Hey guys and gals,

I want to use my China Mobile (kunming) phone number in Hong Kong for a week during interviews. Does anyone know how to get this enabled? Just spoke with CM and they want 1500RMB as a deposit!!!! This sounds a little outrageous.

Thought I would ask the GK community for other options.

Thanks much

I have China Unicom SIM cards purchased in Guangdong & Yunnan Provinces. When I am in HK, these cards are automatically enabled to work but at very steep roaming cost per minute.

To avoid the high roaming fess using a card native to a China city or province, you can buy China Mobile or China Unicom "dual location" SIM cards (each with a phone number) in HK, at usually border crossing points, that work in HK & China at lower roaming fees. But I have not used such "dual location" cards and cannot give you more info.

The best & cheapest way to make calls in HK is to buy a "Peoples" or "PCCW" and others at a 7-11 or other convenience stores. A Peoples HK$98 card with a HK number & 6-month life upon activation (first call) will enable you to make local calls in Hong Kong and long distance calls to anywhere in China and the USA plus 20+ countries all at only HK$.25/minute (Note: that's twenty-five HK cents per minute of airtime – calling & receiving). Make sure it is the HK$98 card (Green packaging) that specifically states the calling cost is twenty-five cents/minute. There are many different type of cards including a HK$68 card, but these cards may charge misc. fees that make them less desirable & more expensive. If you have used up the original amount (HK$98/$.25=392 minutes of airtime), you can purchase recharge cards (HK$10; HK$50 or HK$100, pending availability at the particular convenience store) for your original SIM card/phone number. Each card comes with a user's guide in Chinese & English.

You pretty much always have to pay the deposit.. it is the same thing with China Unicom and the dual/triple number SIMS. Roaming charges are usually about 6RMB a minute, which is expensive, but may be worth it if you are waiting on an important call.

THe deposit money they ask for essentially works as credit on your phone. While your in HK, the money you use will be deducted off this amount. The remained can be refunded to you when you get back to China.

I think they are worried (rightly so) that people will go overseas, rack up huge bills and then just throw away the SIM card. As for the dual number SIMs, try talking to China Mobile to see if they can add the service for you. When I used to use it (I had a Macau number too) I just had them added to my existing SIM. Not sure if that is possible from Kunming though as I was running a GuangDong number at the time.