Buying a SIM card: the shortest straw has been pulled for you

A big help with adjusting to life in Taiwan is getting a mobile phone. It's one of the first steps to feeling a sense of belonging, a new phone # that starts with the #9 as do all Taiwanese cell #'s (as far as I can tell). Number nine...number nine...

I was able to get a loaner for myself through my company but it was a pain in the neck and I was hoping for a more independent solution for Shirley. Upon the suggestion of a Taiwanese colleague, Shirley found an old GSM phone from several years ago and brought it with her. GSM phones use what is called a SIM card to establish the network on which they communicate and the actual # that people will dial to call you. In many foreign countries you can buy prepaid SIM cards at the rail stations and airports and that ends up being the most cost effective way to use mobile service when travelling.

So we set out for the local 7-11 to buy a SIM card to get Shirley up and running. I went to the counter and asked if they had SIM cards. The first guy kinda laughed, which is more of a nervous reaction for Chinese than anything involving humor. He looked at the second guy and said something in Chinese. They asked if I spoke Chinese and when I simply said "No", guy #2 ran into the back to put guy #3 on the hook for handling the SIM card transaction. Reminds me of last week when I missed a meeting with my leadership team and they voted for me to be the main presenter to get ripped apart by the sector management team.

#3 grabs some paperwork and heads over to the i-bon machine which is like an ATM for various types of networked transaction such as, buying concert tickets. I knew I would need 2 forms of I.D. to buy a SIM card but I had no idea exactly how complicated the entore process would be. He photocopied my passport and ARC and then cut out the photocopies and pasted them on another form like paper dolls. I had to sign some forms and it as very critical what name I used regarding middle/first and sequence. The idea of nicknames seems to be misunderstood here, which is surprising since most use some phony Anglo name. So I often have confusion over Mike/Michael and whether or not I use my middle name.

After we got beyone the signature, he had to put in a local phone # into the machine, and while I have my own cell phone, we don't use a landline. He had a heck of a time figuring out how to get the phone # to be accepted in the i-bon. I hate phone #'s. Who screwed this system up a long time ago such that you can just have a # that you dial the same way no matter where you are? In Taiwan, the cell phone prefx is 9 if you are calling from a landline, or 09 if you are calling from a cell phone. I haven't even figured out how to dial internationall yet. I'm glad that Fring doesn't create such a hassle.

Eventually we got passed that screen and there was another signature and he had to fax something in to the SIM card security checker people or something, to ensure that I was not using the SIM card for....I don't know what. You'd think the U.S. would be like this but you can just walk into a Target and walk out with n activated Tracfone. We paid 10 bucks for the SIM card which included about an hour of airtime but most importantly, assigns you a # so you can have other people call you. Incoming voice and text in Taiwan is always free so it's a good value if you just want people to be able to get a hold of you.

We left with the SIM card and installed it into the phone and read the instructions which said that it would take up to 24 hours to be activated, assumedly for a security check period. The next questions was, "So what's the phone #?" We looked all over the packaging and there were several #'s that had enough digits to possibly be the phone #. That's another thing I hate, there isn't even a world standard for how many digits are in a phone #. I tried dialing a bunch of #'s and couldn't get the phone to ring but I suspect "within 24 hours" is pretty close to 23.99 hours. So next day we tried again, no ring. Then dialed out from the SIM card phone and were able to just use caller ID to find out the #. Now that I know the #, it's staring me right in the face on the front of the package. At least I passed the security check.

Getting a cell phone

First of all, this post will hopefully be beneficial for those with no clue about smartphones or how to get one in Taiwan. If you read Engadget all day long, go hang out at a bar in Redwood City waiting for an Apple employee to drop their iPhone 5.

I arrived here with my Verizon phone (LG Dare) from the States which was the hot thing 2 years ago which means it now has the sophistication of a paperweight. It actually works in Taiwan on a roaming network and I don't even want to know how much that costs so I quickly wanted to get some sort of cell phone action going over here. Due to some corporate technicality, I had to get someone high up to sign for the company to give me a loaner phone. In Taiwan, you don't pay for incoming calls or SMS and I'm explaining to the IT guys, "Look, I just need some sort of phone until I get an ARC at which point I can get my own. I'll pay the company for all of the calls I make ($0.00)!" I just wanted my wife to be able to get a hold of me in an emergencey.  After a week they gave me this old candy bar phone, which was fine.

