Can't get mobile Internet to work

[Simon_CH]

Hi

I got myself a China Unicom simcard which works fine for calls and messages but won't connect to the Internet, despite the fact that I got a 800mb/month subscription, anyone got a clue why? I use my HTC Desire from Switzerland, but what I got from the store was that this shouldn't be a problem.

Do I need to register/call somewhere?

Cheers,

Simon

[Sarevok]

I also got the Unicom 3G simcard (the cheaper variant for 96 RMB with 300MB/month, which seems to be enough for me, since I am not that heavy mobile internet user) and the internet also didn't work right out of the box. That was no surprise for me, since I have been visiting a Chinese forum dedicated to my phone (Samsung GT-B7610 Omnia PRO) for quite some time, mainly because the excellent ROMs they provide there. I switched to a Chinese ROM some half a year ago back in Czech Republic, mainly for the easier Chinese support (which is normally quite a pain on Windows Mobile) and it also added to the language immersion thing I was practicing at the time. When flashing a ROM on my device, there are different parts which can be flashed separately, the most important of them being the the ROM itself (containing the new version of the OS and stuff) and a so-called CSC part (containing information about the carriers and the services provided, i.e. the Unicom 3G internet in our case). I only flashed the OS part before and kept the original CSC before, in order to be able to use services of our Czech carriers. I suspected it wouldn't work in China myself and the guys at said forum more or less confirmed it. When I inserted my new Unicom simcard and found out that the 3G indicator didn't appear I just flashed the Chinese CSC and it was working no problem since then.

Now, that was the situation with my device, yours can be a bit different, but I suspect it'll be the same in principle - your device supports the W-CDMA technology Unicom uses, it just can't recognize it as it got no information of there being some carrier called China Unicom and the particular services it offers. I never owned a HTC device or an Android device, but I heard that there are also multiple parts which can be flashed separately with HTC - might be that some of them is similar to Samsung's CSC in its function and flashing that would probably solve the problem (while keeping the original Switzerland version of the OS). I don't know much about Android, might be that there are only some settings to be changed and no need to flash... well, the guys at xda-developers will know for sure (that's probably the best thing about HTC devices - the community support at XDA).

Hope this helps...

[gato]

Simon,

For 3G on China Unicom, try the following settings on your phone:

http://www.ipadforums.net/international-ipad-users/6171-using-3g-ipad-china-china-unicom.html

APN, username, and password are all "3GNET".

[Sarevok]

It seems he is referring to 无线上网卡 or USB 3G modem, which is different from the phone/data plan Simon was writing about (different prices and data limits apply there). Well, it's worth a try, if there is a place to input those settings on Android (I am not able to set anything like this on my WM phone) and if they do work, then all the better... but I suspect, it might not be as easy...

[roddy]

I suspect it'll be the same - you're identified by the SIM card rather than any AP point or username. Not 100% sure mind.

[gato]

if there is a place to input those settings on Android (I am not able to set anything like this on my WM phone)

How about in "start -> settings -> connections"?

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/939996

APN Settings for Windows Mobile

[Sarevok]

Oh, I completely forgot about this, since Samsung has largely overridden these classic WM Settings with its own TouchWiz interface (but unlike the official ROM, they are still accessible in my custom one). It seems that flashing the CSC and the subsequent hard-reset weren't absolutely necessary and it was actually the more complicated way :blink:

吃一堑长一智……

[gato]

Good to know. I didn't quite understand what all that flashing was about. ;)