Originally Posted by
STS-134
Yes, I'm sure it's somehow related to the APN used. Remember that no card changes its APN just because the user is roaming. When I am in China and I use my AT&T SIM, and I go to a site like whatismyip.com, it'll usually show an area like Washington or California, and the internet works as it should. With the HK cross border SIM cards, the APN "3gnet" is used, which is a HK APN, and the internet should also work like it should.
Only problem with doing this (unless you're using the dual number cross border SIM card) is that you're paying standard international roaming rates, which in the case of AT&T, is $120 for 800 MB. I did this last time though because running a VPN on my phone 24/7 was killing the battery.
You can probably just call a business phone number. Preferably one that has a prerecorded message when it answers. Or if you're like me, you do actually have friends in China that you can call. I'd set the data kill switch on my phone initially, so it doesn't consume any data at $0.80/MB, before I can get the number via SMS, top up the card, and sign up for the $118/1GB plan, if I were using the CUHK card.
It is useful to have a Chinese voice number. Last time I was at a Starbucks in China, they required a Chinese voice number that they could send an SMS to before I could get on the WiFi. Not sure why they have the system set up that way (here in the US all Starbucks just run open wifi) but it does require it.
Interesting about the IP since I didn't think they would be able to route IP's like that as I always thought it had to be served by the carrier you are getting the wireless signal from as BGP4 is usually done by larger blocks and not individual IP addresses when it comes to routing. 3gnet is actually the APN used by China Unicom in China and is actually roaming when it's used in Hong Kong from the information I can find as the other APN is 3gwap. There is also uninet if one is using 2G.
https://apnsettings.gishan.net/apn/6...a/china-unicom
You're right that I can just call a business phone number or any phone number since I think as long as the phone rings, the card would have been activated already or otherwise it won't even allow the phone number to ring.
Is the Data Kill switch basically the Connect to Mobile data setting on the iPhone? If so, couldn't I just be connected by WiFi and activate the card by using the Connect to Mobile Data and it will activate without using the $0.80/MB or will the phones only connect to the mobile data network when there is no WiFi connection?
I think for the china voice number and wifi, maybe they just want to know who is using their WiFi and this is a good way to be able to track you down if needed.