cell phone use
 

Does anyone know the latest information regarding cell phone use in China? I will be in China for two weeks and it's important that I have communication with family in the U.S. What are my best options?

TTT

fotogal, try searching for previous threads on this subject - I rememebr several - using the 'search' box above. If they don't answer all your questions, come back and fire away. Cheapest solution is to have an unlocked GSM phone utilising the international 900 & 1800 MHz frequencies (US GSM frequencies are 850 & 1900 and the dominant US cellphone technology is not GSM) and buy a SIM card in China with prepaid call credits.

buy phones on ebay....i bought two for my wife and myself for 17 and 26 dollars each. buy phone cards in beijing.

Aloha!

ooops...posted too soon. make sure the phones are quad band and UNLOCKED!

China is actually both GSM (T-Mobile, AT&T/Cingular) and CDMA (Verizon), so if you have US phone with any of above providers, you should be able to use your phone over there. For GSM US phones, if yours is tri or quad band, no problems, if it's an older dual band model, you'll need to check to make sure band is compatible with China.

If you buy an Int'l plan with your US cell provider, cost comes to between $0.75-$1.99/minute to call back to the US. Local China calls range from $0.20-$0.50. This may

If you plan on making a lot of local calls in China, buy an unlocked GSM phone. If you buy in the US, make sure it's unlocked and has the right GSM band (e.g. 800/900 that's usable in China. China uses different band than the US. A tri band should work but they may cost around US$70+ even on ebay (dual band would be less but make sure the right bands).

If you can wait, you can buy a GSM phone in China, it's very cheap over there. And all phones are unlocked over there so you can use with other providers when you get back.

Then, buy yourself a prepaid SIM card from say China Telecom (this will give you a local China mobile #) and cost for local calls can be as low as $0.02/minute. But the cost to call back to the US from China SIM can be as high at $2.00 (don't save much from US cell provider).

I will warn you that most people don't speak a lot of Engligh in China and cell phone instructions and text on the phone are all in Chinese if you buy the China prepaid SIM, so it may be a challenge figuring out how to make international calls back to the US from a China mobile number.

Hope this helps.

"...buy an unlocked GSM phone. If you buy in the US, make sure it's unlocked and has the right GSM band (e.g. 800/900 that's usable in China. China uses different band than the US."

- China uses GSM 900 & 1800 MHz, the bandwidths that just about every country in the world outside North America uses. That means you can use the same phone if you visit other countries in the Asia/Pacific (except Japan), Europe etc.

If CDMA with US frequencies is also used in China, all the better.

"...it may be a challenge figuring out how to make international calls back to the US from a China mobile number."

- I would have thought that it should be a case of dialling +1 followed by the 3-digit area code and the 7-digit local number, but I might be missing something.

Assuming that I purchase the recommended GSM phone for use in China......

1) Since it was mentioned that it could be challenging making a call to the U.S., how is it done? I would like to be totally prepared when I get there.

2) If I purchase a Chinese SIM card from ebay, is it for a set number of minutes? If so, how do you increase the minutes or should an additional SIM card be purchased once I get to China?

As you can see, I am very technologically challenged and appreciate any and all assistance!!

I was in china several months ago and bought a quad gsm phone on e-bay to take with me. I purchased the SIM card here through China Telecom. The SIM card gives you only the telephone number for your phone and allows you to program phone numbers into the phone. Once you arrive in china, you can purchase a precard phone card anywhere. At the place of purchase, if you ask them to, they will enter the card pin number into your phone. By doing this, all of the cards minutes are programmed into your phone. Then to make a call to the U.S. is easy. Dial 001+area code+number. That's it :-)

Last May I bought a pre-activated prepaid Shanghai sim card from "unitedsims" on Ebay (cell phone/sim cards/China) and had no problem calling back from Shanghai to the US. Check this seller out on Ebay and ask questions until you are satisfied before buying. Refill minutes can be added to the sim card by this seller. I believe all incoming calls are free now. Of course you pay a price for this convenience. The same sim card can be purchased in Shanghai from a street vendor or convenience store for about a third of what you pay on Ebay. By the way, the price of this card on Ebay is about $22 including shipping.

By the way, if you have a US GSM phone with T-mobile or Cingular, you can ask them to unlock your phone (they won't do it automatically, but if you've been a customer for a certainly period of time, they'll do it if you insist). My friends got them to unlock their phones (it does take a little persistence but can save you having to get a new GSM phone).

