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Pre-paid China Unicom SIM for 3G data and voice

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scootley

Squeeker

Joined: July 12, 2009
Posts: 10

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Posted: July 12, 2009 - 07:54 PM
Post subject: Pre-paid China Unicom SIM for 3G data and voice

Hi,

I've seen other similar posts, but not quite the same question as this...

I have a quad band GSM mobile phone that supports 3G voice and data.
The specs are as follows:
3G HSPA/WCDMA: 2100 MHz (UMTS band I). supports HSDPA and HSUPA
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

It seems as if China Unicom has SIM cards that:
- Are available pre-paid
- Work in the Shanghai area
- Would allow my phone to use both voice and 3G data

Is this the case? Has anyone tried it?
Can I get a pre-paid SIM from China Unicom that will work in Shanghai for 3G data?

Thanks much

mathlete

Seeker

Joined: May 18, 2004
Posts: 65

Status: Offline

Posted: July 12, 2009 - 08:56 PM

My suggestion would be to go to the main Unicom service center on Changning Road. My wife and I went to the one on Zhao Jia Bang /Gao'An Rd - and they had no clue as to what services they provided - there were reading the brochure as they were 'trying' to explain/answer questions. Really incompetent.

From my understanding they have an RMB 186 per month pay as you go, and after that they have 1 year plans, that start from RMB 226 up to well past 1K. Let me know how it works out, as I plan to upgrade as well.

scootley

Squeeker

Joined: July 12, 2009
Posts: 10

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Posted: July 12, 2009 - 10:52 PM

Thanks. Wait, is "186 per month pay as you go" pre-paid or post-paid?
I associate "pay as you go" with pre-paid, but "XXX per month" with post-paid, generally.

Do you mean they have a contract-free month-to-month POST-paid plan for 186 per month that includes a certain amount of calls, etc?

I am just going to be a tourist in Shanghai for a short time, so I need to be able to use my phone without needing to provide things like a Chinese bank account, Chinese work visa, proof of employment in China, etc. So presumably that would have to be a PRE-paid SIM. Although I don't mind signing up for POST-paid for 1 month if that's what's necessary to get 3G data.

I don't speak Chinese.

mathlete

Seeker

Joined: May 18, 2004
Posts: 65

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Posted: July 13, 2009 - 05:45 PM

Hey, bring a chinese friend with you. My wife is chinese, but she got pissed off and started yelling at them - haha. Anyway, just go down there and at least pick up a brochure, and have a friend look at it. Or you can just call 10010 - they do have english service (but probably just as incompetent as the service centers!).

fulltrack

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Joined: Sep 17, 2008
Posts: 257
Location: Shanghai
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Posted: July 13, 2009 - 06:05 PM

Quote:

My wife is chinese, but she got pissed off and started yelling at them

Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming:
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.

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walk-to-heaven

Newbie

Joined: July 07, 2009
Posts: 9

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Posted: July 14, 2009 - 10:19 AM

Hi, scootley! At present, there is no prepaid 3G mobile SIM card of China Unicom. You have to go to their service center, show your Chinese work visa & other relevant materials, pay warranty deposit 1,000RMB and sign contract of at least 12months. So maybe it is not suitable for your case. But you can choose 3G moblie service of China Mobile which is easy to get. You just need to buy a Prepaid SIM card(any type, e.g. 135,136.....) of China Mobile and call them on 10086 to request for adding 3G function which is not valid untill the first day of next calendar month. The shortcoming is that its signal is available in very limited areas. The charge is as below:
Monthly Fee Data Load
5RMB 30MB
20RMB 150MB
50RMB 500MB
100RMB 2G
200RMB 5G
Charge for overusage: 0.01RMB/KB
The maximum monthly consumption limit:500RMB(no more than 15G).

