Mobile Phone SIM

@gjhardie You can and may be better outside the airport

This appears to be a good reference:

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I am looking to obtain a SIM for one of the 3 local mobile phone operators. Does anyone know if it is easy to do this at the airport on arrival?
-@gjhardie

Yes you can get them at the airport just walk out the terminal and there are heaps of choices, Viettel, Vinaphone, and Mobiphone are all good for just about anywhere you go, is helpful to get 4g data with it so you can use your maps app to navigate around.

(If phone is unlocked)

@gjhardie I flew into Saigon few weeks ago and it is pretty easy at the airport. Took me about 10 minutes and they did all the hard work. I'm both satisfied and not with Vietnammobile. I get a lot of spam messages about services but the data is supposedly unlimited. Definitely does not work as well as Viettel in my experiences around Hanoi. I only have two weeks left before I go back home to Cambodia so I am not gonna change things. Wifi is all over here anyways.

Thanks All!  Went with Wintel in the end, High Speed unlimited.  The only thing that I forgot was the ability to tether...will definitely add that next time.

@gjhardie Excellent. Maybe you can update us with your experience with Wintel if you have time. I have never used this provider.

@redislandar I found the service to be very good.  I suspect it piggy backs off of one of the other main stream providers (a bit like giffgaff in the UK does with O2)...which would explain why I could not setup personal hotspot on my iPhone.  I used the phone in Cam Ranh, Cam Lam, Nang Trang, Hanoi, Haiphong and Hailong, with good reception throughout.  That said, when I return, I will want a provider that allows me to configure "personal hotspot".  Before arriving I exchange my physical SIM for an eSIM so I could still receive calls and texts from anyone trying to contact me on my UK mobile number...this freed up the physical slot for the Vietnamese SIM I procured at the airport. 

Yesterday I got a new 5G sim for my local phone at a Viettel store in Hội An.

1 year of unlimited data: ₫1,080,000 VNĐ/$45.39 USD

(₫90,000 VNĐ/$3.78 USD per month)

with a one-time sim startup charge of ₫150,000 VNĐ plus (optional/my choice) ₫100,000 VNĐ for calls/texts, which will last me a long time since I use Zalo/Messenger/WhatsApp for virtually all calls and messages here.

Nothing I've used here is better than Viettel.

@OceanBeach92107 Thats good knowledge. I was told there was no such thing as a sim that lasted longer than 1 month. I got mine for mobifone from Dien May Xanh and we have to physically go into the store every month and recharge. I specifically complained that this seems just odd and there must be a better way but we were told this is it and the only way lol. Another gripe is the fact once you stop recharging the phone number disapears. I find that extremely odd. My wife's family phone numbers change every time we come home. Its gotten weird as everyone has 4-5-6 facebook accounts becasue they just create a new account when they get a new sim which is also odd. LOL maybe thats just my experience but what you did sounds way, way better.

Edit: Maybe I am limited to 1 month because of my visa? There was some issues when I bought a sim and something to do with the fact I was on a 5 year visa exemption and not with a TRC.

@OceanBeach92107 Thats good knowledge. I was told there was no such thing as a sim that lasted longer than 1 month. I got mine for mobifone from Dien May Xanh and we have to physically go into the store every month and recharge. I specifically complained that this seems just odd and there must be a better way but we were told this is it and the only way lol. Another gripe is the fact once you stop recharging the phone number disapears. I find that extremely odd. My wife's family phone numbers change every time we come home. Its gotten weird as everyone has 4-5-6 facebook accounts becasue they just create a new account when they get a new sim which is also odd. LOL maybe thats just my experience but what you did sounds way, way better.
Edit: Maybe I am limited to 1 month because of my visa? There was some issues when I bought a sim and something to do with the fact I was on a 5 year visa exemption and not with a TRC.
-@jrharvey

It's possible that they aren't letting people on Evisas do anything more than 30 days now (I'm on 3 year TRC, but they said they didn't need to see it).

Prior to this, I did the same thing I did yesterday with Vinapone service.

The trick seems to be buying at an official company store or at the local headquarters office.

My first sim here in 2018 was a Vinapone "world plan" with a certain amount of free international phone & text minutes good for the first 30 days, plus a limited amount of data.