As for the China SIM cards, don't buy it in the US, it's a lot more expensive. You can get the SIM card and prepaid minute cards everywhere in China. If I recall, China Telecom has little booths at the Beijing Int'l airport (both by the baggage claim and near exits) and you can get it right at the airport if you feel that you need it right away.

Also, when you buy the SIM and prepaid minute cards, make the vendor put the cards into your phone and make a test call to make sure everything works BEFORE you leave the vendor's stall. Trying to get refunds can be next to impossible.

Also, as for dialing back to the US, you may have to try both +1 or 001. We travelled around China and depending on which Chinese mobile network we were on, we did not have consistent experience dialing back to the US. I may just not be tech savy but it was quite frustrating as the error recorded message is in Chinese so I wasn't even sure what it was telling me to do or what I did wrong.

So for the most part, I used the local SIM card for calls within China and defaulted to my US cellphone to calls back to the US.

If you have a US cellphone, bring it as a backup, it doesn't hurt. Just remember to call your US cellphone provider before you leave and ask them to activate or turn-on the "international dialing" access/option so you can make/receive calls overseas.

Thanks for the info, but I still need some clarification: Does a SIM card come with prepaid calling minutes or do you have to buy a second card to install the minutes.

Also how do you increase the number of minutes?

Thanks again for all your advice.

Technically, at least the way I understand it, a SIM card contains the information for your local phone number.

Most providers will sell you a SIM card WITH prepaid minutes already included. You are basically paying for the phone # and minutes. So when you activate the SIM card, you'll then start using those prepaid minutes (I'll tell you that since all the infor was in Chinese, I never quite figured out how much $ I had left on my prepaid card but I never did run out). When you run out of minutes on your initial prepaid amount and you want to keep the same SIM phone #, you then need buy a "recharge" card from the same telecom provider (this only has $ value and no phone #) and you get a code that you program through the phone that activates additional minutes. I believe (and I maybe wrong here), if you say have a China Mobile Telecom SIM Card/Phone #, you can only use a "recharge" card from China Mobile.


Here's a website that may be of help to answer some of your Int'l cell phones and SIM card questions.

http://www.thetravelinsider.info/2002/0308.htm

This article talks about how to unlock you US GSM phone:
http://www.thetravelinsider.info/roa...ckingfaq.htm#1

Hope this helps

I do not currently have a GSM cell phone. Do you think I would be better off to buy one on ebay or wait until we arrive in China and pick one up there?

Assuming we have an unlocked phone with correct band width and international frequency for China do we still have to purchase a Chinese sim card?

If yes, it sounds like the sim card comes with Chinese phone number. Will callers from US have to dial the Chinese number or will they dial current phone number and have calls routed to the new Chinese number?

We have Samsung phones from Cingular (now ATT). If we discover it is locked and ATT refuses to unlock it, we have seen on this site mention of a company in Seattle that promises to unlock phones for $25. Has anyone used this or similar service and with what results? Thank you.

The more I read the more questions I have...

If my phone has the correct bands and mghz to work in China, if I purchase a Beijing sim card, does it only work in Beijing or will it go to roaming in other locations? If it roams, how does that get charged against the minutes on the card?

OK...clearly I don't understand how to use a cellphone in China:) If you answer the above question please also try and answer the one that proceeds it. Many thanks.

Your unlocked phone with 900/1800MHz GSM has nothing to do with the number and plan. It all depends on the SIM you put in it.

If you put the Chinese SIM in it, you have a Chinese phone number. People from the US needs to call your Chinese number, at long distance rate. [Make sure that person understands the rate; huge difference whether he/she has an international plan or not.]

Calling your regular US cell number will not go through at all, unless you set it up with your cellular network to forward to your new Chinese number, which I don't know whether it can be done nor not.

There are different SIM card for sale in China. But if you buy the popular Shenzhouxing, it will work from anywhere in China, though the rate may be higher when outside the area where you originally buy it.

I purchased a new mobile phone, a motorola, over a year ago in Hong Kong, with $100(HKD) worth SIM card. The total I spent is close to $80 USD. Local calls were about 3 cents/minutes. When I crossed the border to China, just took out the HK card, and put in the China Card. Everything went well. To call the US, you can just follow the instruction booklet that came with the SIM card, dial the pre#, then your US #. guess I was lucky!!