best cell phone plan

[rid]

Hi,

I just arrived to HK and I need to get a HK cell number.

Can you please suggest among operators and cell plans?

I only need a very basic plan (no internet needed) with nothing extra. I will only use it for calls and sms.

Thank you

[PDLM]

Firstly, you should buy the phone connection and your international calls separately. For the phone connection do you want prepaid or postpaid?

In any case my impression is that the current consensus is that Smartone/Vodafone seems to be most solid network at the moment. CSL was good but recently changed out their network equipment and the whole thing is badly broken now. Smartone probably be won't be quite the cheapest, but unless you are extraordinarily price sensitive it will be close (within HK$10 or $20 per month of the absolute cheapest).

For IDD (international direct dial) calls there are hundreds of possible providers. Which is best for you will depend on where you plan to call, and how often. (And also to some extent on whether you make long or short calls since some carriers round to a greater or lesser extent to others). Some carriers also have "all you can eat" prepaid monthly schemes covering certain destinations (e.g. HGC) which may make sense if you consistently make a lot of calls to those places, but otherwise they are post-paid with no subscription - you just pay for what you use. People often sign up for more than one IDD supplier to get the best rates and to get resilience in case one suppliers network has problems. Commonly used IDD schemes include 0060 and IDT1529. I have both of those and default to 1529 since I find they have the best quality on my primary route (Philippines) and very solid on the others (US, UK, etc). IDT1529 also gives you a $28 credit just for signing up, so you can try it out for free.

[caipiroska]

I still use the IDT calling cards, namely "Dragon Card" where I can get a 50$ face value card for 38$ at my local dealer. This gives me around 4.5 h speaking time when I call e.g. German landlines from my mobile, which makes it 0.14 HKD per minute compared to 0.28 HKD/min offered on the IDT1529 website (Thanks PDLM for the link).

The only inconvenience is that I have to buy the cards from time to time and I still only know very few shops that carry those cards.

[PDLM]

Yes - calling cards also work, particularly if you tend to make long calls rather than short ones. They do have a more complex tariff structure with, potentially, connection charges, weekly maintenance fees, and various other stuff, but if they work for your calling pattern then that's great.

[kenneth.]

do u need internet as well?
there is a internet bundle plan in pccw which u only pay 69 dollar more then u can get like 2000 free minutes

[rid]

thank you for the information.

In fact, I do not need to call abroad as skype does the job.

Therefore, a simple cell phone plan will be enough.

[PDLM]

In fact, I do not need to call abroad as skype does the job.

You are aware that Skype Out calls are often more expensive than proper phone calls?

[rid]

I don't use the skype out calls as I only speak with my family/friends with usual skype vs skype calls

[Rob2020]

But.. If you're a heavy user, Skype have some practically unlimited monthly packages which are cheaper than regular phone calls.
Only for heavy users though.

[HKBOB]

I use skype world wide plan - it is great for all my calls, however, I am looking for a better plan for my cell phone calls in Hong Kong and when I am in China. I spend three days a week on Mainland.

Any ideas on the cell phone?

bob