Once I paired that with a new Vietnam Samsung phone I was able to go into any cell phone store or use a scratch off card from the local grocery store or have a girlfriend use her phone to add more money to my account and keep using that phone number as long as I didn't zero out the balance.

It's much more expensive that way, as I was spending about ₫500,000 VNĐ every 6 weeks to 2 months to cover mostly data usage.

I'm sure there's some version of those tourist sims still available.

I'm pretty sure the minimum on a plan like mine is 6 months, so I'd recommend people going into the corporate store of their choice and asking to get that type of long-term sim plan (bring passport).

...Definitely does not work as well as Viettel in my experiences around Hanoi. I only have two weeks left before I go back home to Cambodia so I am not gonna change things. Wifi is all over here anyways.
-@mpmilestogo

A main reason I chose Viettel:

My wife who's with Viettel unlimited on her iPhone 5 ALWAYS has a data signal ANYWHERE we go in Vietnam.

I've stopped asking her if she needs the WiFi password I see on the walls in restaurants because she never, ever uses it.

I've been hotspotting off of her for about six months whenever we travel, and her signal easily takes care of both of us.

Edit: Maybe I am limited to 1 month because of my visa? There was some issues when I bought a sim and something to do with the fact I was on a 5 year visa exemption and not with a TRC.
-@jrharvey

With the 6 month permission to stay on your 5-year VEC, I would think you shouldn't have any problem getting a 6-month plan

...Definitely does not work as well as Viettel in my experiences around Hanoi. I only have two weeks left before I go back home to Cambodia so I am not gonna change things. Wifi is all over here anyways.
-@mpmilestogo

A main reason I chose Viettel:

My wife who's with Viettel unlimited on her iPhone 5 ALWAYS has a data signal ANYWHERE we go in Vietnam.

I've stopped asking her if she needs the WiFi password I see on the walls in restaurants because she never, ever uses it.

I've been hotspotting off of her for about six months whenever we travel, and her signal easily takes care of both of us.
-@OceanBeach92107

iPhone 5? She won't be able to use WhatsApp then!

iPhone 5? She won't be able to use WhatsApp then!
-@SimCityAT

My bad.

Not sure where I got that.

She has an iPhone Xs (2018) running iOS 16.2

@OceanBeach92107 Thats good knowledge. I was told there was no such thing as a sim that lasted longer than 1 month. I got mine for mobifone from Dien May Xanh and we have to physically go into the store every month and recharge. I specifically complained that this seems just odd and there must be a better way but we were told this is it and the only way lol. Another gripe is the fact once you stop recharging the phone number disapears. I find that extremely odd. My wife's family phone numbers change every time we come home. Its gotten weird as everyone has 4-5-6 facebook accounts becasue they just create a new account when they get a new sim which is also odd. LOL maybe thats just my experience but what you did sounds way, way better.
Edit: Maybe I am limited to 1 month because of my visa? There was some issues when I bought a sim and something to do with the fact I was on a 5 year visa exemption and not with a TRC.
-@jrharvey

It's possible that they aren't letting people on Evisas do anything more than 30 days now (I'm on 3 year TRC, but they said they didn't need to see it).

Prior to this, I did the same thing I did yesterday with Vinapone service.

The trick seems to be buying at an official company store or at the local headquarters office.

My first sim here in 2018 was a Vinapone "world plan" with a certain amount of free international phone & text minutes good for the first 30 days, plus a limited amount of data.

Once I paired that with a new Vietnam Samsung phone I was able to go into any cell phone store or use a scratch off card from the local grocery store or have a girlfriend use her phone to add more money to my account and keep using that phone number as long as I didn't zero out the balance.

It's much more expensive that way, as I was spending about ₫500,000 VNĐ every 6 weeks to 2 months to cover mostly data usage.

I'm sure there's some version of those tourist sims still available.

I'm pretty sure the minimum on a plan like mine is 6 months, so I'd recommend people going into the corporate store of their choice and asking to get that type of long-term sim plan (bring passport).
-@OceanBeach92107

First off please excuse my ignorance on these sort of things but I have a question

I have had the same SIM & telephone number in my name for at least 5 years with MOBI & it gets topped up (90k) automatically every month from my Sacombank Account. I have been on the 30 days e visa now for 4 months & no problems so far.

If I was to change to the same plan with Vietel would I still have the same telephone number? & would I be opening up a can of worms by changing seeing as I am now on the e visa thing?

