Cell Phone Carriers

[Corbin]

Verizon Wireless would be the top carrier in the US. If you want a phone and service to work, choose Verizon Wireless.

 

The down side is international calling and roaming. Vodafone owns part of Verizon Wireless, so once Vodafone becomes more of a presence in Asia, so too will Verizon. They do have dual mode/band phones, but Verizon Wireless locks the phones to only accept Vodafone SIM chips.

 

As for outside of the US, GSM phones (Tmobile, ATT Operating system) will be dominate throughout the world for some time to come.

Verizon phones work just fine in China and Hong Kong now. Now as for the rest of Asia I don't know don't really care.

[izus]

....it has a dictionary in it that translates just about any english word you can think of to the chinese script....and if you put it in full chinese language mode, it will also translate the same english words to the chinese pin yin

i did hear about the cool dictionaries.

which phone was it exactly?

[yemmie]

my take is a little bit different.

 

I have several unlocked tri-band gsm phones that require a sim card.

 

when i'm in china, i buy prepaid from a service.

when i'm in usa, i use t-mobile.

 

For me, it was never about 'the carrier', but always about 'the phone'.

I made sure they were unlocked before i bought them.

 

they also work with local country sim cards in italy and the uk.

I have t-mobile. I keep hearing about unlocked. I am quite ignorant. What does this mean? When I have been in China, I have found that the phone does not work well, but I have never unlocked it. It does, of course, have a sim card that came with it when I first got the service. The phone is an old Motorola V-88 (I think). I have no complaints about it as far as using it here in the US, and I have no complaints about T-Mobile in general. But can someone enlighten me in very simple terms what I would have to do to make this phone work well in China, and in an economical way? Thanks.

[steveandrong]

....it has a dictionary in it that translates just about any english word you can think of to the chinese script....and if you put it in full chinese language mode, it will also translate the same english words to the chinese pin yin

i did hear about the cool dictionaries.

which phone was it exactly?

the phone i have that does this is a nokia 5300...i know nokia 5200 also does this....i know can get this phone in the usa, but if bought here, i don't know if it will be set up for the english/chinese translation

[Corbin]

my take is a little bit different.

 

I have several unlocked tri-band gsm phones that require a sim card.

 

when i'm in china, i buy prepaid from a service.

when i'm in usa, i use t-mobile.

 

For me, it was never about 'the carrier', but always about 'the phone'.

I made sure they were unlocked before i bought them.

 

they also work with local country sim cards in italy and the uk.

I have t-mobile. I keep hearing about unlocked. I am quite ignorant. What does this mean? When I have been in China, I have found that the phone does not work well, but I have never unlocked it. It does, of course, have a sim card that came with it when I first got the service. The phone is an old Motorola V-88 (I think). I have no complaints about it as far as using it here in the US, and I have no complaints about T-Mobile in general. But can someone enlighten me in very simple terms what I would have to do to make this phone work well in China, and in an economical way? Thanks.

In simple terms, when a phone is unlocked you can take the sim card in out and put a different one in it that is from a different provider and have it work. The issue I think you are having though is the age of the phone. Some of the older phones will not work in the same places as the newer ones will or just barely work. What you could do is buy an unlocked Tri-band or Quad-band gsm phone and put your T-Mobile sim card in it and then buy a sim card while in China that has a local number.

Edited January 2, 2008 by Corbin (see edit history)

[yemmie]

my take is a little bit different.

 

I have several unlocked tri-band gsm phones that require a sim card.

 

when i'm in china, i buy prepaid from a service.

when i'm in usa, i use t-mobile.

 

For me, it was never about 'the carrier', but always about 'the phone'.

I made sure they were unlocked before i bought them.

 

they also work with local country sim cards in italy and the uk.

I have t-mobile. I keep hearing about unlocked. I am quite ignorant. What does this mean? When I have been in China, I have found that the phone does not work well, but I have never unlocked it. It does, of course, have a sim card that came with it when I first got the service. The phone is an old Motorola V-88 (I think). I have no complaints about it as far as using it here in the US, and I have no complaints about T-Mobile in general. But can someone enlighten me in very simple terms what I would have to do to make this phone work well in China, and in an economical way? Thanks.

