This is not immediately evident to me.

Re: New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 8:22 pm
by armchairlawyer
clutchcargo wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 6:33 pm
Smart: You can change $1 into $30 (Smart XChange validity 10 days) for 4G Internet and within-network calls.
Or $2 into $60 and valid for 25 days..this is the one I use.
I used to use this successfully but a while back the $60 started to get used up way before the 25 days. Now I do ThomMorng, it costs $1 per week, it automatically renews weekly and never gets used up (it gives you $333 worth of data).

Re: New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 8:26 pm
by armchairlawyer
Kammekor wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:08 pm
cptrelentless wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:02 pm Come out the airport exit after you land and bear right. There's four or more phonecard booths in a row. Generally SIMs are free as you buy top up at the same time. You're supposed to show your passport.
Be careful with the tourists sims 'given away' at the airport. Most of them will not allow you to 'exchange money' for time limited use, like 1 USD to 150 USD for use on net calls within one week, or use on 3G for one week.

The sims 'sold' regularly in town are fine.
Yes, all airport phone shops seem to have become as bad value as duty free shops. SIMs in Smart shops outside of the airport cost $2.

Re: New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 8:45 pm
by John Bingham
paul2d wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 7:05 pm
Kammekor wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:08 pm
cptrelentless wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:02 pm Come out the airport exit after you land and bear right. There's four or more phonecard booths in a row. Generally SIMs are free as you buy top up at the same time. You're supposed to show your passport.
Be careful with the tourists sims 'given away' at the airport. Most of them will not allow you to 'exchange money' for time limited use, like 1 USD to 150 USD for use on net calls within one week, or use on 3G for one week.

The sims 'sold' regularly in town are fine.
What exactly does the 1 USD to 150 USD mean? This is not immediately evident to me.
Yeah, I don't understand this at all. I use Cellcard XG6 and it costs $6 a month with free calls to the same network and a few GB of data (always enough for a month). Every now and then I get these messages saying I have $196 in data or some crap, I don't know what the hell it even means.

Re: New Resident wants advice on SIM and cellphone service

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 9:03 pm
by explorer
paul2d wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 7:05 pm What exactly does the 1 USD to 150 USD mean? This is not immediately evident to me.
You pay $1 and get $1 worth of credit. You can dial a certain number, and that $1 becomes $150 worth of credit, and can only be used for calling people with the same phone company.