Can anyone explain mobile phone contract rate plans?

[prolyfik]

Hi,

Been searching around for information online in English, but can't find anything that clearly explains the details of current mobile phone contract plans...

I'm looking for info for either China Mobile and/or China Unicom.

I know that I can buy a SIM card on the street (30-100RMB) and use prepay phone cards to recharge it - the cost is .6RMB/minute, right?

But, I also hear there are "rate plans" that are available. Some still use prepay recharge cards and just deduct the monthly fee from your credit - some of these include some number of "free" SMS messages. Others require payment at the end of the month based on your usage.

Anyone have advice on these? I'm mostly interested in only using my mobile in China and not for international roaming or international phone calls...

Any help would greatly be appreciated as I hope to get a new SIM card in the next few days...

Thanks!

[prolyfik]

I went by China Mobile today and got the following information....

There were three different general types of service.

Type A

Sorry, didn't get much information on it, but the general description was that it was good if you didn't use your phone very much for messages or talking.

Type B (I think it was called "Dong Gan Di Dai")

There are various choices of monthly rate plans. The most basic are a 20 yuan per month plan that includes 300 free text messages or a 20 yuan per month plan that includes 200 text messages and 30 free minutes. There are other plans that are more expensive versions of that. The phone uses regular China Mobile recharge cards and deducts the monthly fee at the beginning of each month. Charges for talking on the phone are 9am-11pm 0.25RMB/minute and 11pm-9am 0.15RMB/minute.

Also, with this rate plan there is national roaming, but no global roaming. You can use the service around China with extra fees outside of Beijing, but there is no service outside of China. And, you can only recharge the phone using Beijing China Mobile Cards.

Type C (I can only remember half the name "Quan Qiu X X")

This plan is for those who travel outside of China and wish to use their phone. There are various choices within this type of plan. The one explained to me had a charge of 50 RMB/month that did not include any messages or minutes. The plan allowed the user to use the phone anywhere in the world, but I think there is a deposit of some sort to activate that roaming service. I believe the billing is done at the end of the month - meaning it is not a prepaid service. And the per minute charges were a standard 0.40 RMB/minute...I'm pretty sure.

This is NOT a comprehensive list of options, but is the information I have gathered so far. Also, this is only for China Mobile - I do not yet know what China Unicom provides as far as service options.

I hope this is useful to folks and that someone more knowledgeable posts some better information!

Thanks!

[roddy]

Sounds like

神州行 - the basic PAYG package.

动感地带 - PAYG with added extras - aimed at teenagers / young folk who want stuff like MMS without much of a financial commitment.

and

全球通 - the full, contract, service.