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Q: best phone plan for a long-term expat?
I'll be living in Shanghai for 2-3 years. Should I get pay and go or a long term mobile plan? Thanks!
well, i'm not in shanghai but i use a prepaid sim
the plan i'm on is perfect for me
i pay 15 RMB for 150 sms and 100 MB internet
and an add on of 10 RMB for an extra 70 MB internet
phone calls are like 0.1 RMB inside the same province
I lucked out into a promo deal, 800MB of data a month and 150 minutes of calling for 66RMB/month. As far as I can tell, even the regular prices are so cheap that pay-as-you-go is by far the most common option.
Amonk:
Are you inside of China right now? There's a China Unicom (also China Mobile, China Telecom) every 200 feet or so... If you aren't in China, I have no idea. It's a simple process, maybe 30 minutes, so you can just switch once you get here.
Amonk:
Yeah, China Unicom is Unicom. All of the phone providers have "China" at the beginning, so if someone mentions Telecom or Unicom or Mobile, in a conversation about phone providers, that's what they're talking about.
the only advise i can give you is to take a plan with 3G as most sim cards just support gsm which is f****** slow... unicom is a good partner when it comes to 3g
and for the plan you can just switch if you think it is too much or too less, there is no contract period like we have in the west as you dont get phones for free (well u can, but usually pretty bad deals and very rare)
Most locals use pre-paid sim cards, 50RMB at a time. And you can easily put more money into your card at any time. 50RMB is good enough to last most people 1 month or more.
Personally, I don't like the plans in China because a) they are too expensive for what you get, b) even the "3G" is really, really slow and c) paying a monthly bill is just as cumbersome as any other method.
Plus, as an expat, life in another country is never a sure thing. So signing up for any long-term agreement can be ineffective, cost-wise.
luggi:
even if you have a pre paid sim card, you basically subscribed to some sort of plan with monthly fee. usually it is the cheapest available plan with no real benefits. changing the plan has advantages for sure as calling rates get cheaper and some free sms and internet is included. internet is usually slow as it is 2g only. 3g from unicom is fine. long term plans are very rare, if u want a phone with ur contract u basically have to prepay the complete contract period...
If you're staying for that long, don't get the sim cards that you have to recharge all the time. It will become annoying really fast, especially when you run out of credit at night or if there's no newspaper stand or shop selling cards around you. It's really inconvenient.
So yeah, get a long term plan or whatever that is called.
I used China Mobile sim and used about 100Y a month and 7Y for wifi. I bought long disatnce calling cards to phone home, but thought they were expensive, maybe 30Y for 17 miunutes. I buy long distance calling cards at home for about $4 and they work for 5 to 20 hours.
Hey you could try Voip for long distance calls(calls to the US and Canada are free)...i think its cheaper than buying IP cards ..and calls within china are free too.
They do have mobile apps and WiFi connection too
Check out Voip.com
