That’s it. I have taken the final step to becoming full-fledged phone addict.
A second number.
Why? Being in this business you have to give out your phone numbers to people you don’t really give a shit about calling, unless you need something from them like PRs and media lists.
I had been stupid enough to have only one number to give. And as a result, I either get constant SMS alerts throughout the day about nothing but promotion and news, or get a call from one of those people in odd hours like 10pm on a Saturday.
With a second phone, I can finally turn my phone off.
So I went to Jaymart on the Silom BTS station today and got myself the cheapest phone I could make myself use. There was a 790 baht Nokia but really I still have some dignity. I don’t think I’d want to be seen with a monochromed/monophonic phone in 21st century.
So I looked around and finally paid 1,000 baht for Samsung B110.
Samsung is a good brand for cheap yet chic phones. This one comes with a color screen, vibrating alert, speakerphone, polyphonic ringer, alarm and calculator. And that’s pretty much it. But hey that’s the whole point of having a second phone. It can also act as a reliable backup when the one with internet and camera fucks up on you.
I can’t believe it’s so easy and cheap for someone to own a mobile phone here. And we don’t have the contract bullshit like in the US either when you’re tied to a phone and a SIM for a specific time period. That’s ridiculous. The phone you can grab off any vendors and get a SIM with your cup of iced coffee at 7-11 and voila you have a working mobile phone.
I am now also a True Move user. I went with True as you can also get a wifi account with it by just sending an SMS. For non-True users, an hour of wifi session will cost you 150 baht. With a True Move SIM, you can get 1-day unlimited access for 120, or 90 baht if you wanna go by the hour. What a difference.
Now the thing with True Move SIM is that their promotion packages are a little bit off. There are 5-6 packages to choose from and each of them has some serious flaws. Like one package lets you have first 5 minutes at 50 satang — but then it’s only when you call other True numbers, and then there’s first minute for 25 satang and the next at whopping 1.50 baht. I mean who can talk on the phone for less than a minute! It’s humanly impossible. And then there are more bullshit like this so just I went for a simple 1 baht per minute deal. Since I’m going to be using this one to receive calls most of the time, I don’t need a fancy package.
One thing I have just learned as a pre-paid SIM newbie though–these things expire! If you don’t top up your account within an allocated time period the service will be cut off. And then there’s a separate SMS package that also expires every 30 days. This is so confusing.
Now I need to figure out how to import my work contacts to this new number–without using USB, Bluetooth, or a synchronization suite.
Back to manual I guess.