Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Choosing a Provider (and Handset)
When it comes to the best value, the offerings are surprisingly similar, although China Tele-
com does tend to be cheaper on the whole. The trick to keeping your costs low is to find
out what deals are available. Ask your Chinese friends and quiz the sales representative for
what's currently on offer. People in China love the
tàoc
ā
n
(
套餐
), which roughly translates
as “set meal,” and when activated, they can often save you more than RMB100 per month.
Deals can include such things as spending RMB20 per month and getting free texts or calls
to a given value in return. You don't need to be on a fixed plan to activate these—prepaid
numbers have various money-saving options, too.
Before committing yourself to a mobile company or even a new handset, it can be useful
to consider what kind of network you'll need to use most when outside of China, especially
if you travel a lot. Like China, the United States uses both CDMA2000 and W-CDMA net-
works. Other countries, however, may use only one system. Your communication within the
two countries will run a lot more smoothly if you're keeping to the same network type. If
your home or primary business destination is Australia, for example, which uses W-CDMA,
then a number with China Unicom and a handset that also supports W-CDMA will be the
best combination. If you have a CDMA2000 SIM card from your home country that you
would like to continue to use on your Chinese handset when back there, it may work out
better for you to go with China Telecom here and a handset that uses CDMA2000. If you
want or have an iPhone, you can strike China Mobile off your list. At the time of writing,
negotiations between China Mobile and Apple regarding a China Mobile GSM version of
the iPhone were still in a longstanding gridlock.
Another consideration, particularly for those who frequently fly back and forth between
the mainland and Hong Kong, is a native number for both regions. These are offered by
China Unicom only, and though more expensive than local numbers, they're cheaper than
using the international roaming alternative.
Setting Up an Account
There are three options when it comes to paying for a phone or phone account in Beijing.
The first is the prepaid option (
预付费
,
yùfùfèi
), by which you add money to the phone and
then use it up. This is probably best if you make only a handful of calls each month, par-
ticularly as the valid period of your credit can last for many months. You can add credit by
buying recharge cards (
充值卡
,
ch
ō
ngzhík
ǎ
) at newsstands and some convenience stores,
or by transferring money via Zhifubao (Alipay), Lakala, or the JiaoFeiYi machines.