If you really want 3G internet connection, maybe you also can try 3G wireless broadband. And had better choose China Telecom EVDO 3G wireless broadband (the reason please refer to my post: http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/MDForum-viewtopic-t-95540.phtml ).

scootley

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Posts: 10

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Posted: July 14, 2009 - 02:13 PM

Thanks for the information. But China Mobile's 3G will not work with my phone, because it is TD-SCDMA. Is that correct? Or does China Mobile have 3G HSPA/WCDMA 2100 MHz (UMTS band I) service?

walk-to-heaven

Newbie

Joined: July 07, 2009
Posts: 9

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Posted: July 14, 2009 - 05:35 PM

yes. it seems that you have to buy a new 3G phone to fit TD-SCDMA of China Mobile.

scootley

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Posts: 10

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Posted: July 14, 2009 - 05:56 PM

Ok. Can I get a pre-paid SIM for 2G data services, like GPRS and EDGE, and use this SIM with my phone, which is quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900?

walk-to-heaven

Newbie

Joined: July 07, 2009
Posts: 9

Status: Offline

Posted: July 14, 2009 - 10:46 PM

Both China Unicom & China Mobile provide prepaid SIM card for 2G data service. Are you currently a China Unicom user or China mobile user? If you are the user of CU or CM in other place, you just need to apply for certain type of 2G data service for your current SIM card. Roaming free. If not, you can buy a prepaid SIM card in Shanghai.

The charge for 2G data service (GPRS&EDGE) of China Moblie is same as its 3G. You call them on 10086 to apply for certain type of 2G data service(e.g. 5RMB for 30MB per month)which is not valid untill the first day of next calendar month. Before it goes into effect, you are charged by 0.01RMB/KB.

The charge of 2G data service (GPRS only)of China Unicom is as below:
Monthly Fee Data Load
5RMB 30MB
20RMB 150MB
100RMB 2.5G
200RMB 6G
Charge for overusage: 0.005RMB/KB.
You call them on 1013089 to apply for certain type of 2G data service(e.g. 5RMB for 30MB per month)which is not valid untill the first day of next calendar month. Before it goes into effect, you are charged by 0.01RMB/KB.

From my judgement, your phone can be compatible with the prepaid SIM cards.

scootley

Squeeker

Joined: July 12, 2009
Posts: 10

Status: Offline

Posted: July 14, 2009 - 11:10 PM

So if this is prepaid, what is the meaning of something like "5 RMB for 30 MB per month" ?
Does this mean that each month they will automatically deduct 5 RMB from my prepaid balance? I am not familiar with automatic recurring charges for a prepaid SIM.

Thanks for the help.

compsolutions

Rocker

Joined: Mar 07, 2009
Posts: 692
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline

Posted: July 14, 2009 - 11:50 PM

Prepaid means you buy a sim card, with a fixed amount on it.
You then buy additional credit to add funds as / when you need them. These are widely available around the city.

BIG CAVEAT
If you go to a different city, you cannot buy more credit.
Each telecom is regional.
Only Shanghai Telecom credit will work for Shanghai based sim cards.

If you will be travelling around China, buy sufficient credit *IN THE CITY YOU BOUGHT THE CARD FROM* to use it.

Otherwise you will need to phone someone in Shanghai, or Beijing or wherever you bought the card in order to buy another scratch card and read it to you over the phone.

-----

If they say they will deduct XX amount each month, that means they will deduct that amount from whatever your current credit is.

eg

You buy a sim card pack for 100RMB

You get a sim card and 100rmb credit
You subscribe to GPRS (something along the lines of send a message to the 10086 with CXGPRS, check my other post for exact details) for 5RMB a month.

2nd month, they deduct 5RMB
So your credit is now 95RMB assuming you haven't done anything else with the sim.

If you look at one of my recent posts about GPRS, you'll see whats on offer.

China Telecom does not offer 3G other than a homegrown 3G standard. They don't like it either, but the government forced them to...

China Unicom offers 3G as per the rest of the worlds standard.
Unfortunately China Unicom coverage is... less than satisfactory, and they seem to be quite spammy compared to China Telecom in regards to SMS's received.

3G isn't really available anyway outside of the main tier 1 cities.
Anyone that says otherwise hasn't actually tried to use it.

That said, its getting rolled out, but my experience with it, is who cares, and its too expensive.

