Vietnam Good to Know

Phone

• Police 113
• Fire Brigade 114
• Hospital 115
• Time 117
• General Information 1080

Telephone

Landline numbers in Hanoi and HCMC have a sequence of eight numbers, others have seven.

• Vietnam international code: +84
• Hanoi area code : (04)
• Ho Chi Minh area code : (08)

VoIP calls

Telephone bills are 30% to 40% cheaper if dialed with 171 or 178 services.

• Domestic call : 171 (178) 0 Area code Number.
• International call : 171 (178) 00 Country code Area code Number.

Since hotels and guesthouses often charge higher for telephone calls, try to find a post office or any reliable public service.

Mobile phones

There are many mobile networks with different codes:

• Vinaphone: 91, 94, 121, 123, 125 (GSM 900)
• Mobifone: 90, 93, 122, 124, 126 (GSM 900/1800)
• Viettel: 98, 97, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169 (GSM 900)
• SFone: 95 (CDMA)
• Vietnamobile: 92 (CDMA)
• EVN Telecom: 96 (CDMA)
• Beeline: 199 (GSM 900)

You can buy a SIM card in every shop selling mobile phones, or showing their network's brands. The standard price is no higher than 75,000 dong, but foreigners are often charged 100,000 dong.

Prepaid account charges vary from 1,700-2,500 dong per minute. Recharge cards are available in denominations of 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 and 500,000 dong.

Roaming onto Vietnam's GSM networks are possible with foreign mobile phones, subject to agreements between operators.

Internet

Internet access is available in all but the most remote towns. Internet cafes are available in most tourist spots and rates are fairly cheap, ranging from 2,000-10,000 dong per hour. Connection speeds are high, especially in the big cities.

Many hotels and restaurants provide free Wi-Fi or terminals for their guests. If you bring your own phone and/or laptop, several providers offer mobile internet services (EDGE/3G) services as well.

Internet censorship is applied to small number of internet services. As of August 2010, Facebook has still been blocked but Facebook Mobile is still accessible. By September 2010 it is accessible to Facebook as normal internet connection. A quick Google search for the relevant programs should help you bypass the ban quite easily. There was also a report that telecom companies block the use of Skype, although the ban has apparently been lifted. Other sites such as Gmail, Youtube, Wikipedia seem to be unaffected.