Korea: Phone crazy....
I am kind of in a grumpy mood now... Optus doesn't offer roaming services for those who are on their pre-paid services. Well, that is what they say. I have been on the internet trying to find a way to rent a phone, but phone rental charges aren't cheap either. I have read about the nightmares for foreigners in trying to acquire a pre-paid phone service in Korea, and its better to be aware than not be.
Rental fees from Skype Roaming (and 2 other telcos) in Korea charges up to as much as 2,700W p/day, which works out to about AUD46 for 27 days.
Another one is Travel SIM which is sold by Australia Post for about 50AUD, and charges about AUD0.50 per SMS sent. The good thing about that is that I get to keep the SIM for 6 months (inactive, that is) and go to any country without worrying about roaming charges. The only deal about that is my friends will probably be calling me on my Australian number... which doesn't work out cheap for locally based friends.
Of course, my third option is to get a Public Phone Card, which retails for about 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000Won, and forget all about getting a rental phone.
- Local: 70 won/3 minutes
- Domestic Long - Distance: 8:00AM~9:00PM – 70 won per 43 seconds / 12:00AM~8:00AM + 9:00PM~12:00AM – 70 won per 61 seconds
- Cellular phone: 70 won per 38 seconds
Do it like those high school years, copy all the numbers onto a phonebook, and just use a public phone to make calls. LOL.
Did you know that the SAMSUNG LG760 from Australia does not have the capability to read Hangul language? A pretty useless phone, says my korean friend, Jo. Being that she can't even text in Hangul on her LG phone to her family members in Korea. Useless stupid Korean manufacturers.. and you dare to put your Korean brand on the phones... PABO!!
Rental fees from Skype Roaming (and 2 other telcos) in Korea charges up to as much as 2,700W p/day, which works out to about AUD46 for 27 days.
Another one is Travel SIM which is sold by Australia Post for about 50AUD, and charges about AUD0.50 per SMS sent. The good thing about that is that I get to keep the SIM for 6 months (inactive, that is) and go to any country without worrying about roaming charges. The only deal about that is my friends will probably be calling me on my Australian number... which doesn't work out cheap for locally based friends.
Of course, my third option is to get a Public Phone Card, which retails for about 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000Won, and forget all about getting a rental phone.
- Local: 70 won/3 minutes
- Domestic Long - Distance: 8:00AM~9:00PM – 70 won per 43 seconds / 12:00AM~8:00AM + 9:00PM~12:00AM – 70 won per 61 seconds
- Cellular phone: 70 won per 38 seconds
Do it like those high school years, copy all the numbers onto a phonebook, and just use a public phone to make calls. LOL.
Did you know that the SAMSUNG LG760 from Australia does not have the capability to read Hangul language? A pretty useless phone, says my korean friend, Jo. Being that she can't even text in Hangul on her LG phone to her family members in Korea. Useless stupid Korean manufacturers.. and you dare to put your Korean brand on the phones... PABO!!
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