China Mobile – the definitive guide

Here’s some really useful information I wish I knew from the start.  Most of it was rather painfully obtained, through trial and error (lots of errors).

• Firstly, the English support is really good.  Ring 12580 [NB: I was told today that the correct line for changing plan details is 10086].  The automatic menu may not be, but the people are.  Use it!  It’s far better than getting a chinese speaker to ask the questions for you, and then translating for you – unless they are *really* good at english.  Telecommunications lingo isn’t exactly the first thing they teach in english class.

Plans and Expiry

• When you walk into a shop and get a SIM card, you are put on a prepaid plan.
• You may be told “your number will not expire so long as there is money on the account”
• This is true.  Sort of.  What I didn’t know is that China Mobile will deduct money from your account every month as a monthly-fee.  So if you want to keep your number alive for when you return – make sure there’s enough yuan in the account to pay the monthly fees until you return.
• Also, there are expiry dates – I think it’s half a year for a 100 yuan card, up to a maximum of a year or something.
• I think it would be possible to recharge from abroad (if you already have a prepaid card), and you could certainly ask a local to do it for you.  There are some websites offering this service, but they all seem a tad dodge.
• If your credit is exhausted, I believe you get 90 days to recharge before the number is recycled.

Data

• Data rates China Mobile without a plan is 0.01 yuan per KB.  0.01 yuan is almost nothing.  But so is 1 KB.  That’s actually 10 yuan per MB – which is expensive.
• You can subscribe to a data plan.  20 yuan gives you 150MB, 50 yuan gives you 500MB.
• The data plans are activated on the first day of the month – so if you want a plan you must ring BEFORE the first of the month to set it up, then wait (so potentially you could do this before arriving in china)
• Actually, the plan is activated on the second day of the month.  Yeah it’s bizarre – everyone told me the first of the month.  But the money is deducted at midnight in the morning of the 2nd, and that’s when your data plan is active – don’t use it on the 1st or you will still be paying 10yuan per MB.  Go figure.
• To setup data access on an iPhone, go into Settings -> Network -> Cellular Data.  Set the APN to cmnet. Leave the username and password blank.  Your iPhone must be unlocked to see this option.
• If you want data on your iPhone – don’t go with China Unicom.  I could not get them to work with my SIM.  Go with China Mobile instead.
• What I plan to do is call China Mobile from abroad a month before arriving next time to set this up so I have data when I arrive.  Yeah… I’m a geek.
• There is no 3G access in China

Rates

• To call an international number, use the IP dialing, it’s way cheaper.  Just a little above SkypeOut for AU mobile calls.
• Dial 12593 then your four digit country code, e.g. 0061, then the number
• The guy on the phone said to “punch in the code” every time, and not save it to the address book or else it may use the standard, non-IP (read: expensive) dialing.  I’m not sure if he’s right but I’m not game to test it.
• Apparently this incurs a 5 yuan per month service fee
• Rates on the IP line is 1.5 yuan per minute.
• Intra-China rates are rock-bottom.  0.1 yuan per minute.  0.1 yuan per SMS.  If only every mobile carrier was that cheap!

SMS Commands

• You can SMS certain commands to 10086
• YE is ‘balance inquiry’
• CZ <recharge pin> is ‘recharge with this pin’  (only works if you have a positive balance)

Recharging over the Phone

• dial 13800138000
• 2  [for english]
• 2 [to recharge]
• 1# [to recharge current mobile]
• 1 [to confirm]
• enter PIN
• # [to end]
• All done…
• more info

If this was useful for you, perhaps you might like to buy my iPhone App – GPS Log ;-)

China Mobile Recharge in English

This guy has some useful tips on recharging – he’s right the english menu is not very clear at all.  I have had similar experiances with the kind shop ladies recharging for me – lol, it’s nice to be self sufficient.  Stay tuned for some more China Mobile tips.

1. dial 13800138000
2. 2  [for english]
3. 2 [to recharge]
4. 1# [to recharge current mobile]
5. 1 [to confirm]
6. enter PIN
7. # [to end]
8. All done…

‘Jeff’ has some useful tips (note: these only work if your account actually has credit)

There is a much easier way by utilizing SMS(text message). After obtaining the recharge PIN number, simply send a text message “CZ PIN number” to 10086. If done correctly, you will receive several replies from China mobile in Chinese. CZ is short for “Chu Zhi”, which means “recharge” in Chinese. You can also send “YE” to 10086 to check for your remaining balance. As “Yu Er” is “leftover balance” in Chinese. Hope this helps.

PS.  a travel related post!  and you thought this was an iPhone blog :P