Cell phone plans?

[deenl]

Greetings! I am one of the lucky who will be heading to Korea in a few months for a (at least) one year teaching stint! One question I have been interested in is a cell phone plan - that is, is it worth it and if so, which one?

I will be coming with a significant other, so one issue is keeping in contact if we get separated or have different teaching schedules. Another thing we have discussed is smart-phones - neither of us has one now, but of course all of our friends do. One really handy thing is the GPS/map feature that every new phone has and we think that could potentially be very beneficial in a new country.

What does everyone else do for such a situation? Did you bring a pre-existing phone/plan from the States? If so, did you research all of the companies and plans for the most efficient plan money-wise? Smart phone, or just a regular phone?

How about Korean phones/providers? I have heard horror stories of exorbitant fees, poor service, etc for rentals, and of course we don't want that.

Thank you!

[ancruz93]

phones are really really important, not just to communicate with your signif other, but also your korean teachers. sometimes i need to call my co-teacher and vice versa.

i didn't get a contract phone 'cause i heard that they were expensive and that you need to sign a 2 year contract. but some friends of mine have contract phones for only 1 year. they say it's expensive, but they do have nice phones.

my phone is a 'pay as you go' phone: i can't rememeber how much i bought it for, though. it was cheap, i remember that. after you buy one though, you "buy" minutes. when you are running low on minutes you receive a text telling you to "re-charge" your minutes. i always buy 10,000 Won worth of minutes and it lasts me about 2 months. to re-charge my phone i go to SK telecom store and hand over my phone and ask "re-charge?" and mime calling someone. it works for the most part.

i guess i lucked out in buying a 'pay as you go' phone: someone was selling them nearby when i was doing orientation, so it was really easy. as for finding one on your own, i'm not too sure where you can go. maybe the SK telecom store? or ask your co-teacher.

your phone from home won't work unless it has some sort of special chip in it. look up what coverage you have and also korean phone info online. i can't remember what the requirments were for phones to work in korea, but the two US phones i tried failed

[torstrom]

If you are going to be working at a public school your co-teacher will help you with getting a phone. If you already have their contact information you can get to know them a little ahead of your arrival and ask them questions about such things.  If you want a smart phone you will have to pay out of pocket and it will probably cost you a few hundred dollars.

[be the ball]

it's very easy to get a 1 year contract for a phone here in Korea and they are not anymore expensive then back home, and possibly much much cheaper depending on how much you use them.

If you are working public school, have your co-teacher help you once you get here.

If at a hagwon, have your hagwon boss help you and/or another foreigner at your school.

Nobody I know uses a phone from home, way too expensive and a totally different technology.

Don't sweat it, everyone gets a phone here, its easy.

As far as plans go, wait until you are here, the offers change weekly, if not daily

[lbaltus]

Kinda on this note:

I brought my iphone from home. It's unlocked to work with any carrier. I'm kinda hoping I'll be able to use it over here (I'm in Yeongam, outside of Mokpo). From what I've heard, I'll be allowed to use it, but some carriers might charge an "Inspection fee" of 200k Won. Has anyone else tried to do this?

[Man-of-Iksan]

I have an iPhone and it does work here on my home network. If I can receive / send calls / texts,, so no reason why it wouldnt work here with a Korean sim. I wouldnt have a 200k 'inspection' fee, none of that!

[truongt]

I was told that we could even get cell phones/internet until after we got our ARCs! But I also brought an unlocked smartphone from home. I'm not sure if it will work or not,though; I put my Chinese SIM in there, and all I got was an error message. However, this might just be because I bought the SIM three years ago and it may have expired.

[jehall]

All the English teachers in my area get by with pay as you go. A used phone on average costs 40 000 - 50 000 won and then you can get by on 5 000 won per month. 

Now on 5 000 a month you probably can't have a lot of long conversations, but I make plenty of 1 minute calls (and send lots of texts) just figuring out where and when to meet people and 5000 is enough. No plan that I know of will be as low as 5 bucks a month so you might not need it. 

