China Unicom mobile phone service - How bad is it?

Posted in: Forums > Living in Chengdu • 6 posts • Newest

• • Secretary Job
    June 5, 2012
    4 posts
  • I have heard mixed reviews about China Unicom's mobile phone service.
    Do you use China Unicom? If so, what do you think about it? How is the call quality and reception? Do you get a lot of dropped calls? How is the 3G service? I am pretty sure that one can use an unlocked iPhone 4s with a China Unicom prepaid SIM card that includes 3G service (and no long term contract). (That is why I am considering going with China Unicom).
    Thanks

• • Dragon Expeditions
    June 6, 2012
    162 posts
  • When you have coverage it's OK, but less coverage than the other networks.

    Fine in Chengdu. Not so good outside the city. 3G service ditto.

• • invisible
    June 6, 2012
    817 posts
  • China Unicom reception is extremely bad, especially where I need it most in the office and at home. I have to go outside to make a call, that's ridiculous and freaking annoying. China Mobile reception is better in direct comparison, and from what I hear also China Telecom.

    The reason to give the loser China Unicom the 3G network was to encourage competition with China Mobile and China Telecom.

    That's basically how they sell it, I've listened in to a little sales presentation in front of a supermarket and the guy said: Yeah our network sucks, but we got 3G.

    After many years I'm switching (but I keep the sim card just in case).

• • TokyoJim
    June 30, 2012
    5 posts
  • The most important thing is the reception at the places you frequent most. I've used China Unicom for the past few years on my iPhones and have no real complaints. On the other hand, I could never go back to Edge speeds (no iPhone currently supports China Mobile's proprietary 3G).

    China Unicom's 3G plans start at ¥46/month. I'm currently on the ¥66 plan, which gives you 50 voice minutes, 300 MB of data, and 240 SMS. For the past year or more they also give me a monthly credit of ¥15 (long-term good customer discount?). I'm not sure why, but I've never tempted fate by asking.

• • Dilys
    July 2, 2012
    1 post
  • I've been using it for nearly 2 years, so far so good, sometimes the signal is just ok, but sometimes it's better than China Mobile, especially the we've 3G for internet, definitly better than CMCC, :P

• • ScotInChengdu
    July 3, 2012
    6 posts
  • Well I used China Mobile for 4 years until my SIM card died a few weeks ago and I switched to Unicom's current deal, because call and data costs were adding up. So no wfor much less money (66RMB a month) I get 240 texts, 300MB of data and 50 call minutes which suits me fine. I know Unicom can have some reception issues but so can China Mobile - just when you need them the most. So far in all the areas I use frequently I've never had an issue with reception or call drop out - not once!!! And the data speed on 3G/H is blisteringly fast - around 4MB download which is faster than my office link. I dont think Unicom can still be classified as the poor relation. I know its an extreme example but I was sitting in Shangli village near Ya'An with a speed test showing nearly 6MB down speed - and Shangli is very small place in the bottom of a valley. Just my experience. I live in the south and work in the east.

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