Telephone for China?

[NickF]

ChunMei's going back to China for a month and a half in May, and wants to have a phone she can use to make local calls while she's there. We're currently under contract with T-Mobile, and when she was last in China she learned that the SIMM card slot T-Mobile uses won't take whatever they use for SIMM card format in China.

 

She want me to buy her an $300 unlocked Blackberry for six weeks of usewhile she's there. Since the cards are incompatable with our current phone carrier she can't use it here when she comes back. I still have a year before our T-Mobile contract expires, so changing US phone carriers isn't an option.

 

Anybody got any advice?

[Randy W]

ChunMei's going back to China for a month and a half in May, and wants to have a phone she can use to make local calls while she's there. We're currently under contract with T-Mobile, and when she was last in China she learned that the SIMM card slot T-Mobile uses won't take whatever they use for SIMM card format in China.

 

She want me to buy her an $300 unlocked Blackberry for six weeks of usewhile she's there. Since the cards are incompatable with our current phone carrier she can't use it here when she comes back. I still have a year before our T-Mobile contract expires, so changing US phone carriers isn't an option.

 

Anybody got any advice?

 

 

The GSM SIM (e.g., T-Mobile) cards are compatible between China and the US. The CDMA carriers (e.g. Verizon) in the US do not use a SIM card.

 

She can use the Blackberry in the U.S. - in fact, with her current T-Mobile SIM card.

 

from Wikipedia

 

Many GSM phones support three bands (900/1,800/1,900 MHz or 850/1,800/1,900 MHz) or four bands (850/900/1,800/1,900 MHz), and are usually referred to as tri-band and quad-band phones, or world phones; with such a phone one can travel internationally and use the same handset.

 

My Chinese phone, a GioNee, is only 2 band and did not have the band needed for the US - I was unable to use it on a trip to the US.

[dnoblett]

It's not that the SIM Card is not compatible, it is that T-Mobile has locked the phone in a way to prevent use of a sim card, you may want to contact T-Mobile about unlocking the phone, they may hit you with the contract breaking fee, or they may prorate the fee considering time you have been with carrier.

 

With our last carrier, I had enough of the high per month phone bills and being locked into a contract, so we bought outright a couple unlocked ATT iPhone 4 phones, and got SIM cards from Straight Talk Mobile and been quite happy, and if and when my wife visits china again she can swap out the straight talk SIM for a China Tel SIM.

 

Two other options.

• Look on ebay for a cheap cell phone that works with SIM that is not locked.
• Get a phone in China, my wife simply used an older phone her sister had the last time she visited China.

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R1&_nkw=att+cell+phones&_sacat=0&_from=R40

[credzba]

ChunMei's going back to China for a month and a half in May, and wants to have a phone she can use to make local calls while she's there. We're currently under contract with T-Mobile, and when she was last in China she learned that the SIMM card slot T-Mobile uses won't take whatever they use for SIMM card format in China.

 

She want me to buy her an $300 unlocked Blackberry for six weeks of usewhile she's there. Since the cards are incompatable with our current phone carrier she can't use it here when she comes back. I still have a year before our T-Mobile contract expires, so changing US phone carriers isn't an option.

 

Anybody got any advice?

I found that as long as your phone (with AT&T) was not locked into a contract they would unlock it.

In countries that AT&T does not have service, they will unlock it.

 

As others said, you can buy a cheap unlocked phone almost anywhere, but there is a high probability TMobile will unlock her phone for you before she goes.

[NickF]

Thanks. I'll see what T-Mobile says.

[george lee]

my blackberry was unlock by t-mobile after 1 year into the 2 year contract. i was able to use china sim card with my t-mobile unlock BB. good luck

[NickF]

Talked to T-Mobile yesterday, and since our phones are basic phones, not smartphones, they say there's nothing they can do.

 

The guy at T-Mobile told me that the only phone he's sure will work in China with Chinese cell towers is the iPhone, and he'd be happy to sell me one for $500, along with a $70 a month data plan. We don't need smartphones and a data plan. so I think I'm just going to have ChunMei buy a phone when she gets to China. Personally I think the guy's just jerking me around.

 

I did find the following website.

http://www.ahappydeal.com/unlocked-cell-phones-c-1748.html

 

Anybody know anything about them?

[Randy W]

Talked to T-Mobile yesterday, and since our phones are basic phones, not smartphones, they say there's nothing they can do.

