China Unicom Roaming in the US

[Duncan Leung]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has had experience with China Unicom's international roaming service? I'm based in Beijing, and will be traveling to the US for 5 days. I have two options:

1) See if China Unicom has international roaming and use that service while I'm in the US

2) Get a prepaid SIM card in the US

I was thinking that it could be a bit easier to just get the China Unicom roaming. Has anyone had experience using it? Would love your feedback, tips- general things to be aware of.

Thanks, appreciate the help.

[jbradfor]

I don't have any direct experience, but two things come to mind.

General pre-paid SIM cards are quite rare in the USA, at least in my experience. You can probably find them if you look, but they aren't everywhere like they are in China, or even in Europe. I don't recall ever seeing them in USA airports, for example (but then again I wasn't looking for them).

You did confirm that your mobile supports the USA GSM frequency, right?

[gato]

TMobile offers pre-paid plans (called "Pay as You Go").

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Prepaid-Plans-Overview.aspx

[gougou]

If it's just for five days, I'd probably just have Unicom enable international roaming. I have no idea how that is done, but their hotline (10010) apparently speaks English, so you could just ask them directly.

[Duncan Leung]

Thanks all for your help!

I called the China Unicom hotline. Basically, just FYI for those who may be interested.

It doesn't cost anything to activate the international roaming, but you need 500RMB balance on your account before they will activate it.

The rates are:

1.86RMB/min to call a local US number/receive calls from a local US number

4.86RMB/min to call China

0.86RMB/message to text China

1.86RMB/message to text a worldwide number (including US)

Hope that helps others too!

[roddy]

What about charges for incoming text messages / calls while roaming?

[jbradfor]

That's really cheap. I think AT&T charges about USD 2.50 / min for roaming in China (for both calls within China and outside). So yeah, I would say go for it, you don't need to worry about telling people about a different number. [You did confirm your phone supports USA frequency, right?]

Just ensure that where you are going has GSM with whichever carrier China Unicom uses for roaming.

@gato, I know it's possible. AT&T sells SIM cards are well. My point is that you are going to have a much harder time buying one in the USA than in, say, China or Europe. You'll need to find the nearest AT&T or T-mobile store, and I don't even know if they stock them.

[Duncan Leung]

Updated rates are:

1.86RMB/min to call a local US number

1.86RMB/min to receive calls from a local US number

4.86RMB/min to call China

(forgot to ask how much it is to receive a call from China)

0.86RMB/message to text China

1.86RMB/message to text a worldwide number (including US)

0.01/Kb roaming data usage in the US

Free to receive texts worldwide