Trip to Philippines

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I have an iPhone and am going to be visiting the Philippines this summer. If I was going to make calls to other phones in the Philippines, is it better to bring my iPhone, get a sim card and use my iPhone or just buy a prepaid phone there and use that?

 

[zerocool84]

I would just use a prepaid phone. No worring about your phone getting lost or stolen but since you're obviously Pilipino, they probably won't steal from you.

 

[Michael]

Unless you have an unlocked iphone, you can't just use any sim.

The Philippines has a decent cell network and a reasonable number of wi-fi spots (assuming you're in a major city or tourist area). The roaming charges will kill you if you use the phone and it isn't unlocked so you can use a local sim.

I tend to buy a used GSM phone and just pick up prepaid sims for the places I visit.

Michael

 

[pm]

What Michael said.

If you use your AT&T plan, the rates are excessive. But if your iPhone is unlocked then I'd definitely recommend buying a local SIM and putting that in. I spent the last month roaming around Europe with my iPhone and I used several prepaid SIMs and they all worked great. EDGE is markedly faster over there too compared to T-Mobile in the US. Pandora didn't work - it saw that I was on a EU IP address and blocked me.... but everything else worked well and it was nice listening to NPR over there to catch up on the news.

If your iPhone is locked, then I would recommend just getting a prepaid phone and using that.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Anyone have any experience with what provider I can use that has unlimited data plan/texting and minimum minutes for like a month?

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: Michael
Unless you have an unlocked iphone, you can't just use any sim.

The Philippines has a decent cell network and a reasonable number of wi-fi spots (assuming you're in a major city or tourist area). The roaming charges will kill you if you use the phone and it isn't unlocked so you can use a local sim.

I tend to buy a used GSM phone and just pick up prepaid sims for the places I visit.

Michael

+1

You can pick up a phone from a pawn shop for 1500php. Smart and Globe are the two main providers, although have always used Globe.