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Telecom Service - A complete guide

Introduction

The city has an advanced telecom infrastructure. Public telephones can be found on most downtown streets. Mobile operators support GSM and CDMA cell phones. Most office buildings have Internet connections and Internet cafes are almost everywhere. It's also easy and inexpensive to install broadband in apartments that you rent, given the permission of your landlord.

China Telecom is the biggest fixed-line telecom operator, including public telephones, fixed phones in the office and broadband connection at home and work.

China Mobile and China Unicom are the two mobile operators. China Mobile has an extensive GSM network while China Unicom supports both GSM and CDMA cell phones.

Mobile phone
Nanjing Road W.
Many telecom outlets in the city look more like stalls. They sell mobile SIM cards, top-up vouchers and even rechargers for most phone models

The mobile network is very extensive and powerful in Shanghai. Signals can even be found in the metro and in many elevators. Both GSM and CDMA cell phones have networks. The city supports high-speed wireless networks based on GPRS and WAP, but 3G networks are still undergoing tests.

If you stay in Shanghai for a quite a while, you can become a subscriber to China Mobile or China Unicom. Both of them offer fixed period packages and flexible sim cards. A standard text message costs 0.1 yuan.

How to apply

Here, it's better for you to buy a flexible card, which enables you to top up your account at any time. All the telecom outlets sell such prepaid sim cards. Yitong card and Jiajia card offer the international call service. Both of the cards are the prepaid kind.

You can top up your mobile phone either with top-up vouchers which are available in all telecom outlets, or at the city's official utility payment website which is accessible from here. Please ensure that you have an account at a local bank to use the online payment system.

Foreigners who will settle down in the city also have many international calls can apply a Quanqiu Tong card. Before applying, you should have a local guarantor and take your passport and other official documents to the outlets of China Mobile, Shanghai.

If you bring your own cell phone from your home country, you need to check with your operator before coming to Shanghai for the rates, because you may be charged with both international long distance calls as well as international roaming charges.

Internet

It’s not very easy for a foreigner to find an Internet café on street corners as they don’t have obvious signs. Get help from a local who can show you the way.

Internet cafés usually charge 2-5 yuan (25cents to 62cents) per hour. The charges vary, based on the computers’ configuration.

You can also hook up to broadband connection, choosing from ADSL, Cable, FTTP+LAN and Homepna. Some operators also offer wireless LAN. Users can build their own wireless LAN after installing a wireless router at home. You can go to any outlet of China Telecom, with your passport and the guarantor’s ID card to apply. The deposit fee is 500 yuan. The customer service number is 10000.

Public phone

Domestic long-distanced call: 0.80 yuan (10 US cents) per minute, but from 12pm to 7am, 0.40 yuan (5 US cents) per minute.

International call:8.20 yuan (US$1.02) per minute to all nations.

Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao: 2.20 yuan (US$0.27) per minute.

Telephone boxes in Shanghai are in a uniform color of red like those in London. Take a look at the image on the right for example.

IP cards
IP cards
IP cards appear to be colorful with different designs. They are also collectors' items apart from their basic functionality.

Warning! You can't just simply pick up a phone in the city and call home. You need to buy an IP card. They're cheap and widely available at grocery stores and post offices. But IP cards aren't suitable for every phone but usually, you can use IP cards through fix-lined phones and cell-phones.

Domestic long-distanced calls and international calls charge different fees. You can dial China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom customer service numbers to get price details.

China Mobile's IP card
dial 17950
press 2 for English service
enter card number and end with #
enter pin number
(country code) district code and telephone number and end with #

China Telecom's IP card
dial 17908
press 2 for English service
enter card number and end with #
enter code number and end with #
enter the number you want to dial and end with #

Post offices
post vehicles
The symbolic color of green is extended to all China Post's facilities including vehicles, mailboxes and postmen's uniforms.

Opening hours: 7am-7pm

There are three post offices in the city that offer an English service: the biggest office on North Suzhou Road at the intersection with Sichuan Road; the outlet at the Shanghai Center, 1376 Nanjing Road W, and the outlet at 1337 Huaihai Road, M.

The symbolic color of China’s post service is green.

 

Have Your Say

Susan Chiow (American, 10 years in Shanghai) showed her general content with the city’s telecom services and their pricing.

Useful telephone numbers

Emergency calls
Ambulance: 120
Telephone number enquiry: 114
Fire: 119 All available in English, 24 hours
Police: 110
Postal service: 11185

Flight schedule hotline
Hongqiao Airport: 6268-3659, 6268-8918
(All available in English, 24 hours)
Pudong Airport:9608-1388
(English service available.)

Train schedule hotline
Shanghai Train Station:6317-9090, 9510-5123
Shanghai South Station:5110-5110
(No English service available.)
Shanghai West Station:5285-1500
(No English service available.)

Telecom service hotline
China Mobile customer service: 10086
(press 2 for English, press 3 for Japanese)
China Unicom customer service: 10010
(press 2 for English)
China Telecom customer service: 5058-1000
(press 2 for English service)