Technical Question re: using data SIM card
 

We will be in China for 3 weeks starting next week. I have a new Piranha SIM loaded in a dumb phone to take advantage of their very reasonable roaming rates there. (We still would make use of T.Mobile's U.S. free wifi calling feature when we can.) Because of the 15 hour time diff. - there wouldn't be many hours where calls could be made/received.
It appears that the 2 China cell carriers sell SIM cards for data at less than $15 for 2GB. I assume you initially have to pay for the SIM on top of that. It's hard to find info.
So my Question is - I have a Tablet that has an option, when on a cellular network, to set up a wifi hot spot. IF I can do that (by putting a Chinese data SIM in the tablet) - what is to prevent me from making wifi calls from that created hot spot? IF I can do that, what speed connection would I need? GPRS? EDGE, 3G? I can't tell, at first glance, what speeds the data cards operate at?

mike

I forget - how much data does a one minute phone call over wifi use?

you will need ~1 MB/min when calling VoIP over Wifi.

It works patchy on EDGE, so preferrably go for a stable 3G signal.

Yes, data SIM in china are very cheap and they will enable you to use the Wifi Hotspot. Keep in mind that the internet in china is limited, so you might want to look into a VPN account to get a US ip-adress as well.

Chris

I personally will not depend on Piranha (or any one sim for that matter) 100%. It has been reported to have problems holding on to a network connection, and sometimes takes quite a long time to connect. That was my experience in Nigeria last month. Had to go to my backup quickly. Hopefully it works well for you in China.

Roaming SIMs which depend on callback systems run into problems in countries with very high population densitieis. Cellular providers typically prioritize outbound calls over inbound calls because customers notice failed connections on outbound calls first. There can be a million reasons an inbound call goes to voicemail. My sister was in Shanghai in November with a corporate iPhone using straight roaming and had problems with outbound connections.

If you are going to do VOIP Over 3g, I might try Skype in China. Skype is now legal in China and you don't need to worry about blockade running.

Roaming SIMs which depend on callback systems run into problems in countries with very high population densitieis. Cellular providers typically prioritize outbound calls over inbound calls because customers notice failed connections on outbound calls first. There can be a million reasons an inbound call goes to voicemail. My sister was in Shanghai in November with a corporate iPhone using straight roaming and had problems with outbound connections.

If you are going to do VOIP Over 3g, I might try Skype in China. Skype is now legal in China and you don't need to worry about blockade running.

Thanks, all.
I found this site as a source for a 3G data card:
China 3G Mobile Broadband / China 3G SIM card, for rental, hire and sale
The web site is very professional in English. They responded fairly quickly to questions I had. Cost would be $69 for 1.5G, $89 for 3G. They deliver SIM to your hotel and will pick it up if you leave it in a hotel in a different city when you leave. (If you don't return the SIM they charge you $50.) For $10 more, they will give you a VPN to use to access banned services.
We rarely would need to make outgoing calls. I hope Piranha works for incoming. They access both of the main networks in China. I am also hoping most of the hotels we will be at have usable wifi. I had no trouble in Vietnam a year ago using the UMA (wifi) calling feature on my T-Mobile Blackberry. At 1mb/min. for calling over wifi, using the data card would be about 7 cents/min. [I think I did the math right<G>]

...mike

That looks like quite a bit of money, considering the price you mentioned first.

Can you just buy a SIM direct from the network or its shops? You hardly need any language skills. I've bought a SIM before by taking the back of the phone and pointing.

I'm thinking of trying that. I would assume there might be shops right in the airport. Since I have a Piranha phone SIM and wifi calling on both our phones, I don't expect any problems. The cost posted here under the China section is outdated - posted 3 years ago. It gives GPRS data card rates. I can't find such cards. China Unicom, the only provider that seems to sell country wide cards, only shows 3G data cards on its site.
Andy - How do I contribute info to a particular page on this forum? Eg. The website to see products for China Unicom is only in Chinese: It's at: 10010.com Google translate does an excellent job in translating it. How/who would I send updated info to?
A Google search for China Unicom only gives you the corporate site. The link, here, takes you to the corporate site. No product info there AND no links to find it!

It looks like the lowest level data card they sell is for about $50 for 3GB.
Side note: We live in the San Francisco area with lots of Chinese. A large number of them in the heart of both San Francisco and Oakland's China town centers don't speak English! If the Chinese here don't speak English I don't expect much in China. Maybe putting that SIM in my Tablet and using Google translate would come in handy.

It's certainly not the first website I've seen where the English version is almost all PR and investor type info, and no actual product

I thought one of my browsers had a plug in for Google translate, but no, must be the laptop, so just copy and paste ...

You might contact Effendi about updating those pages.

Go to www. Flyertalk.com and go to the forum section. look for Asia. You will see China. Hit the search function and put in China sim card and a load of information comes up. There is a 9 page thread about where to buy sim cards about four articles down. It is old,but still has good information on where to buy. Have you looked at peoples sim card and Unicom sim card. It always shows up in English on my computer. I have had several trips planed but they have always fallen through. Hope this helps.