I will be moving to Taiwan to work very soon and staying in a central government facility (since I’m coming from the UK). I’ve tried to delay it as long as I can because I know these places will be busier at the moment due to the Lunar New Year. I can’t imagine the internet options at the facility will be great and I know I’ll get the chance to buy a sim card at the airport so does anyone know what the best sim card/data package to buy is?
I need to work during the quarantine period, including video calls so I want to use my phone data as a hotspot for my laptop. What are the biggest data packages I can buy to make sure I don’t run out? Any ideas?
My group quarantine facility at Changhua had decent and stable internet connection, certainly enough for remote work.
Goes without saying, but make sure your area has network coverage, though I don’t know how you can check that since you don’t know where your facility will be located in the first place.
I did government quarantine at the Wulai centre south of Taipei. There was no WiFi, but there was a network called iTaiwan which was decent. I bought a SIM card at the airport though and that was great for everything including video calls and streaming Netflix.
Depending on the situation you might need to actually ask someone at the airport to let you buy one (we weren’t allowed to wander around freely). If you can read Chinese then the unlimited data package card is clearly labelled, otherwise I reckon the guy at the stand should be able to tell you.
I got the 21 day unlimited data card and I think it cost me about 900 ntd.
Before you hit immigration they confirm you have a SIM card. If you don’t they direct you to a booth where all the major telcos have a representative selling 14/30 day SIM card packages.
I was on the first (and last) flight from the U.K. when they started putting people into government quarantine (the one at the end of December). So I imagine they’ve probably ironed out any issues in the process since then, but I definitely wouldn’t have got one if I hadn’t asked specifically.
Get a Chunghwa 30-day package if possible, as Chunghwa has the best coverage and download speed:
The sim cards purchased at the airport cannot be extended after the expiration dates, and you will still need to be able to receive and reply to texts from the government during your self-health management period, so you need a plan that is at least 21 days.