In simple terms, when a phone is unlocked you can take the sim card in out and put a different one in it that is from a different provider and have it work. The issue I think you are having though is the age of the phone. Some of the older phones will not work in the same places as the newer ones will or just barely work. What you could do is buy an unlocked Tri-band or Quad-band gsm phone and put your T-Mobile sim card in it and then buy a sim card while in China that has a local number.

Actually, my phone is supposed to be a quad band gsm phone. I remember because, when I got it, I spoke to the service rep for T-Mobile and specified that I wanted the phone to work both in America and in mainland China. Then, I remember vaguely some discussion about unlocking the phone. I think the rep said they would not unlock it for me for one year. That was three years ago. I just never followed up on it,. Then, when you wrote about the quad band gsm phone, it jogged my memory. So now, I guess I could call T-Mobile and ask them to unlock the phone. Once unlocked, does that mean that I could take out the American sim card while in China, put in a Chinese sim card for use over there, then take the Chinese card out when I return to America so I can use it here again. If I am right, then my next question is about payment for use in China. Do I buy prepaid minutes, or do I have to subscribe to an ongoing plan of some kind.

[steveandrong]

my take is a little bit different.

 

I have several unlocked tri-band gsm phones that require a sim card.

 

when i'm in china, i buy prepaid from a service.

when i'm in usa, i use t-mobile.

 

For me, it was never about 'the carrier', but always about 'the phone'.

I made sure they were unlocked before i bought them.

 

they also work with local country sim cards in italy and the uk.

I have t-mobile. I keep hearing about unlocked. I am quite ignorant. What does this mean? When I have been in China, I have found that the phone does not work well, but I have never unlocked it. It does, of course, have a sim card that came with it when I first got the service. The phone is an old Motorola V-88 (I think). I have no complaints about it as far as using it here in the US, and I have no complaints about T-Mobile in general. But can someone enlighten me in very simple terms what I would have to do to make this phone work well in China, and in an economical way? Thanks.

In simple terms, when a phone is unlocked you can take the sim card in out and put a different one in it that is from a different provider and have it work. The issue I think you are having though is the age of the phone. Some of the older phones will not work in the same places as the newer ones will or just barely work. What you could do is buy an unlocked Tri-band or Quad-band gsm phone and put your T-Mobile sim card in it and then buy a sim card while in China that has a local number.

Actually, my phone is supposed to be a quad band gsm phone. I remember because, when I got it, I spoke to the service rep for T-Mobile and specified that I wanted the phone to work both in America and in mainland China. Then, I remember vaguely some discussion about unlocking the phone. I think the rep said they would not unlock it for me for one year. That was three years ago. I just never followed up on it,. Then, when you wrote about the quad band gsm phone, it jogged my memory. So now, I guess I could call T-Mobile and ask them to unlock the phone. Once unlocked, does that mean that I could take out the American sim card while in China, put in a Chinese sim card for use over there, then take the Chinese card out when I return to America so I can use it here again. If I am right, then my next question is about payment for use in China. Do I buy prepaid minutes, or do I have to subscribe to an ongoing plan of some kind.

yes...once the phone is unlocked, it will accept either usa or china sim card and be good to go...just switch the cards back and forth as you are here or there and need to use

[izus]

i ended up calling att for an unlock code yesterday and surprisingly, they emailed me exactly how its done with the codes.

 

i tried to use my verizon last may in beijing, and it just didnt connect.

 

i guess only gsm phones can connect in china not cdma phones.

is this right?

[Guest ShaQuaNew]

i ended up calling att for an unlock code yesterday and surprisingly, they emailed me exactly how its done with the codes.

 

i tried to use my verizon last may in beijing, and it just didnt connect.

 

i guess only gsm phones can connect in china not cdma phones.

is this right?

 

I think it's more related to the frequency of the telephone. 900 MHz is needed in China.

[usaRichard]

Sprint, worked in Bejing, Shangai, Harbin and even from Mutianyu Great Wall.

[Sebastian]

well, this has some 'feet' to it for the topic - but -

 

i don't look at the carrier first, i look at the phone.

if i have to use it in china, i want a sim-card phone that is quad band.

when i'm in china, i swap out the sim cards, have my cell # forwarded to a usa toll free number, which in turn is forwarded to my china cell # (for me, it's about 6 cents a minute incoming for this routing) This is easy for me to do, as my cell carrier (tmobile) and my toll free service (kall8) both have online web portals that handles the forwarding in real time on the internet. A china mobile 'account' does not require a contract, you can get by with prepaid minutes - usually get a new one at GUZ each time I go.