GPRS / EDGE (whatever you like to call it) on the other hand is available almost everywhere you get a phone signal, so coverage is reasonably decent.
It not exactly fast, but it is usable for mail etc.

If you will be in the major cities - Beijing, Shanghai etc, you will probably end up using wifi. Its pretty ubiquitous here, and cheap (most places will give free access).

If you want data only, you can buy cards with stored value - like 2G a month for a few hundred rmb for a year service bundled with a usb wifi card. Lots of options for that, mostly from the 3rd tier telecoms.

Any other questions, ask away.

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scootley

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Joined: July 12, 2009
Posts: 10

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Posted: July 15, 2009 - 12:09 AM

Thanks compsolutions. To be specific, walk-to-heaven has said above that China Unicom offers 3G, but for 2G they only offer GPRS (and NOT EDGE), which is sad because GPRS is so slow compared to EDGE. And it has also been said above that China Unicom 3G is not available as a prepaid service (where I can just show up as a tourist, buy a prepaid SIM, and activate it instantly with no documentation [that a tourist wouldn't have], no contract, and no waiting).

Apparently China Mobile has 3G prepaid but as both of you have said, it will not work with my phone. But China Mobile has 2G prepaid which will work with my phone and supports EDGE (not just GPRS).

Are China Telecom and China Mobile the same company 2 different companies both offering SIM cards and mobile service?

compsolutions

Rocker

Joined: Mar 07, 2009
Posts: 692
Location: Shanghai
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Posted: July 15, 2009 - 12:48 AM

Where I write China Telecom I mean China Mobile.
They used to be the same company, but were split up a little while ago. I still think of them as the same, for all intents and purposes they pretty much are.

In actuality its China Mobile (Shanghai), China Mobile (region x...), each region has different pricing, packages, and rules.

The 4 (2 actually) major providers here are:

China Telecom / Mobile (your choice of name really) - the original telecom company here.
Used to be the same company, but got split and now China Telecom is banned from doing wireless (although they're looking into ways to do that also), their wireless arm is China Mobile.

China Railcom - the railway (hasn't really done much with its infrastructure, although has some potential for long range data connectivity). Got bought by bigger daddy - China Mobile

China Unicom - used to be the army (PLA baby all the way!)

China Netcom - Totally not Jiang's baby at all, no,no, no... They got bought by China Unicom though, so don't really exist anymore except as a subsiduary.

Telecom / Mobile is government run for the most part - pricing is set by government, it used to be a government organization, albeit one that makes tons of money.

China Telecom is the landline equivalent of it. They are seeing their income getting decimated by the Mobile companies, and pretty much landlines are only being installed by businesses. They are raking it in for data though, although the mobile companies are eager to encroach there also.

Lesson over.

If you read what I wrote - both companies offer 3G.

China Telecom doesn't offer 3G that you can use unless you are willing to buy a phone for a standard that offers little support, and in all probability will be phased out as soon as the government lets them. China Telecom has been trialling normal 3G as per the west, and is just waiting for permission really... Won't happen for a few years though, although I do predict local 3rd tier China Mobile regional Telecom's trying their luck...

China Unicom offers 3G you can use, although only for subscription.

If you want data only (as in no voice), there are other options, including prepaid.

Instead of making life difficult for yourself, do the following:

Bring a passport, buy a simcard.
Subscribe to GPRS service for 20RMB a month so you don't get raped on data charge fee's.
Use as appropriate.

The 3G services here don't work that well inside the city, and don't work period in most other places. EDGE / GPRS (they're both +- the same for all intents and purposes, just with different names) works adequately for general emergency I need some email use.

If you need something faster, find somewhere with wifi. Shanghai is *covered* with wifi, especially in business / foreign friendly area's.

Just to add to the confusion, China Mobile offers 3 different choices of cards.

You want the M-Zone one, as its most applicable to your needs.
Read here for details:

http://www.chinamobile.com/en/mainland/products/mzone.html

scootley

Squeeker

Joined: July 12, 2009
Posts: 10

Status: Offline

Posted: July 15, 2009 - 01:31 AM

Thanks for the help. And to activate the data for a SIM it seems I need to call a number (see previous posts) or send a special SMS.

