Prepaid calling credit in Thailand
Many holidaymakers visiting Thailand will purchase a Thai SIM card for their mobile phone to stay in touch with their home front.
It will not cost you a lot because for 50 baht you have a Thai telephone number and with an additional amount of XNUMX baht you already have a call credit. As determined by the providers to this day, that credit has a limited validity. Every time you top up the calling credit, the validity of the credit is also extended. The average Thai chats away a lot via his or her mobile phone and will regularly have to top up the credit and therefore have a long validity date.
The tourist
It is different with the tourist who visits Thailand every year. On a subsequent visit to the country, he will come to the conclusion that his calling credit has expired and that the provider in question has also canceled the telephone number because there is no credit left on it.
NBTC
The National Broadcasting Telecommunication Commission wants to put an end to this and has ordered the four largest providers, namely: AIS, DTAC, TOT Plc and CAT, to lift the limited validity dates for telephone credits.
New customers who want to purchase a prepaid credit will have to identify themselves in the future using an official document such as a passport or, for the Thai, the well-known ID card.
Penalties
In order to give force to the provisions of the NBTC, sanctions have been imposed for non-compliance. A hefty fine can be imposed on the providers for not registering new customers. Furthermore, the three network managers; AIS, DTAC and True Move fines of 100.000 baht per day are imposed when prepaid credits are allowed to expire after certain dates.
Discussie
There has been quite a bit of discussion, particularly about the registration of new prepaid customers. There will still be a lot of water flowing through the Mekong River before nails are hit and the parties agree. For the time being, the providers are flouting the NBTC's regulations on the well-known Thai boot.
It is not unusual to register prepaid customers. Germany, for example, has been doing this since the beginning of “prepaid”.
However, there are also objections to making the call credit unlimited; The number series is not infinite and if you have to keep all those numbers in the air you will eventually hit a limit. There are already plans in the Netherlands to issue numbers with 12 digits (for the time being only for a certain type of number, not for "normal" connections or mobile numbers, by the way).
And record that…. well, for a few baht someone will probably want to put his name on the registration form…. See also that hassle about opening a bank account in Thailand. Couldn't get a 30-day visa last year either. And now it is suddenly possible again (at the right bank).
It won't help new customers, but my DTAC mobile number is valid for 365 days after every top-up (even 10 baht).
@ Dennis I have written about this affair several times in the News from Thailand section. Only now understand, thanks to your response, what the providers' objection to the cancellation of the validity period is. However, I do not yet understand why registration is necessary. Can you also explain that? I have a Thai mobile phone myself, also Dtac. The hotel where I now live has a special telephone with which calling credit can be topped up online with all providers. Widely used by local residents.
Registration serves (in my opinion) no useful purpose other than being able to trace people. Think of criminals, terrorists, (political) opponents, etc.
@ Dennis I understand that, Dennis. But what drives the NBTC to make that demand now. I am very curious about that and what irritates me the most is that fellow journalists from Bangkok Post keep me in the dark about it.
This is of course going to be a nonsensical measure. Suppose you buy a SIM card at 7 eleven, you must hand in your copy of your ID card or passport.
Well, no one is waiting for that and the provider may hire a few hundred extra employees because they can all be registered.
If I 1 x p. go to TH for a few months is after, recharge my credit, the SIM card (the number) is valid for at least 1 more year. (Now 5 years). 1-2 calls.
And when the numbers are “on” there will be a new number system.
That's their concern.
Frank F
I did it differently. I have a Happy Sim and went to a DTAC store and they put something in the computer with my SIM so that it does not expire anymore. If I top up the SIM with 100 Bht, it will be extended again by 1 year.
And that is how Dtac subtly obeys the commandments.
To the complete dissatisfaction of AIS, Dtac therefore does not advertise this way of working.
With regard to keeping all those numbers in the air, I would like to point out that young people change numbers very often, especially because SIM cards are used by the providers and agents to gain market share for the most idiotic people. reasons are presented.
So you could say, a cookie from our own bakery from our own dough when the numbers run out.
Registration was suddenly mandatory a few years ago, because a mobile phone had been used to detonate the bombs in a number of attacks that had been committed in the south.
Later I never heard anything about the registration TIT, but probably also because it was an unenforceable rule. Moreover, the terrorists could also detonate their bombs in a different way.
I've also read a few (also via Dick) that the validity period with the calling credit had been abolished or was about to be abolished.
To my disappointment, there was no mention of it at AIS/12call a few days ago
I received a text message that the validity period would expire within a week and there
had to be deposited to keep the number, while there was still 700 baht calling credit.
I have been extending the duration of my validity at D-Tac for many years by entering the following and then pressing the call button: *113*180*9# That costs 12 baht on your credit. The middle number is variable depending on the number of days you want to extend, in my example 180 days, but it can also be done in units of eg 90, so *113*90*9# (6 baht). It is easy to guess why this handy and cheap method has received so little publicity all these years.
We have also been using the same DTAC numbers for a number of years.
a few days before our return departure, 15-02-13, to the Netherlands, I also heard the message on the radio that the numbers may no longer be closed just like that.
Under penalty of ……..
We are in Thailand on average 2 to 3 months a year.
Usually our daughter extends the numbers to a sufficient validity period.
Probably also does this this way *113*180*9#
I thought the longer you extend the more it costs.
But could you also do this yourself from the Netherlands?
Or does the number have to be in Thailand if you want to extend the validity.
I think you can also do this from another Thai number for someone.
It is therefore not yet 100% clear to what extent this is still necessary or not.
We have the sims with us in the Netherlands.
And they are also active for foreign use.
It's just handy, and also very practical for various things, if your numbers remain active.
I just found this link where it says
http://thaisimtopup.com/shop/happydtac-top-up-paypal/
1 more link,
http://bangkoklibrary.com/content/505-how-extend-credit-validity-happy-dtac-thailand-sim-cards