vincepoy

The problem is it doesn't say it can be activated in HK or China like their other cards do if you actually had the physical card and also look on cugstore.com. And the card does not roam outside HK, China, Macau and Taiwan since it will show no service. The card supposedly is for those 4 places so makes you wonder if one can activate in any of those places. The Terms & Conditions with the card differs from what websites you read in the area of data as the one that comes with the card says $0.80/MB for data as the standard charge while if you read the website and anywhere else, it seems to indicate you can only get data via a data pack and thereafter is $0.80/MB which means data is only possible after you run out of the data pack.

As for the LTE thing, no idea about that one since their facebook account has not been helpful at all and gmail cannot reach them by email as it seems like it's filtered out by the great china firewall. I do wonder about the Voyage King card they have as it lists up to 42Mbps speeds for data, would that be 3G or is that considered LTE? Does LTE use a different APN than the 3G?

http://www.cugstore.com/usa/prepaid-...yage-king.html

As for running the server, it might or might not work since I thought they were filtering by protocol since I thought China used DPI.

I mean you can also use something like this which is your very own dedicated VPN server and Unix server for $5/month with the first month or two free:
https://privatepackets.io/

STS-134

http://www.cugstore.com/usa/prepaid-...yage-king.html
LTE and 3G use the same APN. If you have an LTE phone, you might notice that you don't have to switch APNs or program 2 APNs just to use both LTE and 3G.

42Mbps is HSPA+ (HSDPA). Definitely 3G.

Every source I have read says that it can be activated in either China or Hong Kong. Here's another: https://flexiroam.zendesk.com/hc/en-...King_Extra.pdf

I've seen some suggestions that it can be activated in Japan or Taiwan too, but I'm not 100% certain about that. But it's clear that you don't have to physically be in HK to activate the card which makes sense because it's for both Mainland China and HK.

When you run your own server, you can use whatever protocols you want, and you can modify the protocol used if one gets blocked.

vincepoy

I thought their LTE would be called 4gnet or something like that for the APN.

I guess if it even delivers 6Mbps, it would be fine for my needs. Before my trip next week and looking up pre-paid sim cards over the last 2 months, I used to think that Hong Kong and China would have higher mobile data rates than we do in the US but then it seems like we're talking about 3G in 2016.

I have a question, I noticed on Android phones, it will just always use the highest data speed available but on iPhone's, it seems like they tell you to select 3G for the network but if you selected LTE, is it supposed to use 3G if LTE is not available? I noticed the free i-Sim cards in Hong Kong and the 3 region HKG/Macau/Taiwan free with membership i-Sim cards also use 3gnet for the APN but they require a phone that supports WCDMA, I would have thought they would be using a actual carrier instead of a MVNO in HKG. The PDF is interesting, thanks for that one since that one seems to basically tell people to subscribe to the 300MB data pack without topping up first but I think the part where it talks about voice calls is not entirely correct if you compared it to either cugstore, what comes with the card as some places, it's $0.39 + $0.20 for every 6 seconds. Also, is manually choosing a network a requirement or will it work fine when left on automatic?

As for Japan, I wouldn't have thought it could be activated in Japan but I would have thought since the data pack works for Taiwan and Macau, one would be able to activate in China/Macau/Taiwan/Hong Kong except it appears that the data pack will not be good for Taiwan/Macau after December 31, 2016 as it says Standard Rates of $0.80/MB will apply after that date for those two places.

As for running your own server, you would still need to be able to access the server first before you can custom configure or modify it remotely since if they blocked your connection to the server, there isn't much you can do about it.

STS-134

Yes, you select a preferred network type, but it will use other types if the preferred type is not available.

Should work on automatic. Phones will only connect to networks that the SIM allows, even if they can see other networks in the scan.

They don't block entire servers, they block the VPN protocol used. So if OpenVPN gets blocked, you can still get to the server with SSH.

bocastephen

See this discussion and my comments for a much cheaper alternative for switching between HK and China, especially given most visitors don't need a local number if you have working Google Voice or another VOIP phone service.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...l#post26590247

STS-134

Just got back home, and the card is indeed showing no service. Now how do I check the balance on my card? Normally this would be doing by dialing *118*35#[SEND], but it won't even run codes like that from here.

Is there a way to check the balance on the card on their website? Just in case I want to keep recharging it to keep it active.

31570324

You can check it here online but unfortunately you must register for the online service while you have coverage, so while you are in "Greater China".

STS-134

Hmm...wonder if I can call their customer service and give them the SIM number from the card (not the phone number, but the 19 or 20 digit SIM card number). They were able to help me figure out how much data I had used (because I had used the SIM in 3 different phones, it was hard to keep track of that information) so maybe they can do the same here.

STS-134

Well I had a friend who speaks fluent Mandarin call Unicom customer service, and they couldn't even help me sign up for an online account even after giving them both the SIM card number and the PUK. So anyone using this card, be sure to sign up for the online account while you are still in the coverage area, because you won't be able to once you leave.

percysmith

I've used the card too for my (increasingly rare) forays into the Mainland.

I haven't worked out how to query the amount of data left in my data plan.

STS-134

Would you be able to do this if you signed up for an online account? (I'm not sure because I haven't been able to do it yet).

The way I did it on my last trip was that I called Unicom CS and after giving them my 19 or 20 digit SIM card number, they were able to give me that info. But it seems really annoying to have to call. I hope they send a text or give you some sort of notification because you cannot subscribe to a new data plan until the old one is completely exhausted.

31570324

This is something you could see in your online account, yes. But I haven't used any data this month, so it looks like this:

chowder

Hi FT. I'm in PEK now, and have this SIM card, and am having trouble.
http://www.cugstore.com/hk_en/prepai...vice-plus.html

Somehow, I have run out of $ on the card, even though all I've done is:
1. Pop in SIM on taxi ride from PEK on 8/31 at 8a.
2. Dial *118*468# for 500mb/30d. This is the first thing I dialed.
3. Added 3gnet APN/Name as instructed by text.
4. Used voice/text/data for all of 8/31. Yes, just one full day of service.

Late in the day (7p 8/31) I received a text warning of low balance ($10). My android mobile data usage showed ~50MB (< a tenth of the allotment). I did send multiple texts and had 2 local outbound calls.

On the morning of 9/1, the phone no longer could place/receive calls/text, nor use mobile data.

What did I do wrong? Clearly I did not get the 500mb/30d using their subscription string. Furthermore, my 2 colleagues on this trip (both IOS not Android) also followed this same procedure, and have the same problem (only 1 day of service).

I've now read the fine print on the SIM packaging, and see an $18/mo fee imposed on the 1st day of the month. However, that does not seem to be the key issue.

Before I top up, how can I avoid this problem from occurring again? Do I need to call their customer svc line to investigate (in English, hopefully)?

PS - The packaging is confusing: It shows "$138" and below that "$80" in parentheses. Did we start with 138 or 80 HKD? 80 starting value -18 activation wouldn't leave enough to buy the 500mb/30d data pack at 68.

Thanks.

STS-134

$138 is the MSRP for the package. The card itself comes with $80 of value stored on it when it is activated. You picked a really bad time to activate. On activation, it was immediately charged a $9 monthly fee ($9 instead of $18 because it was after the 16th of the month). So you were down to $71. Then, you selected the 500MB plan for $68, which took your balance to $3. And then, at midnight on 9/1, the card got charged $18 for the month of September, which means you now have a balance of -$15 and your service is suspended until you recharge.

On the page you linked to, right underneath the word "Tariff", see the first bullet point:

31570324

Is it possible to charge the card with china unicom mainland topup service? The package indicate that this should be possible.