Travel Technology - Prepaid 3G SIM for use ALL over?

I'll be in China in 2 months. I will be in Beijing for a few days, mid-country for a few days (Xi'an) and then on a train to Tibet where I will be for 4-5 days.

I have an unlocked 3GS (full sized SIM) that I hope to use while there for essentially only data. I imagine I will not make a single phone call, but I will be using the phone as a hotspot if possible so having a few hundreds megs per day of use is not out of the ordinary. The amount of money it costs is not terribly important, whether it's $2 per day or $5 or even a bit more than that per day, it'll be put to use making money and saving time, so the cost is not too big a deal. What is a big deal is good 3G performance over a large area. I imagine I'll need a separate SIM for Tibet, but I'm hoping that I can use only one other SIM the rest of the time, for Beijing, possibly Shanghai, Xi'an and more. So coverage is really important.

Any suggestions? The first city I'll be in for any amount of time is Xi'an, I think. Not Beijing, though I will have a 3 hour layover in PEK airport.

Thanks for any help!

I started a thread in the China forum about this very topic earlier this week. Please check it out, and feel free to PM me if you have specific questions.

I'm not seeing it - is that the communications focused electronics primer? Or maybe could you link me to it? Thanks! I promise I did search yesterday and read for about an hour before I posted my question :)

Judging from your PM, the post you're talking about does not address my question. So others reading this, please do answer if you have help. I think it's a little weird to have someone post something like that on the thread to discourage answers on the thread and push them over to his own thread....

Also, posting a bunch of information over PM totally defeats the purpose of a forum. The next guy who happens to have a similar question won't be able to find his answer. Please keep replies on the forum. Thanks!

Judging from your PM, the post you're talking about does not address my question. So others reading this, please do answer if you have help. I think it's a little weird to have someone post something like that on the thread to discourage answers on the thread and push them over to his own thread....

Also, posting a bunch of information over PM totally defeats the purpose of a forum. The next guy who happens to have a similar question won't be able to find his answer. Please keep replies on the forum. Thanks!

In light of the fact that your needs are China specific, this thread would be best positioned in the the China forum.

122 views and no response other than moondog?

Definately China specific.

122 views and no response other than moondog?

Definately China specific.

Probably because the thread title is possibly misleading and should be changed from "all over" to "all over China", as I thought the OP was looking for advice about all over the world, rather than one country.

Probably including China in title would help.

Probably because the thread title is possibly misleading and should be changed from "all over" to "all over China", as I thought the OP was looking for advice about all over the world, rather than one country.

Yeah I realized that after posting, and went to change it, but the post title can't be changed. Ugh....

Yeah I realized that after posting, and went to change it, but the post title can't be changed. Ugh....

If you ask the Moderators they can do it.