A suggestion...get any old GSM phone before you come here and you can just buy a SIM card at the 7-11 and be up and running for cheap. One of my colleagues said he had a stack of old GSM phones at home (from NE2 upgrades) but as a matter of principle, he wanted me to duke it out with IT. In mean time, I was trying to figure out what to do.

2 issues:

1. Language barrier
2. Residencey barrier

I guess they get nervous about foreigners bailing out on contracts so they usually have you prepay nearly the entire contract amount and then debit that account every month so you don't pay again until it runs out. One thing I found strange relative to the States is back home, you typically choose which provider you like, go into their store, and they handle the whole thing.

Here, it's more of a mom & pop operation. In Taipei you can often be in view of 4 or 5 different small cell phone stores; I don't know how they all stay in business. The two major carriers are Chunghwa Telecom and Far Eastone and I know with CHT, you can find company run stores, like I described from the States. I was trying to figure out a strategy and one of the IT guys came by and asked if I need help with getting a cellphone. I think HR notified him when my ARC came through.

I was a bit hesitant because I already started doing some research on phones and was looking at an HTC Desire which is an Android based phone. In the world of smartphones, you're basically either an iPhone person or an Android person, or maybe a Blackberry person but I think most people who have BBs get them provided by their employer. Maybe there are some Windows Mobile folks out there. While I respect what Apple has done, I hate all of their products so I was really hoping to get something Android based. I was afraid the IT guy was going to say your choice is either this candy bar phone or an iPhone. I went by his office and he had the Far Eastone website up and he asked what kind of phone I wanted.

He started scrolling through some cheap options and when I said,, "Do they have the HTC Desire?" his eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store. Five minutes later we had it all picked out. He's been playing with my phone a few times since. When his partner in IT set it up for me (language-wise) he handed it to me like it was a Faberge Egg. From the time we placed the order it took a couple days to get the SIM card and a few more days to get the phone. With SIM card in hand I was able to swap the SIM card into my company candy bar phone so I could at least start using my own permanent #.

One of my colleagues called me to help me find the shuttle bus stop and she said, "When I called you, it started playing a song, and I wasn't sure if I had the right number." I asked, "Was it a good song or a stupid song?" She shrugged. That means stupid song. It has some sort of Ring Back Tone that plays Chinese covers of American pop songs instead of a ring. She gave me her phone and called me so I could have a listen. It was a Chinese version of "I just called to say I love you". I instantly remembered in horror that my boss had called me at that # earlier in the day. How embarassing. The entire shuttle bus got a good laugh at my expense. I had to contact Far Eastone directly to get them to elliminate the service from my account.

The phone is awesome. Before even getting into the Google vs. Apple debate, I'll at least say, if you are a foreigner in Taiwan, get one of the two, it is so useful. The GPS function with Google Maps is something I use virtually everyday. The other day there was some confusion in a taxi and I just showed the guy my destination on the phone. How often have you been wandering a strange city and stumbled upon an interesting place only to never be able to find it again? Just fire up Google Maps and save your current location as a favorite.

When you give it access to Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter, it automatically populates you phonebook with all the info it can find on your contacts, which is a lot. It all works pretty seamlessly; if you can find someone's name, anywhere, you can probably email, SMS, or call them very easily. An app called Fring allows me to make voice calls at very cheap rates through Skype rather than pay my mobile company for international calls. There's an app which streams dozens of NPR stations and categorizes them by music, talk, news, etc. Fordham University has a good alternative station which serves as a substitute for Pandora as that is blocked here, by Pandora.

Most American media providers only have contracts to provide in U.S. and maybe Canada, so things like Hulu fall under the same situation. One thing that sorta sucks about Google vs. Apple is you cannot buy apps in the Android market from Taiwan. They haven't worked out the whole payment system for some reason. I have only come across one app so far that I considered buying (a PDF scanner) but it's actually a piece of crap so I actually lucked out, but it's just a matter of time before I'm cursing the Android Market.

The 5 MP camera is so-so in low light and really no substitue for even a point and shoot digital camera but it's good at grabbing candid shots when someone passes out face first on a table at the bar.

Once you have a iPhone or Google phone, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. For a while I was dragging my laptop AND GPS around Taipei with me; for most purposes, the Desire has replaced them both. Now if I can only figure out how to make a voice call on this thing...