Cell Phones in Korea

I leave for Korea in less than a week. Leading up to my trip, I joined a couple groups on Facebook about the Yonsei Korean Language Institute and I made some contacts who will hopefully turn into some cool friends. What to do about getting a cell phone seems like a recurring conversation.

One of the things that you must have when you're in Korea is a cell phone. I know it sounds like peer pressure, but it really is hard to connect to people without a cell phone and public phones can be hard to come by sometimes.

So what does a foreigner do to get a phone in Korea?

First, you must know a little about cell phone network infrastructure: Most of the world uses GSM cell phone networks, which uses SIM cards. SIM cards hold all your subscriber information, can be removed from the handset, and theoretically you can switch SIM cards around in multiple handsets without changing phone

numbers. I say theoretically because in order to successfully switch SIM cards around in different handsets, you've got to have unlocked handsets. The difference between locked and unlocked is that GSM providers normally sell phones that are "locked" onto their specific GSM network (i.e. AT&T or T-Mobile). Unlocked phones can be used on any GSM network. Unlocked handsets are usually more expensive than locked handsets that you get when you subscribe to a provider. Don't worry too much though, you can usually unlock your handset by calling your provider and punching some codes in your phone. They might charge a small fee for unlocking your phone, but once it's unlocked, you can use different SIM cards in your handset. GSM phones are convenient for world travel because you can either get a prepaid SIM card in the country you're visiting and use your own handset or you can rent a handset and use your regular SIM card.

CDMA, on the other hand, is a different type of network entirely. It is not as widespread around the world as GSM, but it is the most widely used in the US and Korea. CDMA providers sell phones that are locked and it's very difficult or impossible to unlock them. CDMA does not use SIM cards to store the subscriber's information, instead the information is stored directly on the handset. In order to travel internationally with a CDMA phone, you should contact your provider to make sure there is a roaming agreement between

your provider and a provider in the country you're visiting and find out what fees are like and what features will not work when you're there. For example, Verizon and Sprint have roaming agreements with Korean providers, but while you might be able to send/receive text messages using Verizon, you can't on Sprint.

I imagine Korea only really has a GSM network in order to please foreigners because it's the most widely used type of network in the world.

There are many options now available to foreigners visiting Korea.

First of all, there are convenient mobile phone rental kiosks in the airport. There are at least three companies that rent phones to foreigners and they have several options for rentals. You can rent a prepaid phone, have a temporary account which you will pay at the end of your trip, or you can even rent a Korean GSM handset which you could put your own SIM card in. Here is a site from the Korea Tourism Organization that will lead you to the rental companies. If you make a reservation online, they usually give you a discount.

If you have a family member or friend in Korea, it might even be a better option for you to get them to put you on their plan, like adding a line.

The other option is to somehow get a Korean SIM card and put into your unlocked GSM handset. This likely involves getting an actual contract with the cell phone provider, and I'm not real sure how that works because when one of my friends tried to buy a SIM card, she was unsuccessful.

I have Sprint (CDMA) service in the States. Last time I visited Korea, I was only there for about a month and a half and I didn't know anybody there, so renting a phone was my best option. I could use my BlackBerry Curve from home there with no big problems, but it was expensive to make calls and use data, so I only really used it when I had to. My Korean phone was just a simple phone and it cost me about 2,000 won a day, which included rental fee of about 1,500 won and the little bit that I used the

phone for calls and te

xts. This time around, I'm going to rent a prepaid phone for about 50,000 won plus how much ever I want to prepay. I have an Android smartphone now (the awesome HTC Evo 4G, pictured left) that I can use to get on WiFi networks, so I can hopefully keep my Sprint bill from giving me a heart attack.

At any rate, it pays to do a bit of research before you get to Korea.