Technical Question re: using data SIM card

snidely · **Technical Question re: using data SIM card -** 25-03-2013, 21:12

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?

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snidely (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 451 Join Date: 09 May 2005 Location: Berkeley, California and Miami Country:	Technical Question re: using data SIM card - 25-03-2013, 21:12 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? Make use of T-M's UMA/wifi free calling from any place in the world with access to wifi. I use an LG G6, wife an S7) A/o Oct 20, 2013 no need for intl prepaid as T-Mobile U.S. includes voice roaming at 20¢/min (in and out)., unlimited text (in and out), and unlimited data in 140+ countries. My Plan -[6 lines] U.S. T-Mobile unlimited minutes (incoming and outgoing), unlimited text, fast data on each line. that $145/mo. total! . (In U.S. no surcharge for calling a cell.) If a line exceeds 2G of data in a month, pay $10 more for that line. [That only happens a couple times/year.