How Do SIMS Phone Cards Work?
 

I understand that I can buy a mobile phone in China since I'm not interested in renting one. Where do I buy one? Is it cheaper to buy one online from the US before my trip or cheaper to buy one in China?

Also, where do I buy a SIMS card?
Can I use the same card for calls all over China or are they restricted to a certain area? How much per minute can I expect to pay?

How do I know how many minutes remaining I have on a card? Can I login online and find out? Also, can I recharge the card online or must I call a company in China?

I have never used a mobile phone outside the U.S. so feel a little intimidated... Thanks in advance for your help.

What service do you have in the US? What kind of phone do you have? You may be able to use your phone if it's GSM and works on the correct bandwidth. AT&T or T-Mobile service only.

Or you can buy one at any mobile store there. It will come with a SIM card with a local phone # attached to it.

I brought my AT&T cellphone with me and swapped out my US sim card for a prepaid China Mobile one. When the minutes ran out, I bought a refill phone card, which makes it very easy to recharge the sim: you call in on your phone and enter the PIN from the refill card. They are easy to buy at any China Mobile store or kiosk, and also at a lot of small grocery stores, etc. There is an option to listen to the prompts in English. :) The same system lets you call in to find out how many minutes you have left, and if you're about to run out, it will interrupt your phone call to let you know.

It's my undertanding that the rates are different when you travel around the country, so if your sim is from Beijing, you might have a slightly higher rate when you're in Xian, for example. It's cheapest to text (which I became really good at!), and I didn't notice any significant difference in how quickly my minutes ran out in one place to the next. (Sorry, I don't remember what the exact rates were.) The refill cards come in 50 and 100 yuan increments. I think I maybe used about 200 yuan (US$26) in total for my one-month stay?

As far as using your US phone overseas, as smartcookie mentioned, it has to be GSM (not Verizon or Sprint). It also has to be "quad band" -- and unlocked, meaning not tied down to your service provider. If you have AT&T or T-Mobile, you might want to take your phone in and ask them what your options are. Unless it's a brand-new, expensive model, there should be no issues with them unlocking it for you.

I found the whole mobile phone experience to be easy and straightforward. It was a great relief to me, since I don't speak any Chinese!

:) ggreen

The phone doesn't need to be a quad band, but it does need to be unlocked. Tri-Band will work just fine in most places (China included).

It does depend on what the third bandwidth is. Most countries outside North America use both the 900 and 1800 Megahertz frequency bands, whereas US GSM carriers use 850 and 1900.

My triband phone, bought in Australia, uses our 900 & 1800 plus one of the US frequencies, 1900. It's possible (thoiugh I don't know) that a triband sold in the USA might use your 850 & 1900 plus the international 1800. I mention that because in some parts of the world you might find yourself stuck with only reception on the 900 band (I think that's all that's used in New Zealand, actually). Generally unlikely, but I think an unlocked quadband phone would be the best bet, providing the cost isn't exorbitant.

Charlotte, you probably have a phone connected to a carrier that uses the dominant US technology, which is called CDMA, and which doesn't involve SIM cards. There are GSM (Global System for Mobiles) networks in the US, but in some parts of the country coverage can be more of a problem.

The good thing about an unlocked quadband is that you could use it both at home and almost anywhere else in the world you may travel (not Japan, though).

The SIM (Subscriber Interface Module) is a small card that slips into a little plastic hinged gizmo under the battery cover. It carries your phone number and, where issued as part a prepaid service, an amount of call credits.

In the US, both AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM, not CDMA. So if she has one of those services and a tri or quad band phone with the right frequency capability, she just needs to unlock it in order to use foreign SIM cards. To unlock the phone, she needs to call or email her provider.

Cingular too, from memory (or are they just a reseller of AT&T or T-Mobile?)

<b><font color="orange">Cingular</font> is now <font color="blue">the new AT&amp;T</font></b> ;)

Well, that's their slogan at least! Cingular and AT&amp;T merged, and they've stopped using the Cingular name...

We have Verizon. Does anybody know what our options are for India?

Verizon is on CDMA, so you can't use it anywhere but the US. You will need to buy a phone with a SIM card (no plan, just with replaceable or rechargeable SIM cards) there.