[Koreak]

From my experience, a pay as you go phone can really drain the funds quickly. Especially if you plan to call home.  (However, Skype can solve that problem)  When you first get to Korea many schools will give you the previous teacher's phone. (Sometimes the school will try to get you to pay the previous owner's out-standing phone bills, so check carefully on your first few bills)  I have never worked for an EPIK program so I don't know if the school keeps the previous teacher's phone. 

If you have a very nice co-teacher they may also sign up the phone in their name. The stores say that the contract for a Korean is the same as a Foreigner teacher, but I don't believe that.  I have had some expensive bills using the same amount of minutes with the same phone as a Korean friend. 

Hope this helps

[ogle5431]

The stores say that the contract for a Korean is the same as a Foreigner teacher, but I don't believe that.  I have had some expensive bills using the same amount of minutes with the same phone as a Korean friend. 

I've had 4 different phones in Korea, both pay as you go and contract.  I've never experienced paying more than a Korean.  I recently picked up the iPhone 4 (you do NOT have to pay out of pocket, as someone mentioned) and I'm paying exactly the same per month as my Korean girlfriend.  I signed up for my plan by myself and she got hers a couple of days later.  Sorry to hear if you had a bad experience, did you go to one of those independent sellers like you find in the subway stations?  I can't imagine you would have that problem in one of the proper stores.

OP- If you plan on using your phone to keep in touch with your SO, there are various plans you can choose from that allow you to add limited numbers for a discounted fee.  I used one last year and my total monthly bill was about 30,000.  I use my phone a lot and found it was much cheaper than using the pay as you go phone.

[Davey]

Kinda on this note:

I brought my iphone from home. It's unlocked to work with any carrier. I'm kinda hoping I'll be able to use it over here (I'm in Yeongam, outside of Mokpo). From what I've heard, I'll be allowed to use it, but some carriers might charge an "Inspection fee" of 200k Won. Has anyone else tried to do this?

There will be a fee, yes. People who say an unlocked iPhone will work without hassle and/or a fee are only going by theory.

In practice, the network will recognise/recognize your phone as foreign and will thus reject it. What you have to do go to some place that can change the code on your phone (called IMEI number) so that it's recognized by the network as a Korean phone, not a foreign one. Again, it doesn't matter if your iPhone 4 is "unlocked"--the IMEI on it is foreign to the Korean network (because it was bought in another country) and thus must be changed to a Korean IMEI. Incidentally, doing this will void the warranty.

I don;t exactly know how much it costs to change the IMEI, but I heard it's AT LEAST 200,000W as well.


 

[kwartas]

No phone for 1year4months now. It's awesome, skype, gmail & fbook to organize a big event...

[Cranberryopah]

http://recruiterinkorea.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/phone-services-in-korea-international-call
This may be helpful. Local and Intern'l calling instructions. Some info on retailers from a local recruiter's blog.

[confusedsafferinkorea]

Once you have your ARC just go to KT and they give you a free phone and a contract for 12,000 won a month plus calls. My wife has this and it is really cheap. Forget about trying to use your fancy phone here to make and receive calls on Korean network, you can make and receive calls on your home network (roaming) but your phone won't work with a Korean Sim (and most Korean phones don't use sims anyway). Korea uses the WCDMA and not GSM system and thus a 3G phone will pick up your home network, provided they have an agreement with one of the Korean Networks, but you cannot use a Korean sim in a Non-Korean phone.

I bought a phone here that is both WCMA and GSM and despite the seller swearing high and low that it will work abroad, when I asked the manufacturer they just laughed at me and told me that I had been conned and that no Korean phone works with a foreign sim. Don't be conned into buying a fancy smartphone here unless you are happy to dump it in the garbage can when you leave.

