Cellular service in HK

Old Sep 18th, 2008, 05:00 AM
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Cellular service in HK

I have a Motorola RAZR V3xx cell phone on AT&T currently.

Is it possible to pick up a SIM card of some type in HK and use it there?

I hope to use it for local HK calls only - meeting up with a friend, phone stores to ask questions, etc. I've heard this can be done but have no experience with it.

Thx for any insights - enjoy-la!
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Old Sep 18th, 2008, 04:44 PM
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If you have your phone unlocked, then yes. Peoples and PCCW have SIMs that are very cheap for local calls, and are cheap to start.

http://www.pccwmobile.com/portal/com...p?fldr_id=8117

http://www.peoples.com.hk/p_prepaid_...efault_iso.jsp

The 7-Eleven on the arrivals level at HKG should have either or both.
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Old Sep 18th, 2008, 07:03 PM
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Any advice on SIM cards with dual HK/China capability, to use for calling home to the States?
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Old Sep 18th, 2008, 08:07 PM
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I haven't looked up the capabilities of the model mentioned, but remember that North American cell phones must not only be unlocked, but must be tri-band, and work on the frequencies most of the rest of the world uses.

I don't believe there's any such thing as a SIM card that works in both Hong Kong and mainland China--the systems are mutually exclusive. If there is such a thing, I want one as I'm constantly juggling mainland and HK SIM cards around.

Peter N-H
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Old Sep 18th, 2008, 08:56 PM
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I've actually just located a site that sells SIM cards, headquartered in the States and with branches in HK, and they advertise dual HK/China cards. They charge $39 plus $10 shipping to the states, free shipping in China. The card apparently does not come pre-loaded with value. They provide a nice service - an automatic credit card charge to recharge, every time the balance drops below $3 (so effectively charging another $3 overall, of course).

It's pandaphone.com. I suspect their charges are much more than what one could buy locally in either HK or China. Their incoming and local charge is US$.20/minute, outgoing from China to the States .59, China to elsewhere .89, and incoming/local HK is US$.10, HK to China .29, and HK to elsewhere is 1.40.

Has anyone heard of this outfit? Like so many companies focused on Chinese business but with an office in the States, it's difficult to reach a live customer service rep Stateside by phone. And I'm always suspicious when I find a place initially by web surfing.
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Old Sep 18th, 2008, 09:23 PM
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There are SIMs with dual numbers (one for China, one for HK) - go to Shung Tak Center (Macau Ferry Pier) in Sheung Wan and you can find at least a dozen dealers having them with all the "lucky" numbers.

However, all of these are post-paid plans. I am not aware of pre-paid dual number SIM, or any single number SIM that's cheap in both China and Hong Kong.
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Old Sep 19th, 2008, 09:08 AM
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Thx a mint - all this info is great!

My inexperience in this are is showing thru tho as I don't have an unlocked phone.

What options are there for tourists who don't have an unlocked phone but want cheap local (HK in-bound/out-bound only) mobile service?

Enjoy-la!
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Old Sep 19th, 2008, 10:41 AM
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> It's pandaphone.com. I suspect their charges are much more than what one could buy locally in either HK or China.

The SIM card is six times what you need to pay in China for a start.

As for call charges, with the fee-free Shénzhōu xíng líng yuè zū kǎ (from China Telecom) your incoming calls cost ¥0.60 per minute (less than half of Pandaphone). Outgoing calls to the US cost ¥1.40 pre minute, about a third of the Pandaphone price.

There's every reason for suspicion, and as with everything else for visitors to China, if you book in advance through some Chinese service targeting you in English, you'll be taken for a ride.

> What options are there for tourists who don't have an unlocked phone but want cheap local (HK in-bound/out-bound only) mobile service?

Buy a cheap, second-hand phone while there. No doubt an HK-resident reader can tell you where to go.

Peter N-H

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Old Sep 19th, 2008, 11:32 AM
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Instead of trying find a cheap phone in Hong Kong, you may just want to buy one here before you go.

ebay and Tigerdirect.com usually have decent deals - you should be able to find one for about $50.

You need the phone to be:

- unlocked

- have at least 900 and 1800MHz GSM. If you also want to use your AT&T service here in the US, then it also needs to have 850 and 1900MHz.

Most residents of Hong Kong pay good money for top of the line, really fancy new phones, so that's what most stores sell. Even if you find a place with a cheap $50 phone, the salesperson will be rolling their eyes.
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Old Sep 19th, 2008, 11:35 AM
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Oh, you can also have your phone unlocked here. Not sure if AT&T will do it for you, but they should. Call them first and ask.

If not, go to any ethnic cellphone store here - Chinatown, Indian/Korean/Hispanic/younameit neighborhoods, and they'll do it for a small fee. The RAZR should be easily unlockable.

