Is CM GPRS down?

[babygodzilla]

i havent been able to access WAP/GPRS for 2 days now. anyone else?

[FSO]

It's been working fine for me in Beijing, though I have a dedicated GPRS SIM card (i.e. does not support voice.)

[roddy]

I'm still sending MMS to email with no problem, that's on Shenzhouxing. Not sure if that's classed as WAP, GPRS, or neither.

[babygodzilla]

i am also in Beijing. im using M-Zone, does that make a difference. i just tried it 5 seconds ago, still not working. it just wont get a GPRS signal, and i get the error "Service Not Available."

what's your MMS settings roddy? which APN are you using?

btw ive tried both CMWAP and CMNET access points.

[龙文山 Vincent V.]

If you have M-zone, initially, you won't be able to use gprs.

It is however possible to go to a China Mobile office and ask for it. They will suggest you to take a monthly fee arrangement with "limitless" use of gprs. You need to bring your passport to upgrade it as such.

I still have to go and ask for it, because when I sought for help on the subject they reminded me to bring passport and go to a bigger office of their company. They can arrange this.

Their office (size of our Chinese bathroom) next to "Aijia" supermarket was understandably not equipped to do it.

[ipsi()]

I can use GPRS for browsing the web, downloading email, etc without a problem. No idea what I'm on (China Mobile appears at the top of my cellphone).

What I did find is that I get told a similar message when I've run out of money and try to access the internet. Do you have enough money left to make calls? If so, then I've got no idea. If you can't make calls, then you probably can't use GPRS.

[龙文山 Vincent V.]

If you use gprs with China Mobile without a monthly fee arrangement, but with a phone account you have to load by a prepay system, the price is subtracted from your current account. The call and gprs sessions are subtracted together (gprs: 0.03 rmb/kb).

But if you take separate gprs contract, call expenses are calculated separately.

0元........5元........20元........100元........200元........price/month

0mb......10mb.......50mb......800mb......2gb............amount/month

0.03元......0.01元.....0.01元......0.01元.....0.01元......extra per month per mb exceeded

[ipsi()]

Hmm... I'm sure it seems more expensive than that. I also wish New Zealand had something that nice.

For comparison:

61 RMB / month gives you 3MB. That's right. Three Megabytes. 12.2 RMB / additional MB

116 RMB / month gives you 15MB, with 9.16 RMB / additional megabyte.

217 RMB / month for 200MB, 2.7 RMB / additional MB

325 RMB / month for 1 GB, 2.7 RMB / additional MB

433 RMB / month for 3 GB, 2.7 RMB / additional MB

That's post-paid plans only, not pre-paid. I'm not sure if the China Mobile ones are pre- or post-paid plans?

Also, the last three are also what you would pay for Wireless access using the network and a modem ("Vodem") supplied by the Telecom company.

[龙文山 Vincent V.]

Ok, I got a gprs contract with China Mobile, added to my M-Zone prepay phonenumber.

I got the 100RMB/month one for a unlimited use until 800mb, my girlfriend also wanted one and she got the 20RMB/month for 50mb.

What happens is that the amount you got for M-Zone calls, will simply decrease monthly by the amount of your contract.

Settings are:

-access point name: cmnet

-user name: cmnet

-password: cmnet

To get this done; go to a big China Mobile office, bring your passport and a card with your Chinese name on it (e.g. student card or work card). No additional fee is needed. If you have still plenty of money on your M-Zone or other CM account, like say: 250RMB. Or just add money to your phone account as usual, but than a bit more.

After you applied for the gprs contract, you need to wait one day before you are able to use it.