Thanks for the tips on 3G and M-Zone. EDGE and GPRS are only about the same if you don't care about bandwidth. EDGE is about 4 times faster.

compsolutions

Rocker

Joined: Mar 07, 2009
Posts: 692
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline

Posted: July 15, 2009 - 05:03 AM

EDGE / GPRS are the same as far as China Telecom is concerned, so you tell them you want GPRS.

Talk about EDGE, they will have zero clue. They do offer EDGE - although speeds are not 4x faster, they are approximately the same here, for values approaching crappy slow.

There isn't much difference here between EDGE and GPRS speeds.
You may go on about theoretical yadda yadda and this and that, but in practical everyday usage in mainland China, there is no difference, its still slow whatever you use.

Up to you whether you listen to my lengthy advice/ experience or not.

If you read any of my previous posts (search this forum) you will see how to apply for GPRS service.

I'll repeat though:

sms "BLGPRS" to 10086, you'll receive an sms with a list of choices
sms "GPRSxx" where xx corresponds to the fee the per month service you want to subscribe to, they should respond with a confirmation sms.

Alternately, call 10086 and ask for GPRS to be setup on your number. They'll send you an SMS, you'll read the password out to them, and they'll set it up for you.

GPRS settings for China Telecom are:

APN: cmnet
User: cmnet
Password: (leave blank)

Don't use GPRS before setting up a package otherwise they *will* rape you for charges.
Its 3x more for use without a package per KB!, than with a package....

scootley

Squeeker

Joined: July 12, 2009
Posts: 10

Status: Offline

Posted: July 15, 2009 - 10:47 AM

Thanks that's very helpful. I see there is a similar number to apply for China Unicom, which is 1013089. Do you know if I can also set it up over SMS with them?

livestrong

Reacher

Joined: Sep 25, 2007
Posts: 325
Location: Shanghai
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Posted: July 15, 2009 - 11:58 AM

Sorry for stealing the thread for a few seconds.

Hopefully comp.s. help me out here Smile

I currently use the China Mobile pre-paid card, and will be buying the new iPhone 3Gs in a couple of weeks time.

I hardly never travel outside Shanghai, and when I go back home for a visit, I tend to use a local pre-paid card while I'm there.

Anyhow... So after reading the above post, and if I'm not getting this completely wrong now, but I should be able to keep my pre-paid China Mobile card/number and walk down to the China Mobile store on Nanjing and ask them to set me up with their GPRS package. Also ask them to fill up the card with, lets say, 150RMB worth of data usage. But what happens when I have used up the 150RMB worth of data? Will it just stop working, meaning in the same way as it now does when there's no money on the pre-paid card? (I guess this would be the best option, because then you would of course know when it's time to fill up the "data usage" part on the card.)

Or am I missing something here?

Cheers

scootley

Squeeker

Joined: July 12, 2009
Posts: 10

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Posted: July 15, 2009 - 12:56 PM

Yes I believe you can keep your pre-paid China Mobile card/number and either ask them to setup GPRS, or call them (# above), or set it up via SMS. But in addition to them activating the service, you must also configure your iphone with the correct APN for China Mobile, which is also above.

I don't think you fill up the card with "XXX RMB worth of data". You just fill up the card with RMB and it can be used for either data or voice or SMS. So if you use that RMB for data or voice or SMS and it goes to 0 RMB, then you cannot use data or voice or SMS any more. It's just one pool for RMB for all services. So yes it will stop working the same way it does now.

Just note that the 3G will not actually work with the iphone on China Mobile. You will get only 2G (slower) data (and voice) services.

medaman

Talker

Joined: Sep 13, 2008
Posts: 111

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Posted: July 18, 2009 - 12:39 PM

compsolutions wrote:

China Telecom does not offer 3G other than a homegrown 3G standard. They don't like it either, but the government forced them to...

Wrong. China Telecom 3G is based on CDMA2000. Used by other carriers worldwide. Not home grown. A major carrier in the US uses it.

