United Mobile Roaming and Prepaid Cards in Red China
 

Somehow we don't have any information about mainland China here, neither in this forum nor on in the list of national GSM operators.

Anyway, I'm going there over Christmas, according to the United Mobile website you can use your UM SIM there, though it doesn't say on which network (China Mobile or China Unicom).
While I'm there I'll try to get some information about the local prepaid cards, AFAIK buying them is comparably easy, the price often depends on the phone number though.

If you already have some infos I'd be happy if you could provide me with them, and if you have some special questions feel free to post them here and I'll see whether I can find some answers. :-)

Re: United Mobile Roaming and Prepaid Cards in Red China
 

Unicom, check this PDF: http://www.fl1.li/roaming/Roaming_Provider_LIE.pdf
The 1st question: GPRS on chinese prepaid simcards :)

not much info on the English pages - just brand and PR type stuff I think

http://www.chinamobile.com/ENGLISH/services.html

http://www.chinaunicom.com.cn/english/


I've read that internet cafes are common and very cheap - so you might wonder about one of those USB sticks with VoIP set-up in it (unless owners don't like people plugging in extra stuff?)

Outgoing calls won't be a problem since I will be using Skype at my home away from home. :-)

I basicly just need my UM card for some incoming calls, good thing I'll mostly be staying in cities considering that China Unicom's GSM coverage doesn't seem to be that great.

A friend of mine used UM in China in the last 2 years travelling aroung many cities... he didn't have any particoular problem. A pretty coverage in rural areas too... from North to South :wink:

>bout United Mobile: it doesn't work here.
I returned from China yesterday with the same result.

United Mobile wasn't working at all. I've been to Shenzhen and parts of Guangdong and Hainan provinces. In Hong Kong, the card worked, but a "3(2)" SIM card did only cost 65 HKD with a 65 HKD calling credit on it. Calls to the US cost 0.27 HKD (3.5 ct US) a minute during peak hours.

09.is worked in Shenzhen only.

It is strange that Um is not working in China. Can you tell us if in the provinces you were, there was not good coverage of Unicom?

>there was not good coverage of Unicom?
Unicom coverage was o.k. in all places I checked the available networks. However as mentioned China Mobile wouldn't register at all, while Unicom looked like it would accept the card, but there was a constant "!" in front of "CUGSM" on the display. When I tried to make a call the result was a "Network busy".

This was the same everywhere I've been to in Guangdong and Hainan provinces. I tried it on a Motorola L6 and a Siemens S86. Since Gryphone confirms this, it seems that they finally kicked UM.

Um support told me that they have a 'temporary problem' with Unicom and that they would solve this latter (did not mention when!)

United Mobile - China Problems
 

Second month in a row problems connecting in China. Customer Service response was pretty quick but they claim their is a network problem in China. So the bottom line is it doesn't work in China until until further notice.

strange
 

Strange, I had no problems with the riiing card, all of august, sept, 2005 throughout china.

incoming or outgoing calls?

None! A friend is in there and nothing works.....

From CS they told me that they will fix it (who nows when....)

Who calls it "Red China" any more, anyway?!!??

Well, you need something to distinguish the People's Republic of China from the Republic of China, Hong Kong and Macau, since the regions each have different networks. And I'd say "People's Republic of China" is a bit long and since they are still communist-ruled: what's wrong about "Red China"?