Some sketchier places will be happy to sell you the 3G SIMs without ID, though the official Unicom shops won't. While I've got a duly-registered one on a very nice price plan, I picked up a grey-market Unicom 3G SIM for a friend for about 150RMB (came with ~100RMB of credit) at some random stall in the basement of a computers/phones market in Zhongguancun. No questions asked.

The only downside is that you probably won't ever be able to get help from Unicom if needed, as you won't have a clue what name is actually linked to the thing.

It's actually possible to "take ownership" of phone numbers; the easy way is by using the PIN that came with the SIM. The hard way involves demonstrating that you've been using the said number for an extended period of time, and filling out a gazillion forms.

Yours is overpriced. These SIM card usually sells at 30% discount. 150 RMB card should sell at ~100 RMB. You can make a simple Taobao search to see what the real price should be. I use these cards regularly for my iPad: Get one, use it up, lose it and get another.

If you aren't wedded to a particular phone, you could get a chinese handset that can have multiple SIMS: use unicome for 3G, but china mobile for calls. I know you know this, but just putting it out there for general consumption. If only they made some nice looking phones, snob that I am...

tb

I actually have a dual sim phone and plopped in my new Unicom card alongside one of my spare Mobile cards yesterday. The difference in signal quality was staggering (i.e. needed to get very close to the window to have a conversation on the former, while the latter was fine even in the stairwell area).

Prior to this experience, I had been under the impression that iPhones are useless wrt to their primary function, but now I'm starting to think that the network (iPhone=Unicom) is at least partially to blame.

Voice and data prepaid sim
 

Looks like making last minute stop to shanghai and beijing next week (havent been back for two plus years), and will need to buy new

1. prepaid micro sim for voice/data to use in iPhone4s. Suggestions for carrier and best place to purchase - at airport? Chances are will be tethering iPad2 if wifi not available

2. Prepaid data micromsim for iPad2. Not sure if it will work properly, couldn't get it connected in singapore

Thanks

Just go to the Xiangyang electronics market (4th floor), and buy 2 3g Unicom SIMS. They will cut them for you.

Nothing at airport in hongqiao?
What does each one cost, in past Y100 plus top off.
How do they charge for data?

Thanks Moondog - hoped you'd be the one to respond :)

I'm not sure whether or not you can buy 3g cards at the airport, and I'm guessing that if you can, you'll be hit with a premium.

The newspaper stand by my house told me the only place where one could buy a 3g card is at a Unicom store (i.e. need passport, and wait in line). And, one of the guys on the 1st floor of Xiangyang market told me the same thing, but a visit to the 4th floor proved this claim to be false. (I've heard that some newspaper stands sell them as well.)

It's well worth purchasing a plan from Unicom even if you're only in town for a few days. The caveat here that I can't confirm, but the guy who gave me this advice is usually credible, is that plans don't take effect until the first day of the following month.

As far as off plan pricing is concerned, data costs y80 per G, which is far more expensive than China Telecom and China Mobile, but I find that my data consumption is relatively low (I'm not one of those people who watches movies on their phone). Incoming calls are free (nationwide, I think), which is really nice. And text messages are also cheap (1 mao/message iirc). But, the if you're not on a plan, those outgoing calls can be a serious cash killer. When I first got my Unicom card, I found myself buying y100 cards daily without making a single international call.

Here's another thought. If your iPhone is a 4s, it can be used as a router, from which you can tether your iPad. So, perhaps you only need one SIM card. I use a dedicated wireless router when out and about that has WCDMA SIM (significantly faster than CDMA). However, it has no phone number attached to it, and I'm not sure whether it works on iPads (most of the wireless routers I checked out don't support WCDMA).

In closing, 90% of the info I've posted in this thread is based strictly on my own experiences (I'm cool with the trial and error approach; sure I usually overspend during the first week of owning a new SIM... a price I'm willing to pay in order to avoid visiting a Unicom/Mobile store or wading through their --extremely confusing -- websites).

I can confirm that prepaid plans on China Unicom start on first of subsequent month: you need to apply regular credit for the first month.

However, I'm surprised at the statement about PAYG calling rates: when we first arrived, we had China mobile, voice only SIMs: sl. different plans. I bought mine on my first trip to China from a newstand, couldn't speak a word of chinese, so was given an 'international plan' SIM: cheap calls to US/UK, but expensive (relatively) in China. My wife just got a standard SIM, used it a fair amount (not sure precisely how much) and one top-up lasted months.

tb

I will be in shanghai for about 4 months and am planning to bring an unlocked GSM smart phone. Are there month to month plans or should I stick with prepaid?

Wow!

Last time we were there (late 2011) my wife had a SIM whose origin I do not know (it was bought by a local.) No data, few text messages, lots and lots of phone use--and the 50? Yuan SIM still had a bit left on it 3 weeks later when we were leaving. If I was understanding the gibberish text messages they were sending it was down to about 6 Yuan. (Unfortunately, it was in an older phone that doesn't speak Unicode--anything in Chinese script was gibberish but there were numbers that came through.)

At least insofar as Unicom is concerned, I don't believe there is a substantial difference between prepaid and postpaid with respect to plan pricing anymore. Basically, as long as you load your card with enough funds to cover sets A, B, C, etc, you can SMS them and they will debit your balance for the price of the set. I'm on set B myself, as I find set A to be a bit too light for my needs.

To clarify, set A is internet (>100mb) + minutes. Set b is basic internet (<100mb) + substantially more minutes. Set C is only minutes (I don't remember if they come with ~5mb internet).

The prepaid sims can opt for a plan if they prefer. No commitment required.

If you choose to get a phone from China Unicom they give you a monthly rebate on the plan.

Mobile is still very expensive in China compared to other places like Europe.

Double.