Mobile phone and provider

Hi,

My wife and I are moving to HK in June.

I've tried to look online, but it's all rather confusing.

How much would a standard monthly mobile phone contract be?

Then, here in South Africa, when you take out a contract you usually receive a phone as part of the deal - is it the same in HK?

If so, what would a contract that gives you an iPhone 5s / Galaxy s4 cost?

Thank you for the help!

Kind regards

Mike

Hi

Mobile contracts are meant to be confusing. ;-)


Phones are optional, but most of the time you can get a decent rebate on the phone if you subscribe for 24 months. The rebate can go up to 100% of the phone price (eg, both Smartone.com and Three.com.hk will give you a free 16GB iPhone5S if you subscribe their HK$460/mo plan with 5GB data and c. 5000 minutes)


Some operators have interesting bundles when you have multiple devices (like the smartone multi-sim HK$80 upgrade).


Be aware that:

1. minutes included in contracts are consumed whether you make *or receive* calls.

2. prices displayed on websites don't include the HK$12/mo charge for subway (MTR) coverage (mandatory spend on top of your contract)

3. you should read the notes carefully as some contracts entitle you to subscribe to a number of "value added services" like TV channels, visual voicemail, etc. that can increase you bill by a few dozen additional HK$ per month.

4. "IDD" is the local system that lets you make international calls at a reduced fee. You can buy this as an option. It is quite painful to use (you have to prefix all your contacts' phone number instead of using the normal '+' numbers)


I recommend you focus on the 'data' part of your plan. Each month I'm getting closer to using 0 minute on my personal phone: like most people in HK I believe, 99% of my communications are now exclusively on facetime and iMessages/whatsapp.


RS

Thank you so so much - that is a huge help!

Particularly the data advice as we are exactly the opposite in South Africa - I only use about 300mg of data a month.

Awesome!

With most providers it is cheaper to go for a sim only plan normally 24 month long (which will probably give 3500 mins + unlimited data) for about HKD168 a month (or something close) then simply go and buy the phone of your choice (from a standard handset shop) which is then already unlocked and able to be moved between operators if you see a better deal at the end of your contract.

Additionally you can change your phone mid contract (there is a thriving second hand market for phones, especially when a new upgrade appears).

Any phone you are given by an operator as part of a package will be locked to their network.

A further advantage of an unlocked phone means if you head back to SA on hols you could get a local sim for your holiday and put it in your normal HK phone that has all your numbers etc, and forward you hk mob number to that number etc.

That's great advice - thanks Spurtio!