Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Drew345]

I have a friend coming for a week, and they would like some temporary phone service.
a. At the airport, is there a place to buy a SIM card for a short trip?
b. Is there a way to rent a phone for a week?
c. Maybe they should just turn on roaming from their home country service.

He has an IPhone 4 (GSM) which I hear can work on SK system (SK has GSM?) for roaming or maybe by switching SIM.

I don't usually hear people here talk about buying temporary (disposable) SIMS like in other parts of the world, so maybe (a) isn't the best choice.
I had some Korean-Americas come for a month, and they actually rented a phone from L.A. and brought and returned it, so maybe phone rental (b) is the local way around this problem?

Thanks for any help,

[spanky1off]

i would say the easiest way is to rent at the airport. my dad did exactly this for a week or so..cost about 20 bucks.

when he/she arrives they need to go down some floors from the arrivals level (odd!)...maybe the lowest floor. there are 2-3 stands from the different companies.

simply sign up with credit card details get your phone+charger and your good to go. pay up when you leave the country.

[nobbyken]

Yep, rented one near arrivals at Incheon recently.
Gave it back to a booth after checking in for departure.

A pretty good deal, texts are very cheap, calls more expensive; don't lose the phone as it's costly.

[PEIGUY]

Rent a phone, as people said it's pretty cheap. KT, SK and LG all rent phones or at least KT and SK do. Fill a couple forms in you must have a cc. Whole process takes 10 min maybe.. you just have to return it on the date.. They're on the arrivals level.. I forget the gate #

http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/RE/RE_EN_1_2_1_1.jsp

that's for SK but KT would be on that site as well

[s4yunkim]

I realize this topic is a bit old, but I thought I'd chime in.

South Korea does not use the GSM band (this includes SK, KT, LG), but rather WCDMA (note the "W"), which is also known around the world as 3G 2100mHz.

In terms of iPhones, this means that the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4 will work in Korea, but NOT the original iPhone / iPhone 4 CDMA model (released for Verizon in the US).

If the phone is an unlocked model, you can bring it one of the KT Global Stores, and purchase a prepaid SIM card. The only thing that is required is a passport for ID. Once the store registers your device in the system and activates the prepaid SIM, all that's left to do is insert it into the phone!

You can check out prepaid plans here: http://expatblog.kt.com/42

^^