@buij77
Here's a long message I sent to some people yesterday about using an iPhone 4S in Vietnam:
""Genuine" Micro-SIMs (ie not cut down from larger ones) are currently ONLY available from Vinaphone.
Mobifone don't have them (nor do they have any of their 128K SuperSIMs which might also work after cutting). I have tried 4 different Mobifone offices. Over the last week, Mobifone staff have told me lies, ignored me, sent me from office to office, and generally behaved as if customers are not important to their business.
Viettel don't have Micro-SIMs either (at the moment?). They do sell the iPhone 4, so (according to Apple) they should be issuing genuine Micro-SIMs. I have heard from two people that you can get the phone to work on Viettel if you get the right kind of SIM (128k?) and then cut it down ...
A new Micro-SIM from Vinaphone (for a pre-paid service) costs only 77,000 VND. I think it is 52,000 VND for the first (normal) SIM which gives you a phone number, and 25,000 VND to replace that SIM with a Micro-SIM (yes, a normal SIM is wasted in this exchange, but Micro-SIMs can only be issued as replacements for normal SIMs).
You can keep your existing number only if you are with Vinaphone. There is no number porting between carriers in Vietnam. Some carriers have multiple number ranges and they also will not allow porting between those ranges!
You can use the same Vinaphone Micro-SIM with the iPad 3G model. I am not sure if there are iPad issues with SIMs from other carriers.
The only Vinaphone shop I am sure will carry the Micro-SIM is the big one on Nguyen Du in Ho Chi Minh City. I did try others, but they didn't know what I was talking about.
There is an iPhone/iPad specialist in the store (or at least she was there when I went in). She also helped me with a sheet full of details on the various data plans. You should definitely get onto the data plans, because the prices are significantly lower than the standard data rates. And yes, you can use the data plans with a prepaid service.
I will mention at this stage that Vinaphone is the third largest mobile phone network after Viettel and Mobifone. The word on the street is that Viettel have much better data service ... "
Sadly for me, I can't change carriers to Mobifone without a lot of grief. I've had the same phone number for 10 years and I'm not able to change it for now ... :-(
Anyway @buij77, make sure you try the genuine Vinaphone Micro-SIM before you go to the hassle of changing the phone. I think you'll find that the phone is fine on their network if you get the right SIM.
Apple, we are all getting tired of this nonsense. Fix it!
