Btw, just a shed of light, for a good SIM card to use in China, check out cellomobile.com , they charge only $0.25/min. for all incoming and outgoing calls to USA, and local.

If you don't get it from ATT, we can provide code for you
www.expressunlockcode.com

Most cell phone companies will unlock your phone for international use on certain bands for a one time charge. It will also be for a definite period (1 month or something like that). Normally that involves you using a SIM of a cell service provider in that country that is affiliated with your own carrier.

The bad news is yes u would have to unlock it because of the AT&T software, so that would be the first step. This phone is Quad-band so yes the 3rd party sim card should work fine. But let me suggest that u should get a world phone, all major carriers have these phones (most of the phones are Blackberry). Sounds to me that u are a busy person always traveling somewhere and this would be a solution for future matters. Hope this helps.

I'm studying abroad in Shanghai this summer, and have been doing research on various options for a telephone while I'm over there.

I'm contemplating a service plan on ekit.com (which involves a 3rd-party SIM card replacing my ATT-provided one), which I can't link to because this is my first post.

I have just two questions:
a) Will the Shine work in China? It supposedly does support the 850/1900mHz band, but is this capability disabled by default? How do I enable it?
b) Do I need to unlock my phone in order to use the SIM card from this international plan?

Any advice you could shed on the topic (or of any better solutions) would be greatly appreciated!