Comments on: Hong Kong prepaid SIM card for travellers

By: kestutis

kestutis — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:08:29 +0000

The main reason they have so cheap, because it’s took very little investment into equipment to cover the whole Honk Kong. They put few antennas on skyscrapers and they got full coverage. And you have millions of users with an investment of few millions. The biggest share went probably into buy that license from the government. Basically Cell call is free for Mobile providers, and just need to pay few dollars for electricity and for rent to put antenna. In my country where the land area a little bit bigger, we still have quite competitive rates. We get 800 mins for 10 US dollar monthly rates or on average its 1.25 cents/per min. One advantage, if you don’t take mobile phone, you don’t need to commit yourself into 12 month contract, and you can cancel it anytime. In addition they don’t charge for incoming calls which is I think fair enough, because when I lived in US they charged me for incoming calls. And even I didn’t call and tried not to answer, ATT somehow charged me at least 1 minute, so in such a case, they were able to charge me. Prepaid plans way more expensive. We pay 7 cents per minute for mobile to mobile, and 20 cents for national calls. But kind of interesting how cheap calls are in Honk Kong, and very expensive in US

By: Ron Tseng

Ron Tseng — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:43:40 +0000

If I finish the SIM card value and purchase the new SIM card. Could I keep the "old" SIM card phone #?
Excellent help.

Reply from Peter: It depends on the carrier and usually isn’t a simple process. I’d suggest just adding more money to the original SIM card value unless that’s not possible for some reason.

By: Ron Tseng

Ron Tseng — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:54:40 +0000

Hi Pete,

When you buy the sim card, how could you get the Hong Kong phone # for you cell phone?
If you buy another new sim card, how do you activate the same phone # you have?
Ron

Reply from Peter: The phone number is attached to the SIM card, not the phone. So you’d just have to take out your current SIM card and swap in the new one (and follow the activation instructions specific to the Hong Kong service provider). Then when you return home, you put your local SIM back in the phone.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:12:22 +0000

Can I get a sim card for iPhone 4?

Paul.

By: Wonderful

Wonderful — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:12:34 +0000

Hi anyone here can please advise for all the prepaid card should there come with data for us to surf internet or log into facebook page while we are on the go in HK beside enable us to make phone calls and smses? How much we need to first pay to buy for the prepaid card for the said service does it come with a range of price for us to choose and how much is the value inside the card?? Thank you.

By: kevin

kevin — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 07:09:12 +0000

Just as a heads up to anyone travelling to Hong Kong and wanting a sim card. On the main concourse (second floor) check in for international flights, there is a three shop there, who will sell you a prepaid 3G/HSDPA sim card for your unlocked phone. A few shops down there is a fortress store which will sell unlocked phones that you can use with this service. Very convenient, and then if you run out, all you have to do is go to a 7-11 and get a recharge voucher at 100hkd each.

For roaming, I live in China, so I don’t usually roam there, but 3′s rates looks OK for mainland, however if you intend to roam outside of China (Thailand, Phil, Singapore, India, etc etc) the rates are really high, especially for data, so either put 3 or 4000 hkd on your card, or find a local one when you’re travelling.

By: keke

keke — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:44:35 +0000

Hi, I need to purchase a SIM for hong kong, can u let me know where I can buy that in NY.

Thank You
Keke

Reply from Peter: eBay is a good option.

By: Sarah Wyse

Sarah Wyse — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:48:48 +0000

Can I buy a sim card for my blackberry bold at the airport in Hong Kong?

Sarah

Reply from Peter: Supposing that it’s an unlocked GSM quad-band phone, yes.

By: Sebastiaan

Sebastiaan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:48:41 +0000

Hi,
I have been to Hong Kong myself in 2007 and bought a prepaid simcard from 3. Which was very convenient and cheap. I will be returning to Hong Kong next week and still have that simcard. Does anybody know if it will still work when I put it in my phone and put some money on it again? Now it says inactive simcard, but that does make sense because I haven´t used it for over 2 years. I am just wondering if I could get it activated again by just adding some credits and starting to use it again. I would like to use the same phone number again.

By: vworksmtl

vworksmtl — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:47:22 +0000

So Peter, I will be going to HK in Jan. I can actually put this into my unlocked Fido cell (it is a quadband) and call home in Montreal? I will be going about 300kms north in China to visit a factory that we buy from-can you roam on this also. It looks like the front of your box says it is good for 30 countries

Reply from Peter: The offerings have probably changed since I used that particular card, but yes, you should be able to find one that has affordable international calling from HK and yes, an unlocked quadband phone does the trick! I can’t speak to any particular card’s ability to roam in the different places in China, but again, such a card should be easy to track down when you’re in HK.