Survey: What China Mobile plans are you using?

[pazu]

I've just bought a new SIM card in Lhasa, it seems to be more expensive than other cities.

Lhasa Card

Y25/basic monthly fee, free 100 minutes for calling.

Plus Y15/month for 1500 minutes of receiving calls (within Lhasa District)

Plus Y16/month for 200 SMS.

Plus Y13/month, without additional long distance call outside Tibet. I still pay Y0.25 per minute to call to Beijing.

Plus Y20/month for 50MB of GPRS (cmwap only!)

So how much do you pay?

[teachinator]

Maybe the reason you haven't got any answers to this is that most people in China don't have monthly plans. The way my China Mobile phone works is that I buy a card to put money into it, use it till the money runs out, and repeat :-)

The only monthly expense I incur as far as I know is that I pay 10 yuan/month to get SMS messages cheaper. There aren't monthly fees just to have the phone or to make regular calls, only per-minute usage charges. If I go anywhere outside Beijing the calling charges become ridiculous, but since I am just a short-termer here I have just lived with that.

[roddy]

Do Unicom operate in Lhasa? If not the lack of competition might explain the higher prices.

Like many I'm just on Shenzhouxing pay as you go, and I honestly can't even tell you how much it costs. Use it mainly for SMS and quick calls, and MMS photoblogging.The MMS functionality costs me an extra 15Y per month.

[zhwj]

Unicom has no network in Lhasa or most of Tibet. ChinaMobile can charge whatever they want, plus an extra "harsh landscape" surcharge.

[badr]

also.. I've noticed that outside of Beijing, a lot more people sign up for Go-Tone and monthly plans instead of M-zone which is pricier on a per minute basis.

That does play a difference in the price of mobile phones.

[galaygobi]

Like roddy I'm just on the Shenzhouxing pay-as-you-go plan. However, I added the 20Y taocan which gives me 1000/month incoming minutes free.

[cookie_monster]

I was using ShenZhouXing and switched to Unicom for lower pricing reasons. I didn't know about the adding 20Y thing before... Also I found with Unicom there were times when I didn't get msgs or other people didn't get mine, don't know if it has anything to do with Unicom, or my phone or what.

[anonymoose]

How many different service providers are there? I was under the impression that there were only two: China Mobile and Unicom...

[roddy]

Those are the only two 'proper' mobile operators. There's also the Xiaolingtong system, which is operated by Netcom or Telecom depending on where you are.

[anonymoose]

Those are the only two 'proper' mobile operators.

So what is Shenzhouxing if it's not a 'proper' operator? If I just want to get a cheap service that I can use in any part of China to call any part of China (or internationally?), which is the best to get?

And does one sign up to the service at the same time as purchasing the phone, or does one buy the phone first and then get a sim-card from the operator separately?

[venture160]

神州行 is WAY to expensive, you can go throuh 100 RMB a week just on text messaging and low phone call usage.

Right now I am using 中国移动全球通 on my Treo 650. I use the internet heavily and make lots of in-country long distance calls. I am running at about 450 kuai a month.

I am told there is a cheaper packaged from 中国移动if you want to surf the web, but at the time I was buying a new phone it was not available. Its called 动感地带(M-Zone), you pay a flat fee every month and get unlimited internet usage. Its also the best for text messaging, if you start making alot of calls things get expensive though.

[roddy]

On 12/12/2006 at 9:51 AM, anonymoose said:

So what is Shenzhouxing if it's not a 'proper' operator

Sorry for the slight delay in replying. It’s a China Mobile sub-brand.