I visit Taiwan a couple of times each year with work and spend a fair amount of time stuck in a car (as a passenger) travelling between factories etc. It would be good to be able to use this time to look at the internet, google maps, and phone home, but although my UK phone works fine in Taiwan the roaming charges make this very very expensive.
I have had a look at most of the Taiwan cellphone providers websites but cant make much sense of the English versions.
So if anyone could help me by explaining what pre-pay sims are available that will work for high speed data and have decent coverage around Taichung and down the main motorway to Tainan, and how/where to get it, and how much it will cost that would be great.
Thanks
George
PS sorry if this is a common question or the wrong place for such a question, I did search before asking…
I think Vibo might have what you’re after vibo.com.tw/CWS/English_04_01,.html
Just make sure you bring a spare SIM (it can be a non working one) as their SIM cards are like little stickers that you put on your old one.
Using internet costs NT$99 a day it seems, or you can buy 3 and 5 day passes that makes it cheaper.
Not used them myself and I don’t know if their coverage is any good where you’re going, but you can find an outdated coverage map here gsmworld.com/cgi-bin/ni_map.pl?cc=tw&net=t3
Also, I think their English website is outdated, but it mentions this:
“By taking the advantage of VIBO handset or data card, user can enjoy surfing Internet with broadband data rate up to 384 Kbps (WCDMA).”
So in other words, no mention of 3.5G despite the fact they operate a 3.5G network with download speeds of up to 7.2Mbit (depending on your phone)
I doubt it’s that slow these days and the prices might also have changed. They don’t really care about having good info in English here, be it companies or the government
