UNLOCKING SMARTPHONES

[chisungetta]

I have a smartphone from South Korea - brand name Pantech SKY.

SKY VEGA S

I was wondering if I could get it "unlocked" somewhere in Bangkok - so that I can use it around SE Asia.

I would like to be able to just switch SIM cards when I go from one country to the next.

Is that possible?

[FarangFarang]

Just head down to MBK. They have an entire floor devoted to mobile phones and at least 100 vendors who will unlock the phone for you if it's possible.

[chisungetta]

YEAH - my only concern would be the language barrier - and getting ripped off.

Was hoping to find a place that deals with foreigners/English.

Will check it out anyway.

Thanks.

[FarangFarang]

YEAH - my only concern would be the language barrier - and getting ripped off.

Was hoping to find a place that deals with foreigners/English.

Will check it out anyway.

Thanks.

I don't think you'll have many language barrier issues at MBK. It's one of the most popular shopping areas for Thais and foreigners so English is widely spoken.

As far as getting ripped off, literally there are hundreds of stalls on the mobile floor. Everybody's competing with each other so you can shop the price around and see if you can find a better deal. In my own personal experience, you're probably not going to save much if you could find someone willing to undercut another shop's price. Not that you might not find a better deal but typically the difference usually isn't worth the hassle of shopping it around (unless you get really lucky from the start).

I don't know about unlocking phones because I usually buy my phones unlocked at MBK but if the iPhone 6 comes out tomorrow, you'll find very little variance in prices from vendor to vendor. Of course, if you're trying to buy the newest phone before it's become available via official channels in Thailand you're going to pay a premium because they're getting them in Hong Kong or Italy and shipping them to Thailand for resell. But if the phone is carried by any major telecom in Thailand the prices are the same as the official channels.

So, I could be wrong about a service oriented offering like unlocking. You might find bigger differences than you would on hardware/phones but I'm pretty sure that on the hardware side most of the shops have the same supplier(s) and have the same pricing.

The other issue you might run into is that I've never heard of that brand of phone. If there simply isn't an unlock or nobody has ever seen one of those models before, yeah, it's going to be a hassle. Not because of language issues or people trying to rip you off though. They'll probably tell you straight away they have no idea what kind of phone you have :-)