[rilakkuma]

i have the 12 000 won contract with SKT and was told that that's the basic fee to just keep the phone line. everything you use will add up but i have no idea how much it is to send a sms or how much is it per min to make a call. If any of you uses this plan, can you please tell me the info? a friend of mine told me that incoming calls are free so regardless of how many min you talk on the phone, as long as you're receiving the call, you don't get charged. is this true for all the phone plans with all the service providers? anyone willing to shed light on this matter? thank you!

Once you have your ARC just go to KT and they give you a free phone and a contract for 12,000 won a month plus calls. My wife has this and it is really cheap. Forget about trying to use your fancy phone here to make and receive calls on Korean network, you can make and receive calls on your home network (roaming) but your phone won't work with a Korean Sim (and most Korean phones don't use sims anyway). Korea uses the WCDMA and not GSM system and thus a 3G phone will pick up your home network, provided they have an agreement with one of the Korean Networks, but you cannot use a Korean sim in a Non-Korean phone.

I bought a phone here that is both WCMA and GSM and despite the seller swearing high and low that it will work abroad, when I asked the manufacturer they just laughed at me and told me that I had been conned and that no Korean phone works with a foreign sim. Don't be conned into buying a fancy smartphone here unless you are happy to dump it in the garbage can when you leave.

[peasgoodnonsuch]

Basically all has been said about phone plans etc. I will add this:

It's possible to get a one year phone contract, but it's cheaper if you can sign one for 2-3 years. Of course you have to have your ARC which can take anywhere from 1-3 weeks to obtain.

Upon your arrival:
Skype has rental phones at the ICN airport that you can mail back to them after you get your real phone. It's not cheap, but it wasn't all that expensive either. For me, it was really important to have a phone for my first week or 2, so I was willing to pay. The people are really nice and will teach you how to use it. This subset of Skype is called S Roaming. Here's the site: http://www.skyperoaming.com/En/main/main.asp

Good luck~Korea's great!

[confusedsafferinkorea]

rilakkuma... no service provider charges your for incoming calls so don't worry about that. My wife is with SK and they charge about 18 won for a sms and not too sure about the cost of a call (can't remember) but they told us when we took out the contract and it was very low. I thinks it was about 150 won a minute.

So if you exercise restraint you can keep your total well below 30,000 won a month. I have a LG Telecom contract and I think you can get a free phone  but my package is 32,000 won a month and I get 200 minutes talk time and 100 text messages for that.

[rilakkuma]

Thanks for your information rlong! I appreciate that!

I signed up for a one-year contract with SK and I registered for auto payment but it didn't work and I got a call from them telling me to pay within 24 hours otherwise they'd cut my service. I had no idea what was going on and had to ask for my Korean co-teacher to help solve the problem. Apparently, the sales made a mistake so the auto payment failed. I was told that I hadn't paid from September to November. The total payment for these two months was 27 000 won. Reasonable I thought.

However, this month, my bill was 35 000 won but I swear I have not been using my phone heavily. Most of the calls are incoming. If my bill from Sept to Nov. was only 27 00 won, how can my November bill be 35 000 won? I can't read Korean...this is really causing me a lot of trouble...

rilakkuma... no service provider charges your for incoming calls so don't worry about that. My wife is with SK and they charge about 18 won for a sms and not too sure about the cost of a call (can't remember) but they told us when we took out the contract and it was very low. I thinks it was about 150 won a minute.

So if you exercise restraint you can keep your total well below 30,000 won a month. I have a LG Telecom contract and I think you can get a free phone  but my package is 32,000 won a month and I get 200 minutes talk time and 100 text messages for that.

[confusedsafferinkorea]

rikkauma... ask them for itemised billing for that month and check to see what is going on. That is the best advice I can think of. 

[Koradian]

I've learned that asking for help and the whole process of finding answers can, a lot of the time, be stressful and time consuming.

Crucial issues definitely need attention. Your phone bill will fluctuate from month to month. I wouldn't worry too much over an 8 dollar difference.