iPhone 5 with China Mobile, Telecom or Unicom

[Modena]

Hello!

I have an iPhone 5 LTE from Verizon. I will be living in China for a well over a year again in just a couple of weeks. I am hoping to find out whether or not my phone will work immediately with either of these services by just swapping my sim card without any modifications. Or will I have to jailbreak my phone? This is not a factory unlocked phone since I was using Verizon with it before.

I appreciate your time and help!

[fanglu]

Can't you get Verizon to unlock it?

Edit: Actually, according to the internet, Verizon Iphone 5's are pre-unlocked, so it should just work.

[gato]

iPhone 5 Verizon has WCDMA (3G) and GSM (2G) builtin and so should work with Unicom for 2G and 3G and China Mobile for 2G.

China Telecom uses CDMA, so not sure whether it would work. You can check with them.

See here

http://m.cnet.com/news/ask-maggie-is-back!-which-iphone-5-is-right-for-you/57522837

[oicat]

Mobile network operated by the United States Verizon and China Telecom standard is the same, so it customized cell phone can be normal use of the network of China Telecom. However, Verizon's phone machine card, and China Telecom's mobile phone card from the order in the domestic network must find China Telecom write numbers (or find the telecommunications 5 yards, write your own number) before normal use 》I am Chinese，English is not good,but I think the expression is clear ，if u have other question SMS

[tysond]

Not sure about your iphone working, but I can share that Unicom 3G service is standard (works with many 3G phone e.g. several Windows Phone I've used). However in Beijing I have found service to be very poor and bought a phone supporting the China Mobile network instead because data was just unusable in Beijing. However, China Unicom in Nanjing, Shanghai, Tianjin was fine so I think it's a Beijing network issue on Unicom. So my advice is look carefully at which SIM you will buy before you lock yourself into a big commitment.

[Sarevok]

Not sure about your iphone working, but I can share that Unicom 3G service is standard (works with many 3G phone e.g. several Windows Phone I've used). However in Beijing I have found service to be very poor and bought a phone supporting the China Mobile network instead because data was just unusable in Beijing. However, China Unicom in Nanjing, Shanghai, Tianjin was fine so I think it's a Beijing network issue on Unicom. So my advice is look carefully at which SIM you will buy before you lock yourself into a big commitment.

Had that experience myself recently. I signed up for 1 year contract with Unicom for better rates on one of their 3G plans (getting the 186 RMB plan for some 35% cheaper). For the first few months it was okay, but then I had to move to another place and found out that Unicom's signal coverage in this area was abysmal - I had to get out of the building and then walk some distance to make a call. Unicom doesn't offer femto-cells (a device for extending coverage to a small area using the Internet connection from the ISP), so there I was, stuck with a 3G plan and no way to use it at home... I love my Xiaomi M2 and wouldn't change it for any other phone, so I waited until Xiaomi released a CDMA version and switched to Telecom, which has much better coverage.

So, if the OP already has an iPhone 5 from Verizon (which also uses CDMA network in the US, the same as China Telecom), then I would recommend to go for Telecom. Not only has China Telecom better coverage, but also better prices to boot. And also offers additional mobile data packages, should you exceed your monthly data limit (among others, you can get additional 300 MB for 30 RMB or 800 MB for 50 RMB, which IMHO are a pretty solid prices). Unicom also started offering similar data packages recently, but AFAIK only for old customers who have been using their services for some time.

Unicom is using WCDMA technology as their 3G standard, providing much broader selection of potential handsets... but this becomes a non-issue if you already have an iPhone. They have also been boasting an HSPA+ upgrade for their network in most cities, with theoretical data speeds reaching up to 21 Mbps. Sadly, in my experience, most of it remains theoretical - I have yet to see a true HSPA+ in reality (or that 7.2 Mbps outside major cities for that matter). After using Telecom's 3G network for some time, I found the speed about on par with Unicom in everyday use, despite the maximum theoretical speed of Telecom's network being only 3.1 Mbps.

[skylee]

I used a China Unicom 3G sim card on my android phone during my recent trip to Beijing. It worked, but I think the network was pretty disappointing. Slow, very slow to no signal. If the OP is used to LTE/4G speed it could be quite frustrating.

The card I used does not cover normal phone calls so I can't comment on them.

[gato]

Modena, what city are you going to be in? The quality of each carrier's network varies with the location.