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Phone Use In Vietnam

Written bygreengeckoon 14 November 2013

If you are coming from overseas for a short stay expect most types of cellphone to work okay here. The major Vietnam telecoms companies all have global roaming arrangements with overseas operators. However, be aware that if you are signed on with your home supplier for global roaming, you will pay charges at both ends, as well as call duration charges, and exchange rate variations. These can make local calling quite expensive, especially when using an international handset set on global roaming to make local Vietnam calls.



By far the best way is to buy a local Vietnam SIM card to fit your phone handset. You can get a SIM card, with local number, and 100,000 VND call usage for about 180,000 VND ($10 USD) Local calls are relatively cheap and SMS messaging is even cheaper. You will find it significantly cheaper to put a message on your home mobile re-directing people to your new Vietnam mobile number.

You can easily top up your usage credit buy buying a Call Card in various denominations from 50,000 VND up to 500,000 VND from just about any street operator. Or you can get updated usage via credit card payment through your phone.

If you are living here, most people don't worry about having a fixed home phone. Though they are not expensive to install or use, mobiles are much more flexible. About the only reason to have a home phone might be to get cable TV installed and service provided.

Information from: outandaboutinsaigon.com

We do our best to provide accurate and up to date information. However, if you have noticed any inaccuracies in this article, please let us know in the comments section below.

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Comments

  • greengecko
    greengecko14 years ago(Modified)
    Late 2009 VN cancelled over 300,000 cellphone numbers. Even pre-paid cellphones need to be properly registered with local VN address. If you buy a SIM card here to fit your phone this is also the case. using pre-paid you top up your account by buying convenient 50,000 - 500,000 VND call cards. NOTE: Most pre-paid cellphone accounts now only allow your credit balance to be used over a limited period of time. If you buy 50,000 VND you have 1 month to use credits before they expire. If you buy 500,000 VND ($25) you have 12 months to use credits. What they don't tell you is that by calling *900# you can automatically apply to change your account to "System 365". It costs nothing, they SMS back to you a code you enter and from then on any amount of credit has 12 months to be used.

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