Thailand latest SIM card laws

OOOO

Has anyone travelled to Thailand recently and used a Thai sim card?
I believe they are harder to purchase now.
I wanted to know if foreigners could still purchase them? Are they still available from 7/11 stores or only from AIS (network) shops?

dj1471

They need to be registered at the point of sale, you need to bring your passport so they can do this. You can still get them at 7/11s but it's a faff.

I previously visited 3 shops before successfully buying a SIM. One failed to get the registration to work and another said they'd run out of SIMs (I suspect they simply couldn't be bothered with the hassle).

A few months ago I got one from a network shop at the airport, just hand over your phone, passport and the money and they do everything for you. I've always gone with Truemove H as they seem to offer decent deals on data packages and decent coverage/speeds in the major tourist areas.

Some more info here:
http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Thailand

eDicky

The prepaid 'Tourist SIMs' sold at the BKK airport booths are more expensive deals than normal.

Regular PAYG SIMs cost Bt.50 at any stall selling phones and accessories in a shopping mall or on the street, the retailer takes a photo of your passport and gets it registered instantly. There was talk of requiring fingerprints also from January but I don't think it's likely to happen yet. Usually there's Bt.20 call credit already on the SIM.

The best deal for data is probably with AIS 'One-2-Call' - Bt..199 + 7%tax for 30 days' unlimited, the first GB high speed then slows a bit. It's an old deal but I believe still available, I used it in November, I would have to look up the code to enter.

(£1 = Bt.44)

EveryWhere

eDicky wrote: »

The prepaid 'Tourist SIMs' sold at the BKK airport booths are more expensive deals than normal.

Regular PAYG SIMs cost Bt.50 at any stall selling phones and accessories in a shopping mall or on the street, the retailer takes a photo of your passport and gets it registered instantly. There was talk of requiring fingerprints also from January but I don't think it's likely to happen yet. Usually there's Bt.20 call credit already on the SIM.

The best deal for data is probably with AIS 'One-2-Call' - Bt..199 + 7%tax for 30 days' unlimited, the first GB high speed then slows a bit. It's an old deal but I believe still available, I used it in November, I would have to look up the code to enter.

(£1 = Bt.44)

You can actually pick up "Tourist SIM", bundle free, at the network's airport booths for 49 or 50 baht. They might regale you of stories of it not having data nor credit(which actually isn't true in most cases).
But since you likely intend to purchase credit from them to add your own bundle, it's not an issue anyway.

Your description of the 1GB monthly package is a little misleading.
Whilst you do get a 1 GB of normal speed data, once you use it up, it slows down to 128 kbps. Which isn't just a little.
Though you can buy cheap data add-ons to go with this package. The price is 213 baht(£4.83) including VAT. The code is *777*984#

Truemove H has a couple of similar packages; *900*8816# for a monthly package of 1.5 GB slowing down to 128 kbps for 4G SIM and *900*1801# for 1 GB of data then slowing down to 128 kbps. The latter including unlimited free use of Truemove H WiFi HotSpots. Both 213 baht inc V.A.T.

Of course most people won't be there for a month, so these packages might not be the best option for them.

For one or two weeks, they might prefer a capped speed package with no slowdown. 1 Mbps connection is 106 baht(£2.40) per week or 321 baht(£7.27) per month.

But there are a plethora of packages from which to choose.

PompeyPete

There's a current thread on the subject on Trip Advisor...

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293915-i3686-k11109058-Best_sim_card_in_Thailand_for_7_day_trip-Thailand.html

Can't offer any personal comment as a mobile phone isn't one of my needs in life.:)