LAOS
Signal strength depends on the province it is accessed from a situation applicable across the different carriers. The main towns and cities tend to have better and stronger network coverage.
Main carriers in the country
• Unitel
• Lao Telecom
• Beeline
• ETL Cost
Most carriers sell prepaid SIM cards with a credit of 5,000 kip (US60 cents) at about 10,000 kip (USD1.16). These do not come with data, which you can buy separately according to the volume you need. Unitel credits an additional 10,000 kip to your card when you activate it with your personal information. Data-only SIM cards can also be purchased and Lao Telecom sells theirs for 30,000 or 40,000 kip (USD3.50 or USD4.70). Unitel, Lao Telecom and ETL all sell additional 1.5GB of data valid for 7 days at 10,000 kip.
Purchase
Passports are not required and purchase can be made at approved resellers and official stores.
Topping up
Visit carrier stores or purchase top-up scratchcards from bus stations, petrol stations, convenience stores like M-Mart and travel agents.