 

ATT and tMobile offer networks that utilize sim cards.

 

with all of that in mind - i buy the phone, first, unlocked.

 

slipping in a sim card in the usa doesn't lock the phone.

 

with that said - if you want other features , like wifi, gprs, you have to make sure the phone you buy actually works with the carrier's wifi or gprs, first, by calling customer service.

 

FWIW, 3g is catching on in China, in a big way, with handphone unit sales to be projected at 100 million by the end of the 2nd quarter. But it's their 3G, not usa 3G - you'll have to check yer phone to see if it works (by calling customer service). So having a GSM phone with SIM card - that 'regular configuration' will be changing over the next 6 months.

 

USA Carriers love to lock ya into a contract - if yer used to a contract and still want your USA telephone number to ring in China, you should call the carrier prior to jumping, and get the special china roaming rate - usually is much less than just 'being in china with yer phone' - i remember tmobile having 29 cents/minute if you called them first and ask for 'overseas usage' .

 

If she likes a phone in China, and it's gsm - yer pretty much gonna be locked into purchasing time with ATT or tmobile - but even then there's no guarantee unless the phone is already quad band.

 

CECT has some interesting GSM phones, I also like the moto razr v8 series (get the 2 gb version, rare, but makes life easier).

Edited March 18, 2009 by Sebastian (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Yes - GSM phones work in China, CDMA do not.

 

That's assuming you have a SIM card that the Chinese carriers will recognize and your service is activated in China.

 

To use a Chinese SIM card, your phone must be unlocked. If your American carrier offers a roaming plan that works in China, you won't need a Chinese SIM, butit will be expensive

[george lee]

http://thetravelinsider.info/roadwarriorco...nlockingfaq.htm

 

http://thetravelinsider.info/roadwarriorco...iaunlocking.htm

 

couple interesting articles explaining unlock phones, gsm and sim cards.

 

i use t-mobile because i can transfer files using bluetooth on my phone to another bluetooth phone. verizon does not support files transfer, only bluetooth headset feature. files transfer can be mp3, pictures, word documents, any files you want. att and t-mobile support files transfer and bluetooth headsets. yeah...i am a geek.

 

i called t-mobile to unlock my blackberry before i went to china last month and worked fine in hk and china, all you need to buy is a 100rmb sim card and 50rmb to recharge your sim card.

[Bert]

Actually, my phone is supposed to be a quad band gsm phone. I remember because, when I got it, I spoke to the service rep for T-Mobile and specified that I wanted the phone to work both in America and in mainland China. Then, I remember vaguely some discussion about unlocking the phone. I think the rep said they would not unlock it for me for one year. That was three years ago. I just never followed up on it,. Then, when you wrote about the quad band gsm phone, it jogged my memory. So now, I guess I could call T-Mobile and ask them to unlock the phone. Once unlocked, does that mean that I could take out the American sim card while in China, put in a Chinese sim card for use over there, then take the Chinese card out when I return to America so I can use it here again. If I am right, then my next question is about payment for use in China. Do I buy prepaid minutes, or do I have to subscribe to an ongoing plan of some kind.

 

Before I bought my last phone, I had them unlock the phone before I bought it. The rep was able to make the case that I had been a customer for the last 5 years. You should be able to take the Sim card out and replace it with a Chinese Sim card. In Shanghai at least, you have to have someone with a Chinese ID to get a Sim card. You just buy a set value, such as a 50 or 100 RMB card, not minutes. You can subscribe to an international plan (you can do it via text message). It will cost you a few RMB a month. It pretty insignificant (1-2 RMB, or so, I don't remember). You have to put a 12593 (in Shanghai with China Mobile) before you dial the US. It costs 0.4 RMB a minute and incoming calls are free. The international calling plan only works in the region in which you bought it.

[izus]

from my findings the only way a verizon or sprint cellphone will work in China is if the phone is a hybrid gsm/cdma. being that sprint and verizon run on cdma only available in the US.

t-mobile and at&t run gsm.

 

i plan on bringing my wifes at&t phone and switching sim cards after i unlock it.