We live in Dali -- does anyone know if there is a Unicom store in Dali or Xia Guan, and if so, is it preferable to buy there rather than Kunming (as a regular SIM chip for a phone would be)?

Strange about Telecom -- because with our phone service in Dali they gave us a LG cell phone to introduce their 3G network. It has an UIM chip ... never checked what that is all about, since the screen is too small for web use IMO, and our daughter uses it as her cell phone. I just 'assumed' that since they gave us a phone using a chip, they would have offered 3G service for chip using phones (GSM, not CDMA).

China is most definitely not ahead of the States in cell service. The only advantage I've noticed is that in China there is more coverage, due to the government owning the towers and wanting us to use cellular everywhere.

In China CDMA phones still take SIM cards whatever the CDMA equivalent is called. Its only in the US that they actually program the handset itself.

I have no idea about a Unicom store in Dali. I wouldn't like to assume that Dali has 3G (WCDMA) yet. It arrived in Kunming in October and China Unicom is concentrating on major cities first. If you had a Kunming SIM card you'd be making long distance calls all the time in Dali so thats up to you.

China Unicom's coverage is not as good as China Mobile's. I find it quite patchy in my apartment. They also don't have an EDGE network which means when there is no 3G coverage it falls back to GPRS which is much slower than EDGE.

China Mobile has EDGE coverage all over Kunming (not sure about Dali) so it may be a better option if you don't want to fall back to GPRS.

In terms of service China is probably not as good as the US, certainly not as good as the UK. They don't have number portability between networks (even between different packages on the same network), a very immature contract system so very few subsidized handsets, and many more other issues. However, the short answer is that they don't need to be competitive. China Mobile, for example, is already the largest network in the world in terms of subscribers. Why bother with customer service?

I've found China Mobile coverage to be everywhere. There are parts of the UK where you can't get any signal on any network. I've never found this to be a problem with China Mobile (although am finding it to be true of China Unicom). This is often true in developing countries - they haven't had 100 years of fixed line infastructure and go straight to mobile.

Thanks for the info, Greg. I'm glad I have friends who work for China Mobile and China Unicom who can help me when we return next month.

In answer to your question ...

Q. Why bother with customer service?

A. Because it is the responsible, the right, thing to do.

Mingdao you're missing my point. Of course it is the responsible and right thing to do. But from a purely business perspective unfortunately they do not need to bother. They are the largest mobile phone network by subscriber in the world. Hopefully their forced adoption of the poor quality TD-SCDMA will force customers away from them to China Unicom who have the international and mature WCDMA. And then they may consider improving their service.

Actually Unicom's customer service is fairly good, they just lack the infrastructure to back it up. Twice I've mentioned to them about not getting a signal in my apartment and twice they've assigned an engineer to check out the signal in the area. However nothing's been done to improve it - its that old chicken and egg scenario. They need the customers to get income to build more towers and they need the towers to get more customers. China Mobile doesn't have this problem and likewise doesn't really care about service.

Greg you seem to be the man when it comes to knowledge about the mobile networks here so I thought I'd ask you this question.

I bought a cheap Samsung mobile with 3G capability basically so that I'd be able to use it to make calls and if necessary check my e-mail when I'm out and about. I called the China Mobile customer service and they stated that they had a 30MB plan for 5 RMB per month and a 150MB plan for 20RMB per month. I went with the cheapest option at first wanting to check out how it works - and they explained once I was hitting my limit that I'd be sent a text letting me know.

But I have to say it really doesn't seem like 3G to me...it's incredibly slow loading basic .wap sites and checking my gmail account takes at least a minute or more to load the page. Is this more than likely the GPRS system they've put me on rather than 3G?

Greg (or anyone else), wonder if you can help me out. I'm making a quick trip to Hong Kong in a few days and really want to buy an HTC Legend there. ( I know your expertise is iphone, but it's too clunky for me!) I've done a lot of comparing online. I like the Android and EDGE. When I'm not in KM, I'm in the states or Hong Kong. In your opinion am I making any huge blunders by getting the HTC Legend and assuming it'll do, in KM, pretty much everything it's designed to do? I saw some Legends for sale here but they weren't quadband. HTC Legend has 3G, wifi, FM tuner. I recently read in China Daily that China is not allowing google maps to operate their GPS capabilities.

@timkunming - it depends on what type of 3G radio and which network you are on. If you bought a phone that uses China Mobile's home grown TD-SCDMA technology then it should work with China Mobile's 3G service. This is extremely unlikely unless you actually bought it through the network. IT is more likely using the international WCDMA 3G standard in which case it will only work with China Unicom's 3G.

To make things even more confusing the networks here seem to actually charge separately for 3G and 2G services and even have different phone numbers for the new 3G services. Outside China you simply pay for a package which includes data and if your phone happens to support 3G it will run on 3G, if it doesn't it will run on GPRS/EDGE - the prices are essentially the same, just the speed and technology different.

In China you need to specifically get a 3G package which are often more expensive than 2G packages. For example if you have been using China Unicom on 2G you won't just automatically be able to use 3G just by having a suitable handset - they will have to set it up for you and in some cases give you a new phone number.

@pyscho - i've not used the HTC legend but have no reason to believe it won't work. Again it depends on the radio inside and what network you are using.

GPS works in China but the satellite data for google maps is a few hundred metres out of kilter so it doesn't work too well. this varies by city. there are ways to correct it on android and there are iphone apps that also attempt to correct it.