[discobay]

Originally Posted by GOODMAN

BY the way, are you a local of HK ? Thanks for the reply!

What does that mean? I live here and it has been my home for a number of years

[bloated.egos]

Sunday's network coverage sucks bad.

[GOODMAN]

Discoboy,
Just asking...for curiousity sake. I had been to some of the websites for expats and pardon me, I couldn't understand some of the entries. I am wondering if all the friends here are currently living in HK or just like me; messaging from 7000 miles away.... In any case, I find this site pretty cool!

[discobay]

Well answering on behalf of my fellow geoexpats ... most of them live (and work) here. A very small number don't live/no longer live here.
Are you coming here sometime soon?

[GOODMAN]

Hi Discobay,
Well, I have a month vacation every year with my current employer. I just made my 13th anniversary. My wife and I take turn on vacation destinations. She’s booked a 13 day Hawaiian Island Cruise on Celebrity Cruise leaving from LA on 1/2/06. When we come back to LA, we will drive to Vegas to spend 3 days there. So I will use up a big chunk of my vacation time. In Nov. or Dec next year, I plan to come back to HK; if everything goes well. We love to travel and been to many places but I still come back to HK for some reasons I can’t even explain.

[shirleythien]

Originally Posted by helles

eh? you can use skype to call phones now? i thought it was just between users online.. interesting, will have to look into that..

Yes you can use Skype to make phone calls. Chargeable to your credit card and the charges are in Euro dollars.

[shannon66]

don't use New World whatever you do. I found your post because I need a new phone provider too.

here's my three problems with New World:

1. calling a mobile phone in any other country you get a big delay on the line. very annoying.

2. it is very hard to get billing sorted out with them and then get them to take your monthly bill off the credit card. They stopped my IDD last time because I hadn't 'authorised' payment from my credit card. sort of defeats the purpose of them having my credit card number then, doesn't it?

3. accessing voice mail from overseas is a joke.

[penguinsix]

My recommendation is a) find someone in your office who has a cell phone and see what the service quality is from that carrier, b) find someone in your apartment building that has a cell phone and see what the service quality is from that carrier, c) consult the "overall" reviews in a site like geoexpat.

You can get great coverage "all over Hong Kong" but absolute crap coverage in your building. Best to check where you are going to use your phone the most first.

[HKNewBi]

My 'Orange' network Nokia from the UK was locked and would not work in HK. Orange wanted £30 and 4 weeks to unlock the phone. I found a utility on the internet that gave me a code which I punched in the phone and it unlocked instantly. Took 2 minutes.

[baoyusi]

Originally Posted by Levi

db: Have an address. Thus have a bank account. But, no HKID. Which I need to get a HK credit card. Seems NW won't accept foreign credit cards to register for a IDD number.

Since my employment contract is less than 6 months duration (I'll renew in Jan) I can't get a HK ID right now. After Jan, I'll be ok to get one.

So, just looking for solutions that don't require me to wait so long. So far, the only plan I've come up with is to use prepaid SIMs, which are both inconvenient and I think more expensive.

Ahh, I just realized a hidden query here: anyone know how I can get a HK credit card without a HKID? That would be great... even my own bank (Hang Seng) won't give me one without the ID.

You can get an Amex in Hk without a HKID