moblie phones

Kia ora
I'm off to Vietnam in sept, and will be travelling by myself. Want to be able to txt or ph home to New Zealand while i am away. I currently have a work moblie phone, and may not want to be taking work calls while away; so wanted to know if anyone had hired or bought a moblie while in Vietnam and rough costs to do so?
Any suggestions?
Nicky

You can buy a second hand phone in Vietnam for less than $50USD that will work for you.

BUT, phones are pretty expensive in Vietnam compared to other places. You may want to consider buying a phone before your arrival. We bought the cheapest phone available and it was 850,000 dong (about $60 US).

Bring your own phone and buy a SIM card in Vietnam. Simple.

Why not just forget the phone and use email instead? I believe you can also call internationally at any post office - is this true?

#2, you need to shop around. I've seen phones as cheap as $30 in HCMC.

The cheapest way to ring overseas from Vietnam is to go to any internet cafe, and buy an internet phone card. 80,000DVN ($7-50 Aust) gives 3 hours of phone to Australia.

Hey Nicky

Y not do as I did, leave yer sim card at home in NZ, pick up a new one in Vietnam with your own local number then you can call or txt to your hearts content, enjoy, yu will love Vietnam

Bisbee-

Either things have changed in the past year, or things are much cheaper in HCMC (than Hanoi). We shopped around, and for a new phone, that was the best price. Alas. And then I put it in the washing machine -- amazingly it still works!

I wasn't talking about a new phone. That's why my original post said, "second hand". Really no reason to buy a new phone in VN. Plenty of good second hand phones to be had.

Anyone know where they sell these sim cards? I understand that these cards are prepaid but in what amounts do they come in? Lastly, I'll be using in to check in with family back in the U.S and was wondering how much it would be to call per minute. Thanks for the help folks!

@YelloFello

Any shop selling mobile phones with the sign MobiFone/VinaPhone or Viettel can help.

Check these websites for details:
MobiFone
VinaPhone
Viettel

Calling rate from US is around 10-15Ct/min.

Thanks for the info. RB! Is there a difference in service between the 3? Which one do you recommend?

I've used Mobifone for the last 2.5 years with no complaints. Can't remember having a dropped call and they have good access to the internet.

They all operatve a GSM 900 network each. MobiFone is a swedish-vietnamese joint venture. VinaPhone is a state run company and Viettel is a business arm of the military.
I would go for MobiFone. They have the first mobile network in Vietnam and from my experience best reliability/coverage. MobiFone is a roaming partner of Cingular, so you can probably page home for 0.16$/msg.
If you want to call home from your mobile, get a calling card. The rate is approx. 0.12$/min

nicky we are heading there from NZ in 3 weeks and my wife asked NZ Telecom the same kind of question and they are loaning us (at no cost but the calls) a phone that we can use there. While calls will be expensive to NZ txting isn't.