The 'homegrown' 3G standard you're speaking of is TD-SCDMA used by China Mobile.

Are you related to the other ComputerSolution? Both of you seem to be rookies in the technology field but offer advice as if you're professionals?

medaman

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Joined: Sep 13, 2008
Posts: 111

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Posted: July 18, 2009 - 01:01 PM

compsolutions wrote:

What a worthless post. Just because one company was spun off from the other doesn't mean they are the same now. They both offer mobile 3G data service based on different technologies. Get your facts straight and leave out the non-relevant information. Was it intended to make you look smart?

OZDave

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Joined: July 04, 2008
Posts: 342

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Posted: July 18, 2009 - 01:11 PM

I use the CDMA data from China mobile on my iphone.

Once set up they just deduct the rmb at the start of each month from your balance.

If you don't have enough you have to charge it up and call them.

They use the same credit whether it's calls or data.

It is slow... I don't seem to use that much data.

samforeman

Newbie

Joined: Aug 14, 2009
Posts: 1

Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 14, 2009 - 06:06 PM

Just to let you know YOU CAN GET CREDIT IN OTHER PROVINCES
just pop in to the china mobile office and they will do it for you without any hassle whatsoever
in addition many services are available on your phone including data packages listed here above and call waiting answer phone international dialing with some very attractive pricing packages

just give 10086 a call and with their fairly efficient english service should have you up and running no time.

sorry i am unable to inform you about unicom deals.

Enjoy

matty

Raver

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Posts: 479

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Posted: Aug 14, 2009 - 07:39 PM

How much are td-scdma usb modems? Whre do you get them from? What data speeds do they offer?
I talked to a vendor selling Uincom EVDO modem packages and you have to pay up 2400 RMB for 200 hours a month over a year.

I don't want to spend that sort of money given I don't even know how well it wrk on the bus ride to Pudong each morning. Can you get pay as you go for EVDO in China? Otherwise, it's a leap in the dark.

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jamar

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Posted: Aug 16, 2009 - 11:42 PM

I know I'm a little late to answer the original question, but now there is what he/she was asking for. I have one (since Unicom uses UMTS/HSDPA you can get any old 3G phone from most countries except maybe America and it'll work hassle-free; they even pushed the internet settings to my phone so I didn't have to program them into the phone myself). When you buy the SIM it comes with 100RMB of airtime (buy from Best Buy and you get an extra 50). They withdraw 50RMB or 25RMB (depending on if you started using it before or after the 2nd week of the month) and you're put on the "baseline". Try to sign up towards the end of the month for this reason- you're going to get dinged pretty hard by the standard 3G voice rates at 0.36RMB/minute. You'll be happier once the plan kicks in and you get 510 outgoing minutes good anywhere in the country and free incoming. But remember that you start out with 100RMB (or 150RMB) credit; the plan costs 186RMB/month so you're going to have to put more credit on it than they give you to start with.

And for the most recent question, I don't think you can get pay as you go EVDO just for a data card (BTW- China Telecom sells these now; the Unicom branding is because it was more cost-effective to re-use the old stuff rather than junk it all for the purposes of consistent branding). All EVDO plans not attached to a voice plan require at least 12 months' pre-payment. For example, the cheapest EVDO plan is the 150 E+W(W for WiFi) plan which costs 150RMB/month for 60 hours and thus 1800RMB prepayment. Unicom no longer sells EVDO and now sells HSDPA data cards. These are a much better deal for now as Unicom has a half-price special on their data plans until end of September (works like this- sign up now and you get this month and next month for the price of this month; promotion ends October 1 so your rates go back up to normal then). You have to buy the SIM with the data card, though- cheapest deal is 1068RMB (I think, definitely less than 1100RMB) for a data card and 600RMB credit. Lowest plan is 150RMB/month for 5GB usage. Max. speed is 7.2M but speedtest.net pegs it at 1M to/from America and 2M or so to/from Japan. Beware, though, HSDPA coverage is a little spotty(my phone's dropped back to EDGE even in the middle of People's Square metro station).