By Star Chang, posted May 18, 2012 at 11:13 PM, 16,210 views,

China Unicom Offers Ultra-low-cost 3G Pre-paid Card to Woo New Users

CHINA Unicom has introduced the cheapest 3G package that the company ever offered, a 20-yuan (US$3.2) monthly package to woo the entry-level users. The 20-yuan package contains 200 minutes of talking time and 100 MB of 3G data services available on China Unicom’s website. The new 3G pre-paid card only limited for 100 thousand sets and each customer can only purchase 3 sets. It has quickly sold out within 12 hours and CHINA Unicom will distribute it to their customer by mail. The attractive price is expected to draw more new 3G users to China Unicom which is competing with China Mobile and China Telecom …

The 3G prepaid sim card from China Unicom is the only 3G sim card in China compatible with smart phones from other countries. It provides high speed internet connection and works on all unlocked WCDMA/HSPA phones (with band 2100MHz). China Unicom adopts WCDMA 3G technology which is worldwidely adopted. The 3G prepaid sim card has a face value of 50-yuan (US$7.9), there is no contract or any commitment. You need to recharge a minimum amount of 20 yuan each month. The local voice call is charging at 0.10 yuan (US$0.015) per minute, internet data at 0.20 yuan (US$0.03) per MB. If the user exceed 100 MB, the data service will auto cut-off and reactivate the next calendar month.

China Unicom has about 209 million mobile users, including 48 million 3G users, compared with China Mobile’s 59 million 3G users and China Telecom’s 43 million 3G users. On the high end, China Unicom already has many iPhone users because it uses the WCDMA technology. By offering ultra-low-cost 3G pre-paid card can attract Android phone user. In fact, this type of dirt-cheap package is very suitable for tourist while visiting China.

SOURCE: SINA Tech, zol.com.cn (Chinese translated)