Saturday, March 08, 2008

GPRS on the iPhone in Vietnam

The iPhone is freaking ubiquitous up in here - with here being Vietnam, natch. I can't believe I still get google hits to this blog looking for it. Go to Saigon Nezumi for iPhone stuff, 'cause he knows more than me.

But since you're here, I may as well give you something useful. Such as info on how to set up EDGE (i.e. GPRS) service in Vietnam. If you're half patient (or decent) with Google, you would find this page which tells you how to do it.

Basically navigate to Settings>General>Network>EDGE and change the APN / Username / Password fields thusly:

For Mobifone: m-wap / mms / mms
For Vinaphone: m3-world / mms / mms
For Viettel: v-internet / de trong / de trong

As the info states, to use GPRS, your number must have the GPRS service "turned on" - this means post-paid service, requiring a post-paid contract.

Somehow, after a very short Stateside visit, my post-paid mobile number is now dead, so I cannot test the settings above. As I mentioned previously, competent office help is difficult to find up in here.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

D: I have GPRS on my mobile phone but I do not have a post-paid account with Mobifone, just my sim card.

There are two ways to set up SMS. One way is to go to this URL:


http://www.mobifone.com.vn/web/en/ota/

Your mobile phone will need to be on since it will start sending you commands through SMS.

The other is to just send a message via SMS. Just ask your Vietnamese friends, they all know the number.

Anonymous said...

Whoops, there are three methods described below:

http://www.mobifone.com.vn/web/en/ota/about.jsp

Anonymous said...

It works on pre-paid accounts too thanks a million!

Anonymous said...

It is very interesting for me to read this post. Thanx for it. I like such topics and anything connected to this matter. I definitely want to read a bit more soon.
Alex
Phone jammer

Mark said...

Do you know if I can buy a pre-paid SIM card at Saigon airport?

I need a data plan, which is the cheapest GSM operator?

Anonymous said...

- yes you can buy a pre-paid SIM at the HCMC/Saigon airport

- it has been a few years, so I don't know who is the cheapest for data, but compared to places like the US all the major operators (Viettel, Mobifone, etc.) are all cheap

- realistically, you are not going to stream video etc. over the cell network in Vietnam - it is too slow. Even an ADSL connection in your apartment can be too slow at times (combo of low bandwidth + government filters?) for video and other data demanding features. So cell data really means email which means low data consumption and therefore data costs are almost irrelevant.

- widespread free wifi in the country suggests that you bring a device capable of such if you're looking for data on the go.

- D