Using 3G In China
I have been having a good experience using a 3G Internet connection in Shanghai for the last three months. Here is a brief reflection
of my experiences using the service.3G is high speed mobile Internet for compatible cellphones or laptops using usb modem. This service is now available in major Chinese cities. You can choose between China Mobile's TD-SCDMA, China Telecom's EVDO and China Unicom's WCDMA. I bought a wireless USB modem to use with China Unicom's WCDMA 3G service. It cost me 1188 RMB, which included a modem and 600 RMB of prepaid credit. I bought the dongle from the China Unicom shop in Lujiabang Road. I setup a monthly plan, which charged me 150 RMB for 3GB of monthly data. This is fine for casual browsing and occasional media streaming, but it is not suitable for heavy data use. I use 3G on the bus or taxi travelling to work between downtown Puxi and my workplace 20 kms away in suburban Pudong. I plug the USB dongle into my netbook so I can connect anywhere. There are patches of poor connectivity, but I have had a good experience using 3G to supplement my Internet use. The service advertises download speeds of upto 7.2 mbps, but I have achieved speeds of upto 1 mbps. It is very quick for downloading files, but it sometimes takes a long time to open pages. I have had success streaming Youku and Youtube videos. I even used the 3G service when I was on holiday in Guangzhou. We were able to setup a very smooth video call with my mum in the UK on Christmas day. The USB dongle has a built in client that runs on Windows or Mac. The software did not always allow to me setup a connection so I had more success using the networking tools built into Windows 7. Ubuntu Karmic was able to see my USB dongle without any problems, although it took a little configuration to make and sustain an Internet connection. Here are a few things I discovered that have helped my 3G experience:
of my experiences using the service.3G is high speed mobile Internet for compatible cellphones or laptops using usb modem. This service is now available in major Chinese cities. You can choose between China Mobile's TD-SCDMA, China Telecom's EVDO and China Unicom's WCDMA. I bought a wireless USB modem to use with China Unicom's WCDMA 3G service. It cost me 1188 RMB, which included a modem and 600 RMB of prepaid credit. I bought the dongle from the China Unicom shop in Lujiabang Road. I setup a monthly plan, which charged me 150 RMB for 3GB of monthly data. This is fine for casual browsing and occasional media streaming, but it is not suitable for heavy data use. I use 3G on the bus or taxi travelling to work between downtown Puxi and my workplace 20 kms away in suburban Pudong. I plug the USB dongle into my netbook so I can connect anywhere. There are patches of poor connectivity, but I have had a good experience using 3G to supplement my Internet use. The service advertises download speeds of upto 7.2 mbps, but I have achieved speeds of upto 1 mbps. It is very quick for downloading files, but it sometimes takes a long time to open pages. I have had success streaming Youku and Youtube videos. I even used the 3G service when I was on holiday in Guangzhou. We were able to setup a very smooth video call with my mum in the UK on Christmas day. The USB dongle has a built in client that runs on Windows or Mac. The software did not always allow to me setup a connection so I had more success using the networking tools built into Windows 7. Ubuntu Karmic was able to see my USB dongle without any problems, although it took a little configuration to make and sustain an Internet connection. Here are a few things I discovered that have helped my 3G experience:
- I turn on the CHAP and MS CHAP protocols on Windows and Ubuntu
- I use Open DNS (208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220)
- I use a paid for VPN to access blocked international sites
