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International Calls

If you want to call an international number from a telephone in Thailand, you must first dial an international access code before dialling the country code followed by the subscriber number.

In Thailand, there are varying international access codes charging different rates per minute. The standard direct-dial prefix is 001; it is operated by CAT and is considered to have the best sound quality; it connects to the largest number of countries but is the most expensive. The next best is 007, a prefix operated by TOT with reliable quality and slightly cheaper rates. Economy rates are available with 008 and 009; both of which use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), with varying but adequate sound quality.

Many expats are now using DeeDial (www.deedial.com), a direct-dial service that requires a prepaid account managed through the internet. The cheapest service they offer is the ‘ring-back’ feature, which circumvents local charges on your phone.

There are also a variety of international phonecards available through CAT (www.cthai.com) offering promotional rates as low as 1B per minute.

Dial 100 for operator-assisted international calls. To make a reverse-charges (or collect) call, use this prefix. Alternatively contact your long-distance carrier for their overseas operator number, a toll-free call, or try 001 9991 2001 from a CAT phone and 1 800 000 120 from a TOT phone.

Phones

If you don’t have access to a private landline you can use a somewhat old-fashioned way to call overseas through a service called Home Country Direct, available at some post offices and CAT centres throughout the country. This service offers an easy one-button connection to international operators in countries around the world.

Calling overseas through phones in most hotel rooms usually incurs additional surcharges (sometimes as much as 50% over and above the CAT rate); however sometimes local calls are free or at standard rates. Some guesthouses will have a mobile phone or landline that customers can use for a per-minute fee for overseas calls.

There are also a variety of public payphones that use prepaid phonecards for calls (both international and domestic) and coin-operated pay phones for local calls. Using the public phones can be a bit of a pain: they are typically placed beside a main thoroughfare where you’re cooked by the sun and the conversation is drowned out by traffic noise.

The red and blue public phones are for local calls and are coin-operated; it typically costs 5B to initiate a call. Then there are the phonecard phone booths that accept only certain kinds of cards. The green phones take domestic TOT phonecards. The yellow phones (labelled either domestic or international) take the respective Lenso phonecards. These phonecards can be bought from 7-Elevens in 300B and 500B denominations and rates vary between 7B and 10B per call.

Mobile Phones

Thailand is on a GSM network. Mobile (cellular) phone operators in Thailand include AIS, DTAC and True Move (formerly Orange). You have two hand-phone options: you can either buy a mobile phone in Thailand at one of the shopping malls, like Bangkok’s MBK, or you can use an imported phone that isn’t SIM-locked. Most mobile users in Thailand use the prepaid services of a particular carrier (AIS and DTAC are the most popular). To get started buy a SIM card, which includes an assigned telephone number. Once your phone is SIM-enabled you can buy minutes with prepaid phonecards. SIM cards and refill cards can be bought from 7-Elevens throughout the country. There are various promotions but rates typically hover around 2B to 3B per minute anywhere in Thailand and between 5B and 7B for international calls. SMS is usually 5B per message, making it the cheapest ‘talk’ option for baht-strapped mobile users.

TIME

Thailand’s time zone is seven hours ahead of GMT/UTC (London). At government offices and local cinemas, times are often expressed