China's two major internet service providers have been embroiled in monopoly allegations for the past month or so, and it looks like their pain will eventually be our bandwidth's gain. On Friday, China Telecom and China Unicom asked the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to halt their investigation into alleged monopolistic behavior. In exchange, they pledged to improve internet speed and China Telecom went as far as saying it would lower broadband costs by up to 35%. more ›

Gang Lu of TechNode points us to a unique little innovation developed by China Unicom that he says the provider is selling "under the table". The device basically allows China Mobile users to use China Unicom's 3G network which makes sense since China Mobile has better mobile coverage while Unicom remains the better 3G provider. Here's how it works:

Basically, you just attach that film sticker (card) on your China Mobile sim card, then insert it back to your phone. What happens is that you can still make/receive the call, send/receive sms message etc using China Mobile service, but in the meanwhile, you can also surf the internet using China Unicom’s 3G network. As we said before, it is pre-paid data card which means you can just do top-up when the credits run out. It’s so impressive, and I bet China Mobile will get pissed off by this innovative product.

We're happy to see some people with initiative out there! Instead of repeatedly banging head against desk and bemoaning the fact that Shanghai has the slowest internet in China, Toby Simkin went out and found another provider! Big ups to him for doing speed tests when he made the switch from Shanghai Telecom to Oriental Cable Network (OCN.com.cn), which is operated by China Unicom. The numbers speak volumes, and apparently Shanghai Telecom is actually charging you 30% more for shittier internet! (Update: Reader comments have noted that this test is flawed for various reasons and may not be as sweet a deal as it seems. Check them out below.) more ›

Have an iPhone and not on 3G yet? Now's your perfect opportunity to dump China Mobile once and for all because China Unicom, so far the only mobile operator offering 3G packages, is slashing down prices to as low as RMB66 per month. China Unicom aims to convert more iPhone fans over to 3G fast because China Telecom is said to be in talks with Apple to introduce the iPhone. China Mobile also hopes to finally hop onto the iPhone bandwagon once its 4G system is up. more ›

We've been wondering why our infamously slow internet access has ground to a halt this week. One reason, as we've told you, is a possible GFW level up. Well here's another reason we missed out -- the Japan earthquake has damaged a large number of undersea fiber-optic cables that carry internet data and voice calls between Asia and North America. more ›

Recently uploaded onto the twitterverse were two word documents (this one and this one) purporting to be a list of SMS words banned by China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. The three telecommunications companies had announced their plans to monitor text messages for "bad content" this time last year, but the implications of that went unnoticed for most of 2010. more ›

• Your text messages will be rated automatically based on "key words" provided by the police.
• Someone can also rat you out for sending unhealthy messages.
• Also not allowed: "a large amount" of illegal information. We're guessing this is like spam or something.

How convenient! China Unicom customers can now have a payment card attached to their cellphone SIM cards, allowing them to swipe their mobile phones to pay for subway and bus fares. The transport bills will be tacked directly onto phone bills, and will receive the same discounts that regular transport cards currently get. All you have to do to get this fuction is go to a Shanghai Unicom outlet and ask for it to be added on. Unicom says these cards will soon be able to pay for shopping as well. Other carriers said they were developing similar systems. Japan and South Korea have had a system like this in place for a while now, and we're glad it's catching on in Shanghai too! Source: Shanghai Daily more ›

In perhaps the biggest sign that the iPhone actually is coming to China and soon, China Unicom has reportedly bought 5 million units from Apple for 10 billion RMB. What's more, it will finally begin selling them in September, with the 8GB standard iPhone set at a very reasonable 2,400RMB and the 16GB priced at 4,800RMB, according to the International Business Times. Sounds great for the many of us who have been waiting years for this to happen! Now to cross our fingers and hope this news is real, unlike the many instances where we've been burned before. more ›

On your marks! Get set! Whoooa.. So close yet so far. The eager beavers at Reuters got us all excited earlier today reporting that China Unicom had finally inked the deal to bring the iPhone to China. They went so far as to report that the device would cost Unicom RMB3,000 per phone, a price they will hopefully pass on to the consumer which would make it RMB1,000 cheaper than the smuggled US models sold at Metro City. more ›

According to Yahoo, the iPhone is now one step closer to its official Chinese launch. Apple has finally applied for a Chinese network access license for the phone, and last week submitted it to the Telecommunication Technology Labs for testing. more ›

If you are waiting anxiously for the upcoming iPhone 3.0 firmware update - due to be released tomorrow - but concerned that it will relock your iPhone, you need not fear (too much). @MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev Team announced on twitter that he would be airing a demo of an unlocked iPhone running on the new software. more ›

While China Unicom may have finally won the iPhone battle, but that the war for control of China's mobile phone market is still far from over. more ›

As "G-Day" approaches and suburban Beijing start to get their 3G signal, we are still speculating about the arrival of the iPhone. Rather than relying on official announcements, pundits are now looking further up the iPhone supply chain to make predictions about how and who will bring the iPhone to China. more ›

