My daughter is going to China and South Korea with a group this summer. Obviously we want to stay in touch so my question is what are the options? Is there a special phone we need to look at or what? I have no idea of where to start. Any and all comments will be appreciated.
Thank you

China uses the GSM protocol with 900/1800 MHz frequencies, like Europe and most of the world other than the US, Canada and Japan.

You need a GSM phone with 900/1800 frequencies, and if you want to use a local SIM, your phone needs to be "unlocked".

Does your daughter has a cellphone now? What carrier, what model? How much is she going to talk on the phone while over there?

Just to expand a bit on the above, it is most likely that your daughter’s current phone is not a GSM phone with the right frequency used in China. Check the phone or the manual which came with it. If it does not have the correct frequency, you will have to buy a phone, or she can wait and buy one in the PRC, which would be my recco, just a whole lot easier (and should be cheaper) than buying an “unlocked” phone in the US, IMO. Most phones in the US are sold as part of a package by a phone company and are “locked” to that phone companies service. You can by “unlocked” phones on the web, but caveat emptor on those, IMO. No phones sold in Asia are locked.

To complicate matters further, Korea is like Japan in that they use a totally different system, they do not use any GSM system, so you would need to buy her a second phone for use in Korea. I am not sure that is really worth it. If she will be Korea longer than the PRC, then perhaps buying a phone only for Korea makes more sense. (She should be able to rent a phone in Korea, as this is quite common for business travelers given the system in Korea/Japan, not sure you want to go to that expense.) E-mail is readily available in both countries so I would really suggest that this be considered, see below.

Once she has an “unlocked” phone which will work in the PRC, she can then buy a SIM card for it in the PRC as well. A SIM card is a small chip that is inserted into the phones. You can buy a “local” SIM card for the phone in China that will mean that local calls are made a local rates (generally free) and long distance calls are made at long distance rates. You can usually buy SIM cards in stored value amounts, like the equivalent of US$25-50, and once you have used up $25-50 in calls, you either buy another SIM card or get that card recharged with more value. You can get these recharged very easily at gas stations, convenience stores, etc. It’s a useful system rather than having to sign up and pay for a monthly phone service. The SIM card has a local number, so your daughter would have to call you or e-mail you with the number.

You could of course just buy a “locked” GSM phone in the US with a US number through a US service provided and get international calling service and just have her use that phone (won’t work in Korea). You would know her number immediately and she would not have to deal with buying a phone locally or buying SIM cards and recharging them. The downsides are that local calls for her would be charged at international long-distance rates. If she is going to be making a lot of local calls, this could get expensive.

I would also say that “staying in touch” given the time difference will not be as easy as you think. Depending on where you live in the US and where she will be in China and Korea, you will be 12-15 hours apart. You will only really be able to talk later in the evening or early in the morning your time. This is not always workable with schedules. (I have lived in Asia for almost 20 years, and people still wake me up in the middle of the night with phone calls). Just bear that in mind. Phones are nice for emergencies, but e-mail works well too, and she should be able to have pretty easy access to that as well. For a list of cybercafés in China and Korea, go to cybercafes.com. In China, you can get free internet by going to any Pacific Coffee Company, there are locations in Beijing and other cities in China, go to pacificcoffee.com

If you really want her to have a really useful piece of electronics, buy or loan her a Blackberry, as that is both a phone and has e-mail and then you would be able to stay in better and more constant touch. She could use the e-mail for most everything and the phone only as necessary. I believe all Blackberry phones are GSM so they will work everywhere (again except Korea), but the e-mail function should work in Korea, as mine works in Japan. Some older Blackberry models have phones with “3G” that will work in Korea; the newer models do not. (I am not totally sure about whether e-mail support works with just a “local” SIM card, I doubt it does, I believe it has to be linked to a server, so you may have to use a US-based service, which could get expensive, you might want to look into this.)

