Services of phone companies in China and phone's network protocol

[timeruler]

Sorry I have to move the following questions from a thread with mistach title to a new thread.

Hello, how is the services of the phone companies in China? Do you expect they will provide 4G in the near future?

Yes. I heard that one could get an iPhone 4S for free from China Unicon by signing up a 2-3 year contract. However, somebody mentioned that I have to pre-paid all the fee. In case of breaking the contract, I won't get the money back. Is that right? I am considering either the iPhone 4S or the Samsung Galaxy Note. As I have never used a smart phone, I don't know about the communication type. The Galaxy Note sold in Japan supports LTE, W-CDMA, GSM/GPRS, wifi. The one sold in Hong Kong supports HSDPA 21Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps/3G/EDGE/GPRS Class 33,wifi. To use in China and many other countries such as HK, Japan, Korea, USA, Canada, Europe, which one is recommended? Does it really matter whether I buy it in HK or Japan?

[Caster]

take whichever you want to take, and take it to china, your chinese friends will help

[timeruler]

That is one good idea but I hestitate to let somebody fools around with my expensive phone.

[yialanliu]

If you buy an unlocked Iphone from Apple in the US, you will get 3g on unicom. I do this currently.

Hong Kong Iphones also work 3g on unicome in China.

[timeruler]

Thanks. I heard that free public wifi is not secure and that such free services are not commonly available in China. If I buy an iPhone 4S/Samsung Galaxy Note in HK, can I connect either phone to a MacBook Pro and use it to give internet access to the laptop? If so, what do I need to do that?

[gato]

This calls for Google:

http://www.google.com.hk/search?q=iphone+mac+internet+connection&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=zh-hans&client=safari

iphone mac internet connection