If you are traveling to Vietnam you naturally want to remain reachable, whether it is to let you know that everything is going well at home or you want to send a jealous photo to your friends. What about calling and internet in Vietnam? Surprisingly, this country has an excellent network and almost everywhere you will find a place with free WiFi.

Calling

International calls from Vietnam to the Netherlands are quite expensive. You can best keep in touch via Skype or Whatsapp. For this you only need an internet connection that is often available in hotels and restaurants.

• International access number: 84.
• From abroad to Vietnam: 00 – 84 – area code without zero – subscriber number.

Internet and wifi

Internet and wifi are available everywhere in Vietnam. Something of 98% of all hotels and hostels has Wi-Fi, only in very remote places (such as national parks) it is not standard. It is almost always free. Many cafes and restaurants also have WiFi. The speed of internet in cities is normally pretty good, but usually not fast enough to stream.

Local SIM cards

Vietnam has an excellent, extensive mobile network. Calling and data packages are extremely cheap according to international standards. Vietnam uses GSM 900/1800, which is compatible with most of Asia, Europe and Australia, but not with North America.

It is worth buying a local SIM card if you plan to travel through Vietnam. With a local number you can send text messages to anywhere in the world for 500d to 2500d per message and most countries call between 3000d and 6000d per minute. 3G data packets start at just 50,000d for 1GB. The best-known Vietnamese providers are: Mobifone and Viettel

These providers have a wide network range. You can use a mobile phone and use 3G internet almost anywhere, anytime. The only exception are remote places in the mountains where you can have a signal problem.