The iPhone's arrival (particularly the 3G variety) has been the subject of a great deal of speculation of late. Particularly since China Unicom, the only mobile carrier to provide the iPhone supported WCDMA 3G standard, already announced that they will be rolling out their 3G service on the 17th May. more ›

We've been burned so many times before, so we're taking this with a grain of salt - but China Tech News reports that China Unicom has reached an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone 3G to China by May 2009. If the rumor's correct, then it means that China Unicom will be launching the iPhone the same time it starts up its WCDMA 3G network nation-wide. Apple had allegedly been talking to China Mobile as well, but talks stalled over the tech company's iTunes app business. more ›

As it turns out, China's 3G licenses will be issued to China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom by Spring Festival. Guangdong Mobile (a China Mobile subsidiary) is already releasing a new set of 3G numbers all starting with "188" beginning this Thursday. In addition GPRS fees will be cut by as much as 2/3 in most cities. According to Pacific Epoch, Shanghai Mobile users can "now pay RMB 5 per month for 30MB, rather than the RMB 5, 10 MB package originally available, while RMB 20 per month gets 150MB, also three times more than before". more ›

A nameless source in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has leaked the news that the three restructured mobile telecommunications carriers, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, will be issued licenses on the same day after a meeting with the State Council today. more ›

More and more folks in China are getting in on the mobile phone rage: December 2007 saw an increase of 6.6 million new mobile phone users. The newest January 2008 stats are even more impressive, with 7 new mobile people. China Mobile is now the choice of 376.4 million people in a nation of 1.3 billion and counting. more ›

Maybe. China Mobile’s CEO Wang Jianzhou confirmed that his company has been in discussion with Apple to bring the wildly popular handset to China, “because our customers like this kind of fashionable product,” said Wang. But, negotiations have stalled over Apple’s subscription revenue sharing business model. In Europe and the US, Apple receives a portion of iPhone users’ data/voice revenue from their wireless carriers. China Mobile, with its 350 million user base and de facto... more ›

Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Singapore Airline’s joint bid for a 24 percent stake of China Eastern Airline finally received its blessing from Beijing last week. The deal valued CEA at HK$3.80 per share. China Eastern’s Hong Kong listing after a three month halt resumed trading earlier today and promptly doubled from HK$ 3.73 to HK$ 7.50 before paring back to settle around HK$ 6.90 in the afternoon. Today’s surge in gave the two new investors an instant HK$5.84 billion profit on paper, about USD $750 million. Not bad for a day’s work! Shares of all four major Chinese airlines (the other three are Air China, China Southern and Hainan Air) traded on the domestic exchange rallied 10 percent on the news, the maximum daily limit allowed under local rules. In related news, the Shanghai Composite Index closed at another a record high, up 102 points, or 2 percent, at 5321. more ›

• China to be world's third largest economy
  China's sizzling economy grew even faster in 2006 than previously reported, the government said Wednesday, moving it closer to overtaking Germany as the world's third-largest and possibly adding to fears of overheating.


• China falling short on energy-saving goals
  China is falling short of its goals in a campaign to boost energy efficiency in its fuel-guzzling economy - the world's No. 2 oil consumer - but is starting to make progress, the government said Thursday.


• China "Liantong" condom makes the right connection
  A condom trademark named after telecommunications giant China Unicom has been approved by the Chinese government's trademark office.

See anything newsworthy? Leave us a tip on the Shanghaiist Contribute Page! more ›

The industry is trying to make 3G services available in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics so that half a billion cell phone subscribers and millions of visitors can stream and download small screen clips of Yao Ming slam dunking his way to gold medal glory. more ›

We simply got tired of waiting for the optical cable guy to arrive. We also started experiencing the internet withdrawal shakes had some research to do. A man can only organize his Gmail inbox so many times. So we laid down some cash and got things working again. Here's how. more ›

Mobile phone madness more ›

For example, you are at luna to chill, you send a short message“@luna”to belinker，belinker will tell your friends where you are，at the same time, if your friends’ friend happen to be nearby and checked in as well, you will know there location too. The casual meet up will never need to be planed again, you got another reason to meet friend in china. more ›

The show, broadcast live on Dragon TV until August, is like a male beauty contest that began on May 21. We read the rules of the competition, and it seems they aim to select charming men with both ability and moral integrity, to make them the new image of the young generation. We suppose it helps if the guy is hot, too, although that clearly was not the case for Super Voice Girls. more ›

Sage Brennan of Pacific Epoch just emailed our editor with the latest installment in the ongoing Berry-saga: more ›

Have we mentioned China Unicom is about to launch a pushmail service dubbed the “RedBerry”? Oh yeah, we have, here, here and here. This Shanghaiist went so far as calling it a worthy challenger to the BlackBerry. But, now we aren’t so sure. Sage Brennan from Pacific Epoch uncovered this interesting, albeit somewhat disturbing tidbit: more ›