Cell phone call back to USA from China
 

I am a student spending the summer semester in China. I brought my LG L1200 phone with me thinking it would work over here because it had worked on a recent trip to Europe. The phone has GSM 850/1800/1900 and I have the international service plan activated with Cingular.

I could not make or receive any calls with the LG so I purchased a Bird s668, GSM 900/1800. I used my SIM card from the LG and for a while here in Wuhan it worked. Now the screen just tells me 'Emergency Calls Only' and nothing can come or go. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

I assume it's a pre-paid SIM you have. Maybe you have simply run out of credit?

Its the SIM from my Cingular service. It isn't prepaid.

Sounds to me like the easiest way out of this is to just buy a prepaid SIM on a Chinese carrier's network. Make sure it has international access - I've been told may have to pay a little more for that. You'd have to let family and friends know your Chinese number, of course. I'm assuming that your new phone isn't locked to a particular carrier - your LG phone may well be locked into Cingular. Most phones can be unlocked for a small fee, but if you don't speak much Chinese you may have to get a Chinese friend to explain to a phone shop what you need.

Okay, I see. I can think of two things:

1. Cingular de-activate your international roaming feature.

2. Your phone is picking up a carrier that doesn't work with Cingular. There are several cellular carriers in China and they all use the 900MHz band. Not all may have a roaming agreement with Cingular. You need to go to the menu of the phone and switch the preferred carrier.

I believe earlier it was picking up one that works with Cingular, and therefore you have no problem; then it switches to a different one that doesn't have the roaming agreement.