 

The guy at T-Mobile told me that the only phone he's sure will work in China with Chinese cell towers is the iPhone, and he'd be happy to sell me one for $500, along with a $70 a month data plan. We don't need smartphones and a data plan. so I think I'm just going to have ChunMei buy a phone when she gets to China. Personally I think the guy's just jerking me around.

 

I did find the following website.

http://www.ahappydeal.com/unlocked-cell-phones-c-1748.html

 

Anybody know anything about them?

 

You can also Google "unlock Blackberry codes" to find a number of web sites that will provide the code and tell you how to do it yourself.

 

You'll get something like this, depending on your phone's MEI code

 

Unlock Code: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Click Here for Unlocking Instructions

If nothing happens when clicking on the above please copy and paste the following link in your Internet Browser : http://www.cellunlock.net/Unlocking_Instructions_s/19.htm

 

Of course, there isn't anything wrong with buying one that's already unlocked.

 

An unlocked phone will work in either China or the US, as long as you have the appropriate SIM card.

 

[dnoblett]

Talked to T-Mobile yesterday, and since our phones are basic phones, not smartphones, they say there's nothing they can do.

 

The guy at T-Mobile told me that the only phone he's sure will work in China with Chinese cell towers is the iPhone, and he'd be happy to sell me one for $500, along with a $70 a month data plan. We don't need smartphones and a data plan. so I think I'm just going to have ChunMei buy a phone when she gets to China. Personally I think the guy's just jerking me around.

 

I did find the following website.

http://www.ahappydeal.com/unlocked-cell-phones-c-1748.html

 

Anybody know anything about them?

$500 and then $70 a month for a data plan, that's stupid. I bought the iPhone 4 refurbished for $399 and Straight Talk unlimited (Talk/TXT/Data) is $45 a month. Why do the major companies spank people so hard.

 

Again look for an unlocked phone cheap, and use that in China, or simply buy a phone and SIM card over there and not worry about this.

[NickF]

I just don't want to buy a $300 phone used only to make phone calls and send text messages. Neither of us need internet access on our phones. I think buying a cheap phone when she gets to Nanning is the way to go.

[johnxiaoying]

 

• Look on ebay for a cheap cell phone that works with SIM that is not locked.

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R1&_nkw=att+cell+phones&_sacat=0&_from=R40

 

That's what I did two years ago. Bought it from an ebay vendor located in Hong Kong, less than $30 delivered to the US. Got to Guilin and went to the local phone shop near moms home and got a sim card for cheap.

[dan1984]

 

 

• Look on ebay for a cheap cell phone that works with SIM that is not locked.

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R1&_nkw=att+cell+phones&_sacat=0&_from=R40

 

That's what I did two years ago. Bought it from an ebay vendor located in Hong Kong, less than $30 delivered to the US. Got to Guilin and went to the local phone shop near moms home and got a sim card for cheap.

 

Definitely the way to go~~

[Doug]

Wife and I just got a 3rd chinese phone where you prepay the minutes. Cheap and works fine.

 

Skype is for USA and china talk, and she can call my mobile from her computer as long as I have some dollars there, it is cheap. Also I can call her cell phone on Skype.

 

For phone to phone we use pincity.com for low rate good quality talk. There are only a few cities in China with the connection number but the in china long sistance isn't so bad. She rarely does that, but I call her all the time this way from the car.

[danb]

Hello. I have had AT&T unlocked most of my phones before I go to China. Usually they haven't had a problem with it. This last time they were unwilling to do it for me. One reason that they had given me was because the phone was too new. I had just gotten it from them perhaps less than 2 months before leaving for China. At the end of last year they have been some decision made by Library of Congress that cell phones are illegal to unlock. Not sure what the phone company will respond to requests to unlock one's phone now. I would like to hear what they say.

 

But if you can get a unlocked phone here or over there I would look for a quad band phone if you want it for both use in China and the USA. . Then you won't have to worry if you have the correct band. When you were talking about a Blackberry phone I was thinking that you talking about a phone with a data plan, that doesn't seem like the case. Like many others have suggested buying a phone in China for use in China might be the way to go. The cost should be cheap enough and then you don't have to worry about it working in the US and China. And also a phone bought in China should already come unlocked. Good luck. Danb

 

A sim card at the airport cost me 100 RMB. That got me started. Not so many minutes but I don't used it that much Just "hello" and "I am lost type" phone calls. Also I think new phones in China can be had for about 500-1000 RMB unless you are looking for Iphone. They cost something like 650-800 USD.