I have a China Mobile sim card bought in Beijing and was wondering if I can change the operating area to Kunming once I arrive there and be able to enjoy the local rates by keeping the same number, or should I buy another sim card?
I think you should go to the sim card company and ask for some professional advice. Some of my friends use other city's sim card.
Each mobile number is bound to the specific regional carrier that issued it. You will need to get a new number if you wish to join the local network.
If you are really, really endeared to your old number, you might want to look in to a national roaming plan being offered by the Beijing carrier. It'll be cheaper than paying all those roaming charges but still more expensive than joining the local network. Another draw back is that all your local contacts would have to pay long distance charge to call you since they are routing through Beijing and that your number will show up as a Beijing number for those smartphones with call locating feature.
Hope this helps.
Cheers~
Aditional to Tonyaod...
I have the unicom 3G-national roaming plan, and a friend told me that you can get it for CHINA MOBILE as well, these days.
I recomend go to the local CM shop and check if they have upgrade options, for the 3G-all China service, so you can keep your number.
That will avoind the roaming costs, for you and/or your friends,plus it gives you 3G web access.
Only downside is it might add to your monthly fix costs (the plan is more expensive and you have to pay for messages).
Also this is all Beijing based, but I think CM should have those plans all over China.
I recommend Unicom, cheaper and better plans Nationwide. And disregarding the claim that their connection and coverage sucks, I can't support that. Rarely fails and when my reception is crap I'm somewhere in tunnels or in the mountains, and everyone next to me is ..."Wei, Wei, Wei, Wei"-ing... in their phones as well.
That would be too much trouble. I guess I'll just get a new one in Kunming then
Maybe just call them and check their prices.
I pay 130-ish kuai and that includes 300MB download, 240 minutes of free calling in the Chinese mainland, no extra charge for roaming or calling other cities (that includes calling my number).
Basically it's a carefree plan and since I am not glued to the phone sending messages, I never have to ad more than 10 kuai each month.
I know that's UNICOM but I'm certain that CM has something similar...if not they suck.
Wow, 130 sounds a bit high Dudeson, you might want to shop around. Do you really need all those minutes and bandwidth? I'm on China Mobile and my monthly fixed is only 40yuan. This includes 250 texts and 90MB, plus caller ID. Since I don't call people much I don't need any free minutes and 90MB is enough for me to pull up the internet to grab some info when I'm out. I'm not on 3G though, just regular 2G.
Anyway, just a thought.
Cheers~
One thing that can affect roaming.
Make sure you can top up, away from the host city. This is not always possible..
@Tonyaod:
True it's not the cheapest but I travel a lot in China, thus I need the roaming free service and 3G with the higher download rate (for all the porn, haha), so it's worth the extra bucks.
I had the same problem as GOODMORNING, I moved from Beijing to KMG but wanted to keep my number, and since the plan costs the same in KMG. I didn't see why I should change it.
Also I need to make more calls than I have to message, but Unicom is pretty cool in customizing plans as well. I mean if you feel like changing minutes to messages, I'm sure they have some options.
They actually have 4 different 3G plans I chose the one just below premium but the plans start with 89 kuai if I remember right!
@TigerTiger:
Very good point, I think if you go with CM or Unicom getting top-up cards is no problem in most provinces, even in smaller towns.
If you really like your BJ number, you can also change the plan (aka, adapt it to your new needs, probably less calling and more txting) and keep it while getting another local KM number. That's when those dual sim card phones come in really handy and you can txt and call with different cards and keep up with people.
Also, regarding topping up, in this happy internet age, you can top up province specific sim cards easily on taobao. I purposely keep some money in my alipay account for this, so that I can quickly top up (or help friends!) and avoid late night runs to the local corner store.=) Added bonus: If you plan ahead or happen upon a good deal, you can even save quite a few rmb by topping up on taobao yourself.
