Cell Phone (Service) Search

Steve here.

So I took a friend to help me get 3G for my phone, expecting the help to be invaluable. It was.

In China, there are few cell phone plans that are yearly, and you can get numbers without even telling them your name. Then you just pay for what you use. It's much cheaper than the USA.

I pay about 5 dollars a month.

But getting some things are more difficult. For example, I want unlimited data for my smartphone. I don't want to pay for a certain amount and then be cut off, nor do I want to pay exorbitant amounts for using more than I'm allotted. Unlimited is not available for me.

Why? First of all, I have to use China Unicom. We first went to China Mobile, where I hoped to use my same number as always. Unfortunately, my phone does not work with their system, and they said China Unicom uses what my phone has.

Bummer. I have to get a new number after 2 1/2 years.

But my friend doesn't mind and even spares a moment to look at the nearby shops so I can find the "Android Tablet for $100" that I've heard about from my dad and various websites. Sure enough, the Novo 7 Advanced can be bought for 720 RMB, and surely the basic would have cost less than 630 (which is about 100 USD). (Note to those salivating: unfortunately it doesn't have 'Ice Cream Sandwich.') My friend wants one too.

Next, at China Unicom I hear the bad news that there is no 'unlimited service' and getting 2-3Gb per month comes with an expensive package that also allows me to call people all over China for hours on end. But that's both expensive and unneeded.

After figuring and confusion over the cost of each Mb more than a reasonable 300Mb plan (which comes with typical phone service I would normally use), I finally realize that each Gb of usage over my 300Mb will cost almost 50USD. That means I'll have to be careful, but at least I don't have to pay that every month.

So, for now I am paying less than $10 per month for both 3G data service on my smart phone plus an hour of free calls (my normal amount anyway) and 240 text messages.

It's twice as much as I used to pay, but I also have a budget for 10 times what I now have (for work). I'll monitor how I use the service; tell us in a comment below if you want to know how it goes!

Smart-phoning in 3G,
Steve

再见 zaijian！