mobile phones

I%26#39;m confused. We are travelling to Vietnam in two weeks and by what I have read on this forum an Australian sim card will not operate in Vietnam. However a friend%26#39;s wife is there at the moment and he says she is sending him SMS messages all the time and she is using her Australian sim. Can someone advise if this is possible. Thank you in advance.

mobile phones

It depends on which mobile phone company you have a contract with. It is advised that you check with the company website to see their foreign partners.

BTW, there seems to be an increasing number of questions involved in mobile phones, so I include the general information as follows:

In Vietnam, there are 5 telephone operators at the moment, 3 of which are considered the main ones:

1. Mobifone: great service, especially has many international partners. You may check here to see whether your phone operator is in the list:

mobifone.com.vn/web/…partners.jsp

2. Vinaphone: the oldest one, the number of customers is similar as Mobifone%26#39;s. But it does not give a list of its partners:

www.vinaphone.com.vn/view.do…

3. Viettel: the army company, newcomer (3 years old), but offers such lots of good things (e.g. tariff down to 70%) that ca.20 millions tie with it. Also, it has a wide national network. Unfortunately, neither does it give a list of its partners:

viettel.com.vn/VIETTELGioithieu/…2009.viettel

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Personally I have had no roaming problems when coming back to Hanoi. My phone operators were O2 (in Germany), O2 (in the UK). Some friends who traveled to VN claimed that they could receive but could not send SMS. In case this happens, try to REPLY message (not WRITE new). It may work.

BTW, why don%26#39;t you think of buying a simcard (or even a cheap phone) when you arrive in Vietnam? It%26#39;s dirt cheap there (prob. it would not cost you more than 10 pounds even for the whole month).

mobile phones

Hi

I,ve certainly had no problem using Telstra mobile in Vietnam. Just had to organise global roaming. Cost wise it is probably a lot cheaper too get a Sim card over there.

I had problems in bali and vietnam with global roaming and optus ( worked one week out of 4 2nd trip so it wasnt me not setting it up proeprly) was very expensive for texts when it did work !!!

Last trip - took ';old'; unlocked phone and got a local vietnam card- super cheap - super easy!