Which mobile in Singapore?

[JK80]

Dear experienced Expats

I need your advice.
I'm going to move to SG next week and I will need to buy a SIM card to run my mobile.

Is there any recommendable / not recommendable provider I shall go/ go not for? Any prepaid package? (i will need a prepayment SIM card no contract)

How about registration of the mobile? Any special things to take care of?

What are reasonable rates for calls / calls abroad and SMS ? Are there any numbers to predial to call abroad cheaper (like in Thailand for example)?



I'll be most grateful for any hint



Cheers,

JK80

[vaishali]

I've been using starhub prepaid sim for a while now and have experienced no problems with it.

You buy it at the Starhub centre in singapura plaza, but a lot of newsagents sell them as well. you can get the recharge cards for them at great deals in lucky plaza ($16 as opposed to $18). That gives you quite a lot of talk time and tons of free sms. If you're like me and live on sms, that recharge card last a while.

right now, they want you to register the sim card. that is simple. there is a booth outside lucky plaza, as well as the starhub centre. you give them the sim card, they ask you for your IC and address (or whatever form of ID). that's it!

to call overseas the rates are listed plainly on their website, however, they do have deals where you can call freely to malaysia, the US, and other places, all you pay for is the talk time. if you really want to call cheaply, then you can get international calling cards that cost about $10 and you can talk for a long long time. just check for one to call thailand if that's where you predominantly call.

just so you know, the prepaid sim card i think costs $28 if i'm not mistaken, it's been a while

enjoy, like i said, i've had no problems with them.

[Baron Greenback]

If you are planning on using your handphone in Singapore then as vaishali has said it is very easy to go to any phone shop & pick up a pay as you go sim, & get a new number - bring some form of ID along like your passport or driving license.

However one thing you want to be aware of - make sure your mobile is unlocked - that is a SIM from any provider in any country will work in it.

If you bought your phone as a package from a provider it may be locked into that provider. It is not a big issue to get it unlocked, you may be able to do it yourself if you can find the relevant software in the internet. If you are not brave enough to have a go yourself I had a phone unlocked form a 2nd hand phone shop - they have to do it on a regular basis. But it may take them a couple of days but should only cost $20

[JK80]

Thank you for your replies. When I entered SG beginning of this month I bought a Singtel SIM-card right at the airport. This prepaid thing (HIcard)
No problems until I figured out that they charge disgustingly much for incoming calls - hence I showed up in one of the shops downtown. A colleague told me about an nice offer for prepaid mobiles which is a charge of 60 cents and then unlimited incoming calls for 24h.

Fair enough I asked for this offer and if I'll be able to apply it on m existing card as I gave the number to everyone already.
No problem he said: Just dial *1300 and when you receive a confirmation SMS, answer tis mesage and you activate this service. I did that and it's working fine so everything is fine.

My question is: WHY DON'T THEY TELL ANYONE UNTIL YOU ASK FOR IT?

Cheers,

JK80

[madwolfie]

Locals face the same problems as well really...