@OceanBeach92107 Thats good knowledge. I was told there was no such thing as a sim that lasted longer than 1 month. I got mine for mobifone from Dien May Xanh and we have to physically go into the store every month and recharge. I specifically complained that this seems just odd and there must be a better way but we were told this is it and the only way lol. Another gripe is the fact once you stop recharging the phone number disapears. I find that extremely odd. My wife's family phone numbers change every time we come home. Its gotten weird as everyone has 4-5-6 facebook accounts becasue they just create a new account when they get a new sim which is also odd. LOL maybe thats just my experience but what you did sounds way, way better.
Edit: Maybe I am limited to 1 month because of my visa? There was some issues when I bought a sim and something to do with the fact I was on a 5 year visa exemption and not with a TRC.
-@jrharvey

It's possible that they aren't letting people on Evisas do anything more than 30 days now (I'm on 3 year TRC, but they said they didn't need to see it).

Prior to this, I did the same thing I did yesterday with Vinapone service.

The trick seems to be buying at an official company store or at the local headquarters office.

My first sim here in 2018 was a Vinapone "world plan" with a certain amount of free international phone & text minutes good for the first 30 days, plus a limited amount of data.

Once I paired that with a new Vietnam Samsung phone I was able to go into any cell phone store or use a scratch off card from the local grocery store or have a girlfriend use her phone to add more money to my account and keep using that phone number as long as I didn't zero out the balance.

It's much more expensive that way, as I was spending about ₫500,000 VNĐ every 6 weeks to 2 months to cover mostly data usage.

I'm sure there's some version of those tourist sims still available.

I'm pretty sure the minimum on a plan like mine is 6 months, so I'd recommend people going into the corporate store of their choice and asking to get that type of long-term sim plan (bring passport).
-@OceanBeach92107

First off please excuse my ignorance on these sort of things but I have a question

I have had the same SIM & telephone number in my name for at least 5 years with MOBI & it gets topped up (90k) automatically every month from my Sacombank Account. I have been on the 30 days e visa now for 4 months & no problems so far.
If I was to change to the same plan with Vietel would I still have the same telephone number? & would I be opening up a can of worms by changing seeing as I am now on the e visa thing?
-@goodolboy

I tried to "port" my Vinaphone number to Viettel and couldn't do it (not allowed) so I'm guessing the same would be true for Mobi.

So since you essentially wouldn't be switching anything but would simply be starting a new plan on a new number with Viettel, you probably just need to bring along Miss My and your passport to get it done.

Don't cancel your Mobi number until you know for sure you can successfully open the Viettel account.

It also "might" have made a difference for me that I was buying a new 5G phone at the same time.

Alternately, if you can't open a plan like mine they might be willing to open up a plan like the one you have with Mobi, figuring that as long as you have a bank account here you will be able to top off the sim monthly.

Apologies for not being able to give you a more definite answer.

@OceanBeach92107 Thats good knowledge. I was told there was no such thing as a sim that lasted longer than 1 month. I got mine for mobifone from Dien May Xanh and we have to physically go into the store every month and recharge. I specifically complained that this seems just odd and there must be a better way but we were told this is it and the only way lol. Another gripe is the fact once you stop recharging the phone number disapears. I find that extremely odd. My wife's family phone numbers change every time we come home. Its gotten weird as everyone has 4-5-6 facebook accounts becasue they just create a new account when they get a new sim which is also odd. LOL maybe thats just my experience but what you did sounds way, way better.
Edit: Maybe I am limited to 1 month because of my visa? There was some issues when I bought a sim and something to do with the fact I was on a 5 year visa exemption and not with a TRC.
-@jrharvey

It's possible that they aren't letting people on Evisas do anything more than 30 days now (I'm on 3 year TRC, but they said they didn't need to see it).

Prior to this, I did the same thing I did yesterday with Vinapone service.

The trick seems to be buying at an official company store or at the local headquarters office.

My first sim here in 2018 was a Vinapone "world plan" with a certain amount of free international phone & text minutes good for the first 30 days, plus a limited amount of data.

Once I paired that with a new Vietnam Samsung phone I was able to go into any cell phone store or use a scratch off card from the local grocery store or have a girlfriend use her phone to add more money to my account and keep using that phone number as long as I didn't zero out the balance.

