[John Sibley Butler]

When I touched down in Beijing, I turned my BlackBerry on and to my wonderment the device picked "China Mobile" and all of my emails jumped into my BlackBerry. After I checked into the hotel, I was really thrown off guard when the device started to ring. Then I made calls back to America and sometimes they go through and sometimes they do not. My question is whether or not there will be additional charges for (1) the email coming in and (2) if read attachments what is the charge? I guess the GSM stuff is kicking in. Has anyone experience Blackberry in China? This is of interest because all of the experts noted that I would have to change S cards to make things work. Thanks, jb

[dulcamara]

If you don't have an unlimited internation data plan with your provider, you'll be charged for the email. That won't be so bad unless you use the browser. The browser will cost you.

You'll be stuck for the phone calls at a rate of at least $1/minute, depending on your provider. If you expect to make a lot of calls, it will pay to buy a phone in China and use that.

There are a few threads on this board about unlocking blackberrys so that you can use a SIM chip you buy abroad. As best as I can tell, Cingular will unlock your phone after you've been with them for 90 days, but you won't get blackberry services unless you contract with some provider in China for them.

I use an old+lame motorola p7389 when I'll be out of the country long enough to really need a phone. For trips of a week or less, I use my blackberry and pay the bill. I do have the unlimited international data plan with Cingular.

[amukhey]

Correct, check the data plan you are on for the amount of KB you have used / left. Usually, its wise to be on the unlimited plan. We used to have these questions but even if you had a 2-3MB plan and had 1mb left, this is close to 1000 messages (depends if you are the type to send that amount while roaming...it was an example figure only).

With all the roaming partners being established, there are some countries where in you may think you need to switch sim's but not anymore....I guess the easiest way to find out is to see when you get there ;)

[EGottlieb]

As everyone else says, depends on your carrier. If you happen to be on T-Mobile USA, it is 1.5 cents per kb. I find that 1 week in China (or anywhere overseas, for that matter) ends up costing me about $6-12 in data usage. That is no web browsing but e-mails and a few medium-sized attachments.

Voice, on the other hand, is $2.99/min in China with TMO, so I try to use that sparingly.

I find the coverage to be really good in China... there are so many new industrial areas being built up and they all pretty much have good GSM/GPRS coverage with China Mobile.

[zmcooper]

I have a BB with t-mobile USA and have the int'l roaming feature enabled. When I was in China, both voice and data worked very well. I was running my own application to do emails and the charge is about $30 for 10 days stay.

Like the other user said, voice is $2.99/minute in or out. The beauty is you can just dial the number directly as if you were making a domestic call regardless if the number is for China or US. It is so convenient. Yes, it is not cheap, but you got to love the convenience!

Call quality is super and you get good receptions inside subway and elevators in many hotel/office bldgs in Beijing.

A regular tmo cell phone worked the same way, so it doesn't have to be a BB.