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

Mspy rastreador de celular tem sido excepcional para os pais rastrearem os telefones celulares de seus filhos. Ele envia notificações automáticas sempre que as crianças chegam a qualquer local. Você pode rastrear toda a rota que seu filho segue. Além disso, existe a eficiência de incorporar outros membros da famÃ*lia na janela. Você também pode decifrar o status da duração da bateria. Se houver circunstâncias de perda ou roubo, você pode usá-lo como um ativo.