It's much more expensive that way, as I was spending about ₫500,000 VNĐ every 6 weeks to 2 months to cover mostly data usage.

I'm sure there's some version of those tourist sims still available.

I'm pretty sure the minimum on a plan like mine is 6 months, so I'd recommend people going into the corporate store of their choice and asking to get that type of long-term sim plan (bring passport).
-@OceanBeach92107

First off please excuse my ignorance on these sort of things but I have a question

I have had the same SIM & telephone number in my name for at least 5 years with MOBI & it gets topped up (90k) automatically every month from my Sacombank Account. I have been on the 30 days e visa now for 4 months & no problems so far.
If I was to change to the same plan with Vietel would I still have the same telephone number? & would I be opening up a can of worms by changing seeing as I am now on the e visa thing?
-@goodolboy

I tried to "port" my Vinaphone number to Viettel and couldn't do it (not allowed) so I'm guessing the same would be true for Mobi.

So since you essentially wouldn't be switching anything but would simply be starting a new plan on a new number with Viettel, you probably just need to bring along Miss My and your passport to get it done.

Don't cancel your Mobi number until you know for sure you can successfully open the Viettel account.

It also "might" have made a difference for me that I was buying a new 5G phone at the same time.

Alternately, if you can't open a plan like mine they might be willing to open up a plan like the one you have with Mobi, figuring that as long as you have a bank account here you will be able to top off the sim monthly.

Apologies for not being able to give you a more definite answer.
-@OceanBeach92107

Thanks for info OB, will just leave as is I think too complicated for me to change the number as these days every bank account or investment I have even outside Vietnam rely on sending OTP & transaction alerts etc by text to my MOBI number.

Yesterday I got a new 5G sim for my local phone at a Viettel store in Hội An.
1 year of unlimited data: ₫1,080,000 VNĐ/$45.39 USD

(₫90,000 VNĐ/$3.78 USD per month)

with a one-time sim startup charge of ₫150,000 VNĐ plus (optional/my choice) ₫100,000 VNĐ for calls/texts, which will last me a long time since I use Zalo/Messenger/WhatsApp for virtually all calls and messages here.

Nothing I've used here is better than Viettel.
-@OceanBeach92107

Sounds much like what I got.

And yes, agree that Viettel provides superior coverage.

Yesterday I got a new 5G sim for my local phone at a Viettel store in Hội An.
1 year of unlimited data: ₫1,080,000 VNĐ/$45.39 USD

(₫90,000 VNĐ/$3.78 USD per month)

with a one-time sim startup charge of ₫150,000 VNĐ plus (optional/my choice) ₫100,000 VNĐ for calls/texts, which will last me a long time since I use Zalo/Messenger/WhatsApp for virtually all calls and messages here.

Nothing I've used here is better than Viettel.
-@OceanBeach92107

Sounds much like what I got.
And yes, agree that Viettel provides superior coverage.
-@Aidan in HCMC

Thanks for that link. I couldn't remember where I'd seen you post that.

I'm copying the text here because it seems on topic as a valid use for a sim card and perhaps an application that's not common knowledge to a lot of people.

I remember first trying that years ago (3G) and the results were miserable.

I could make a Wi-Fi connection to my desktop & laptop but nothing would really work (inadequate data stream).

Since the advent of 4G technology, I've had success using that method in the USA as far back as 2018, when I was doing my grand finale criss-cross continental auto tour before departing for Việt Nam.

I'll try using it later today streaming YouTube & Amazon Prime and let everyone know if my sim passes the test.

(copy of your post)

Got some help with our very slow internet here. Apologies if this seems elementary to experienced phone jockeys, but not owning a phone of my own I had no idea this could be done. I truly am a phone noob. SWMBO visited Viettel a couple of days ago, and purchased a plan which includes unlimited data. Initial cost was 300K for a new SIM card (she now has two installed in her phone), and thereafter 90K per month. The new SIM is dedicated to data, and when tethered to my computer, gives a decent enough baud rate. Ookla shows ~16mbps down, and ~15mbps up, Nowhere near as fast as we are used to (~50 down, 40 up) but a heck of a lot better than what I've been experiencing lately. It is also consistent at that speed throughout the day, showing no peak-user-time slow downs. Hope this is of help to other phone novices. -@Aidan in HCMC