To verify the phone is unlocked, borrow a T-Mobile user's SIM and put in your phone. It should work here right away.
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Old Sep 19th, 2008, 05:43 PM
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Thx a mint for the details.

I will call AT&T tomorrow and see if they can unlock my phone.

If not it's a good idea to pick one up before I go.

When I've gone to Best Buy, I've noticed no contract phones (pay as you go or pre-paid) for literally $10 for the phone. I was hoping HK would have something like that...a "disposable" local use phone where the user just paid a premium for their minutes - a tradeoff I was willing to make since I will not be making a lot of calls.

Enjoy-la!
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Old Sep 19th, 2008, 05:50 PM
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Ooops, skip that. The V3xx is only: "Band / mode: GSM 850/1800/1900 (Tri-Band)"

So since it doesn't have 900 and 1800MHz GSM, it won't work in HK anyway.

Time to check out ebay/tigerdirect - enjoy-la!
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Old Sep 19th, 2008, 11:53 PM
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Where both the 900 and 1800 MHz bands are used - which is most of the world, China/Hong Kong included - your phone doesn't necessarily need both. But it's not a bad idea, as you might find yourself in an area where the 900 signal is the stronger. The advantage of an unlocked quadband phone is that you'll be able to use it almost anywhere you go (except, I think, Japan, where as far as I know neither GSM nor the North American CDMA system is used).

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Old Sep 20th, 2008, 12:04 AM
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In the US, service provider subsidizes one for the phone to entice you to sign on to the contact (post-paid) or just to try their pre-paid service. To protect their investment, they lock the phone to their network only.

With the exception of the iPhone, such concept does not apply in Hong Kong. The handset and the service are two separate entities. The service providers don't subsidize one for the phone and no phone is locked.
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Old Sep 20th, 2008, 01:13 PM
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Okay, this is starting to make more sense now. Thx a mint for the extra info (=
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Old Sep 21st, 2008, 10:57 PM
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Check out this link.
http://www.smartone-vodafone.com/jsp...lish/index.jsp

RK is right in that most people in HK buy top of the line - the latest and the greatest phones. After dropping one in a pool and losing another 3G hi end phone while traveling within a span of 6 months, I resorted to a cheapie. The cheapest one for Nokia (my preference) is Nokia 1208 - for HKD 390 which is just about USD50.
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Old Sep 21st, 2008, 11:49 PM
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You can rent a phone from CSL, a very reliable service provider, for HK$35 a day (about US$4.5), see info at http://roam.hkcsl.com/eng/rent/rent.htm. You then buy a sim card and you can make local and long distance calls up to the value of the card, and then buy another card once the value has been discharged. You can pick the phone up and return the phone at the airport. If you are only going to be here a few days, this may be the closest and cheapest thing to a dispoable phone. You can buy second hand phones, which can be done here cheaply, but who wants to take the time to do that on a short trip? (And really caveat emptor on those phones; if you want to, try the Jardine’s Bazar area in Causway Bay or the beginning of Wan Chai Road in Wan Chai.) You could also buy a new phone here, but that might be pricer than you want, and again hunting for a phone on a vacation is not my idea of time well spent. You could also buy an "unlocked" dual/tri band phone before you leave, which may be easier and probably cheaper in the long run, esp if you plan to travel outside the US in the future. You can then buy a stored value sim card here at any 7-11 store and put that in the phone, it's very easy.

Finally, remember that local calls within Hong Kong are free, which means that you can call from free from your hotel room, from any phone booth (if you can find a phone booth these days) and most merchants in a shop will let you use their phone to make a local call as well. If you literally will only be making local calls, you can probably get away with doing this from your hotel room or elsewhere.

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Old Sep 22nd, 2008, 09:26 AM
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Cicerone - will it be entirely clear (i.e. in English) how much the 7-11 SIM cards cost for calls to the States and China? And, do you know if it is possible to get a SIM at the 7-1l that is good for dual use in HK and China (i.e. one card, one phone number for both)? Thanks.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2008, 04:29 PM
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Ed - Go to the links I posted for the PCCW and Peoples SIM, which is the first reply in this thread.

Charges for PCCW calling US and China is right on that page; and for Peoples, click on "Charges" on the left and you'll see the rates.

The SIMs I linked to have low local charge but high international (including calling China). If you're going to call mostly international, then you should get the PCCW "Global Reach" or the Peoples "IDD Talk" SIMs which have much cheaper international rates but higher local ones.

Those sites are both written in clear English. And both types of cards are available at 7-11s.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2008, 05:45 PM
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Thanks, RK, it looks like both of these cards offer almost free service to the States -- only the HK$.25/min local charge. However, what's not clear is whether these cards might also be usable (probably at a higher cost) for calls from China to the States. Ideally, we'd like to have just one phone number to give our families, for both HK and China.
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