I called Verizon Wireless yesterday to ask whether I would be able to use my phone in Beijing. VW phones are all CDMA and won't work in Europe, but I was told that Beijing has a CDMA network and that my Treo would would work.

I think they told me the rate was $1.49 per minute, which is high, but not nearly as high as I feared.

You should verify with your carrier, of course.

I also have used email very sucessfully to keep in touch. No problem with time zones or if the other party is busy at the moment. Cheap, efficient and available.

Thank you all so much. She currently has a Blackberry and I'm not sure what model but it is fairly new and has lot's of bells and whistles - she is in Chicago right now so I can't get the specific model no. And, she will be talking quite a lot. Cingular is our carrier but their international rates are prohibitive. Can we just get a temporary SIM for her phone that will allow calling and emails?

Cicerone, I think you have the right idea - just buy a phone with prepaid minutes for China, in China, and don't worry about Korea since she will only be there a few days. Thanks!

Just a note to BobP55,
I thought I called Verizon also when I was checking into this and they told me there is also a charge that China imposes on Verizon who then passes it onto their customers. They couldn't even tell me how much that was. So as I recall, the $1.49/min is not the only cost you will incur if you use Verizon. Verizon also told me the CDMA would work in China, though posters have told me that it won't. Just FYI

As I said above, I don’t think a “local” SIM card will support e-mail on a Blackberry; as the e-mail connection needs a server. The Blackberry phone should work with a local SIM chip, so she could switch back and forth, this might be a pain, and I don’t know if this would in any way interfere with the e-mail function (I don’t think it would, but I am in no way a techie, I can just turn on the thing).

It might be better to just have her buy a phone in the PRC and continue to use the Blackberry for e-mail, I don’t know the charges for e-mail service, but I don’t think they are any more than whatever package she is paying now. You might want to check. This would be helpful in Korea where unless you want to buy another phone, e-mail may be your best option other than land lines (which they have in Korea too).

Still curious as to why she “will be talking a lot” given the time difference and expense (even with a local SIM card). I remember the olden days when people could actually survive without a phone in their hand 24/7, and did not go into a panic if they did not have the ability to constantly be in touch (and yet what is it we are saying to one another? Is anyone listening or are they just talking?...but I digress...) You probably traveled without being able to reach your parents, and I know I did when I was in college, and yet somehow we managed to survive by our wits and native intelligence alone. I would not worry too much about the phone; I would, however, make sure she has all her immunizations, including Hep A, Hep B, Tetanus, and a Polio booster before she leaves. The Hepatitis injections involve a series of shots over a few months, so she should start the process now.

We have older Motorola phones that worked fine in South Africa and Germany with sim cards. Will these work in China? Is there a recommendation for particular company's sim card? Thanks!

withkids - Sounds like your phone is an unlocked GSM with at least one of the two bands - 900 and/or 1800 - most likely both. So, it should work in China.

The most popular local SIM there is the Shenzhouxing by China Mobile.

Thank you 'Lost'. I'm going to take the phone and hope for the best. I'd only use it for emergencies, anyway, and will rely on email.

I'm hoping to not even LOOK at my cell phone for the two weeks!

Well, maybe I exaggerate about "talking a lot" and yes, I too remember pre-cell phone days - in fact I will confess my daughter is my granddaughter whom we have had since she was 10 days old and later adopted so she is both daughter and granddaughter. Did I say I remember pre-cell phone days? I remember pre-computer days and almost pre-everything days. How many people do you know who used DOS 1? Oh well, time flies. Listen, thanks so much for all the help on this - and, btw, she has all the necessary injections, passport, etc, so we are good to go there. If you think of anything else it is much appreciated.

Rkkwan, thanks for the advice. Do you just buy these from a newspaper stand? I assume they would be triple the price at the airport. Is this a negotiable item? Thanks!

Cost of the SIM is probably the same wherever you get it. But I have no personal experience, so can't say for sure.

Thanks!

Just don't buy the SIM cards from street vendors, I found the lowest prices at the post offices, ask your hotel desk if there's one nearby.