Data roaming experience in western China

Before a recent trip to western China I got my Captivate unlocked, and
tested it with a cheap T-Mobile SIM card.

All the hotels I stayed in had plug-in internet but only two had (very
slow) WiFi and in one of those the signal was only usable while standing
in the middle of a long corridor. So in Kashgar I bought a cheap China
Mobile SIM card. It worked for phone calls but not for data. I received
a flurry of SMS messages, all in Chinese, some of which looked like setup
info. But my translator couldn't translate cellphone setup lingo and
despite multiple attempts, I never did get data to work. After about a
week regular telephone didn't work either.

A couple of tries with the AT&T SIM card at using Google Earth to see
where I was generated a "you are using excessive data message" and the
nice fellow at customer services (free call) said it was a couple hundred
dollars. Happily, he was able to switch that month, retroactively, to a
$25/50MB plan, thus saving a bundle.

In the departure area when leaving via Beijing airport I saw vending
machines for SIM cards and a desk where they had SIM cards - and perhaps
knowledgeable people who could get them running. As I said, that was
in the departure area when returning to the US.

"It's cloudless in western China"

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On 2011-11-13, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
> Before a recent trip to western China I got my Captivate unlocked, and
> tested it with a cheap T-Mobile SIM card.
>
> All the hotels I stayed in had plug-in internet but only two had (very
> slow) WiFi and in one of those the signal was only usable while standing
> in the middle of a long corridor. So in Kashgar I bought a cheap China
> Mobile SIM card. It worked for phone calls but not for data. I received
> a flurry of SMS messages, all in Chinese, some of which looked like setup
> info. But my translator couldn't translate cellphone setup lingo and
> despite multiple attempts, I never did get data to work. After about a
> week regular telephone didn't work either.

If I'm not trying to travel light I often carry a small WiFi router (mine
is an Apple Airport Express, but I wouldn't recommend this because the
configuration process is so wretched and requires a laptop) to deal with
wired in-room Internet service.

To use data with a SIM card you've purchased you can generally get by if
you can configure the APN information (which I assume some of the magic
text messages might have been trying to configure for you, but those
often don't work when you are using a foreign phone). This consists of a
name, and sometimes a username and password. Google finds lots of lists
of these for particular carriers, e.g. this one:

http://www.flexispy.com/Mobile%20APN...use%20GPRS.htm

Once you know this you just need to know which configuration menu item in
the phone lets you type it in, and use that. Unfortunately, on AT&T phones
finding the right menu item is sometimes a problem since AT&T-specific
firmware sometimes makes the configuration menu disappear when an AT&T SIM
card is in the phone, but if they haven't neutered the phone to the point
of uselessness it should reappear with the T-Mobile SIM, or some foreign
card, inserted. Once you know how to enter the manual configuration you
are usually good to go.

In China, China Unicom is usually a better choice if they provide service
where you are since their 3G service is standard, while China Mobile's
is a made-in-China thing which won't be compatible with your phone.

Dennis Ferguson

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