[marcus_holmes]

It's a common experience to go to a 7/11 in Bangkok and try to buy one of the cheaper top-up packages, and then get told they're not available. Only the expensive ones are available. Yet strangely the cheap ones are available for locals.

Also, people don't seem to have any objections to mobile towers being built near them. In the UK & Australia there's a lot of NIMBYism and fear about mobile towers being built near schools (especially). It can get really expensive to build a tower in a rich suburb.

[sleepyhead]

Ok, haven't had that experience but I haven't really stayed in the very backpacker/touristy areas in BKK lately. Also I usually go to a phone company store and just buy the sim and top up enough for my short stay there.