Which Cell phone service

BenderBends · 05-10-2005, 10:38 PM

I am in process of getting a cell phone in HK....

I need to buy a phone with it.

Which service is best to go with as far as prices and features.

Also, I will most likely, if not now then in a few months, get a China number to add, because i will be in and out of china frequently.

So which one is the best company to go with?

Shoegal · 05-10-2005, 10:41 PM

mattstewart

3 or 1-2-3 are better than new world. But if you go with 3, don't use their 3G phones, the infrastructure is still underdeveloped.

Good luck phone hunting!

BenderBends · 05-10-2005, 11:22 PM

also....do any plans give free nites and weekends like in the states?

i saw that Sunday has an unlimited Sunday to sunday plan included with many of their normal plans....but i couldnt find out what that meant

BenderBends · 05-10-2005, 11:25 PM

sorry...last question...

i see alot of services talking about intra mins and inter mins (or intra plans and inter plans)......wtf is this?

angiebaby80 · 05-10-2005, 11:30 PM

think it is better if you go to the phone shops and ask them these questions..

BenderBends · 05-10-2005, 11:35 PM

angie: would if i could....but im back in the US right now.

but my colleague is ordering my business cards, and i want to include my cell phone because i will travel alot for work, and will need to be contacted mostly on the cell phone.....

so i am trying to make decisions from overseas, and have my colleague in HK buy what i decide on, and then have my business cards made all in time for me to arrive

fly · 06-10-2005, 12:02 AM

intra means you call your friends who are using the same network ("Friends and family sort of thing"); inter means your friend is using CSL and you are on Sunday. Check the plans carefully coz those 800 free minutes could be 600 intra + 200 inter, for example.

For the best coverage overall and if this is for your work, I would suggest the standby incumbent, CSL1010. And I don't even work for them!

mrcheese321 · 06-10-2005, 12:10 AM

I think that if you want to "add" a china number, you have to have two seperate sim cards and you just have to forward one number to the other or you have to carry two seperate phones around.

I like SmarTone because it has good network coverage pretty much everywhere in HK. And my experience with using it in the MTR has been good.

c

BenderBends · 06-10-2005, 12:43 AM

i know some people have 2 numbers one sim card....
and i saw CSL does it.......

i figured many of them probly do it....no?

dropdedfwed · 06-10-2005, 08:35 AM

Matt,

There are some threads on this site with pro's and con's and opinions of the mobile co's in HK.

I agree with Shoegal re 3 network, or any of 3G services - wait till they are better equipped. If u want reliability, stick with GSM/2.5G phones for now. in saying that, 3 has some cool fones at good prices, but not really sure how cool the coverage is in HK (and i dont think it will work in US??? i could be very wrong here though)

The more popular networks are better re voice quality and coverage. Someone gave a comparison in a previus thread, but in essence i think SmarTone, Sunday and CSL GSM services were the top ones here.

They all have deals from time to time, check the websites. they dont offer free current phones on plans or free weekends/after hour calls. they do come with bundled minutes in their plans. generally SMS to same network is free, and a cetrtain amount of minutes per month is free to same network, and another allowance for external network. once again, check the deals out.

For roaming and reliability, the bigger companies are better, as they have more deals internationally. I personally prefer SmarTone-Vodafone, only cos I have never had rpobs with the service in HK or abroad. But they don't necessarily have the best deals all the time.

In reality, the airtime etc in HK is so cheap compared to Oz (and i assume US) that it is really not a huge issue what deal u get, if all u want is a mobile to talk/send messages.

http://www.hkcsl.com/main.html

http://www.peoples.com.hk/p_homepage_iso.jsp

http://www.sunday.com.hk/portal/main/index.jsp?lang=en

http://www.three.com.hk/website/page...x.jsp?lang=eng

I'm not sure which HK companies offers dual numbers on a SIM. i know some phones are capable of this (u can choose to be on line 1 or 2, but not both simultaneously), but not sure which networks support this, nor costs...

the unlimited Sunday to Sunday thing u saw was most likely SMS, not calls.

hope this helps!