I like many others have a thai sim card which i use when i'm over there on holiday etc (orange ,bought from 7/11 many moons ago).Talking to a friend yesterday whos over in pattaya at the moment and the rumour is that all foriegners have to register there sim cards (thai sim cards)or risk been cut off,to register you need your passport and proof of address which you take to a phone shop.Any one heard anything simalar?.I had my number a few years now and it would be a pain to have to change it.
Lee
"Distance confuses the mind." said a forum member, how true.
Posts: 876 | Location: Hull,Yorkshire + somewhere off the Lom Sak - Chum phae Highway. | Registered: 14 April 2003
Yes its seems to be correct, 2 weeks ago the wife went to the local 1-2 call shop and registered us both, easy to do and now we won't lose our numbers and money! This time around also we noted that if you needed to contact anyone on Orange at night time, or them to contact you,it was near impossible with 'network busy' messages every time, maybe the Orange network is near its current capacity?
Posts: 77 | Location: UK | Registered: 06 January 2003
I'm on one 2 call and I'm sure it cuts off automatically if you don't put a minimum 300 baht a month. We use it continuously when we're in Thailand (about 1 or 2 times a year) and we've had the latest sim about 2 years. The 300 baht a month usually builds up to make it valid for the year ahead. If we don't manage it we'll buy another sim. I know from very bitter and painful experience of a couple of £300 roaming bills on my UK Orange that it is simply far cheaper to buy another sim and phone evryone and tell them your new number
Posts: 312 | Location: West Midlands/Leong Nok Tha, Isaan | Registered: 18 June 2003
I have a "Happy" pay as you go sim card for Thailand which is useing the DTAC network. My Ex tells me that this will no longer be useable after 6 months. Anyone know any different ?
Mark ควาย
Posts: 5254 | Location: Behind the drum kit | Registered: 02 February 2003
Mark,i'm sure this applies to ALL networks but i dont know what the final dates are for registering the sims? (we will all be posting our sims back to our wifes familys to get them registered).I hear some foreigners/expats are having trouble doing this because a hotel/condo room is not been accepted as an exceptable address (those who are not married).This only applies to us foreigners aswell,THAI'S need not apply,so the usuall one rule for them and us in full force again (which rules out network capacity as a reason for doing this)
lee
"Distance confuses the mind." said a forum member, how true.
Posts: 876 | Location: Hull,Yorkshire + somewhere off the Lom Sak - Chum phae Highway. | Registered: 14 April 2003
Yes, I remember reading a front page headline about this in the Bangkok Post while I was there in April.
The government were to introduce the requirement for ALL pay as you go sim cards to be registered, not just those bought by foreigners, Thais must register also. It is an attempt to thwart terrorists who have been using mobile phones to remotely detonate bombs in South Thailand.
Unregistered sim cards will apparently be cut off, but I'm not sure if and when this will take effect.
I've managed to find some news items on the topic here:
SIM registration. Do you really think any of this is about terrorism or insurgent tourists? When I was most recently there I seem to recall having a Chang fuelled argument with some local politico big noodle that went something like this: If I ran a country I would be embarassed by my inability to ever do anything constructive about pesky individuals detonating bombs in my ever rebellious Southern provinces. Randomly shooting up their mosques doesn't deter them. So for the lack of anything better to do I would probably create a smokescreen policy to distract people's attention from what is really going on and my powerlessness to stop it. If I owned a phone company I would be really rattled to have millions of customers and not know who they are, where they live or any of their demographic data to enable me to bombard them with promotional material to buy ever more of my product. But of course I neither run a country or own a phone company. But who does?
Originally posted by maokaang: Unregistered sim cards will apparently be cut off, but I'm not sure if and when this will take effect.
I trust holders of unregistered SIM cards will be notified and given the opportunity to register their details before their service is suddenly discontinued? Is it possible for unregistered customers to register their details now to avoid being cut off in the future?
No notification,but you can register now providing your in thailand i suppose,something in me says its a money making scam to make us all buy a new sim card (i take it all new cards bought will be automatically registered).
i could be wrong
"Distance confuses the mind." said a forum member, how true.
Posts: 876 | Location: Hull,Yorkshire + somewhere off the Lom Sak - Chum phae Highway. | Registered: 14 April 2003
Is it possible for unregistered customers to register their details now to avoid being cut off in the future?
Yes.
From one of the links above (dated April)
quote:
Mobile phone service companies will also be required to register holders of SIM cards purchased before the date within the next six months.
As an aside, the most sensible quote from the above articles is probably the following:
quote:
Some security experts doubt the move will be helpful. Registration will not stop bombers from using stolen SIM cards or mobile phones or phones from other countries to detonate bombs or from using false identities to buy them. Moreover, although mobile phones are among the more efficient devices for detonating bombs, courtesy of their digital technology and the quality of the network, there are plenty of other handy gadgets that will do the job, including remote garage door openers and family walkie-talkie sets - anything with a wireless signal.
"What they are doing is spending a lot of time and effort doing something that ultimately may be neither useful or effective," said John Wideman, Thailand country manager for the security consultancy ArmorGroup Asia Pacific. "There are just too many ways around it."
Of course it's a scam! And maybe not just for the reason I suggested before. Isn't there a big hoo-ha about network capacity and overload? A convenient workaround for someone might be to de-register a few handsets belonging to up country hicks who probably don't know anything about it. That would free up some space for those switched on city slickers, wouldn't it? I'm not into conspiracies myself. But screw ups and scams fit neatly together.
the wife has phoned home and they all seem to think that its definatley non-thai's only that need to register.Going by the articles above it does read more like everybody?.Confusing,oh well worse case scenario 300bts?
"Distance confuses the mind." said a forum member, how true.
Posts: 876 | Location: Hull,Yorkshire + somewhere off the Lom Sak - Chum phae Highway. | Registered: 14 April 2003
I read in one of the articles that Thailand is not the first country to introduce such a scheme. Switzerland apparently did the same thing last year. I know the police in the UK have regularly asked for the same thing here to try to restrict the anonymous use of pay as you go phones for illegal activities.
The period is now over for registrations, there was a brief extension period of one week tho'. Everyone is quite correct in saying that it is a mockery to think that this will cut down on terrorism in the troubled south, the Malaysian network extends in anyway and it will certainly increase the number of phone thefts to get hold of the sim card. A point to note the problems people have been having connecting across networks are cuased by AIS (no 1 yuppiphone co) who also get the largest benefit from the registration policy (as they can now send age group specific spam SMS from their network) but I'm sure that no of this is an action inspired by K. Thaksin the [former] owner of AIS (Shin Group) because that would be illegal
I had no problem purchasing a new sim from MBK 4 weeks ago, Most of the stalls have signs saying that ID is now required and no ID no SIM. I had taken my passport with me but the stall that I bought from didnt even want to look at it, they just handed over the sim with no ID check at all!
They are, however, now sending SMS messages to some unregistered phones with a warning that the service will be terminated unless the SIM is registered. (sorry but I dont recall if any time limit was mentioned)
I can't comment on other service providers but I e-mailed AIS (One2Call) about this and received a response today stating that their registration period is 6 months from 1st July.
Sim registration is only for some it seems Dtac were doing a promotion selling sim cards in Pattaya last week buy a sim for 200 bhat and get 50 bhat each month for a year in free credit not bad for a spare sim ! I got one and no id required
