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helvering
Newbie
Joined: Feb 17, 2004
Posts: 5
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
Mar 15, 2004 - 07:00 PM |
 
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| Post subject: mobile phone service help! |
folks, i bought a GSM tri-band mobile phone and a pre-paid e-tone card from china mobile, thinking i could roam and call overseas (guess again). could someone kindly offer insight into:
1. how do i "recharge" the card once i use up all the minutes? do i buy and put in a new sim chip? someone keeps telling me all i need to do is call a number? i don't get it.
2. i was also surprised that special procedures are necessary to activate global roaming and international dialing. apparently as a foreigner, you need either a guarantor or a deposit of 3000 RMB. can anyone confirm if this is true? anyone have any experiences with china mobile in dealing with this issue?
thanks in advance. |
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troll
Newbie
Joined: Mar 16, 2004
Posts: 6
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Mar 16, 2004 - 07:32 PM |
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Hello helvering,
I'm fairly new to all this, but here is what I know (or at least think that I know):
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how do i "recharge" the card once i use up all the minutes? do i buy and put in a new sim chip?
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You can add money to your account by buying China Mobile recharge cards - you do NOT need to buy a new SIM. The recharge cards are available everywhere: street corners, subway stops, basically everywhere. Just scratch the PIN off the back, follow the English instructions, and off you go. A 100 RMB recharge card should give you 166 minutes of local calling.
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can anyone confirm if this is true? anyone have any experiences with china mobile in dealing with this issue?
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I do not know the exact procedure or amount for these two "features," but I do know that you DO need to activate them explicitely. For long distance calls, I recommend the 17910 IP cards instead of dialing direct. You can buy them at up to 1/2 the suggested retail price (probably even cheaper).
Hope that helps. Good luck!
-troll |
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t r o l l |
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lawdude
Moderator
Joined: Sep 20, 2002
Posts: 687
Location: No longer in Shanghai, PRC
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Mar 17, 2004 - 02:21 PM |
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troll's right. I'll add that if you've used up all your credit on your phone card, you'll need to use a landline phone to call the recharge number.
As far as international roaming, I've seen two options played out: One, you don't bother roaming at all, but just pick up another SIM card and a prepaid phone card in the country you're visiting--downside is you'll have a different phone number for each SIM card, but not bad if you spend alot of time in one or two other countries and just give out the local number there. Two: Sign up for a post-paid, contract mobile phone service with China Mobile. The contract service has int'l roaming available, as well as detailed billing, voicemail and data/internet capability. I believe a bond is required to establish such service to ensure they've got a way to cover a bill if the user skips town with an unpaid bill.
Good luck. |
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