cell phones usable?

Hope this question%26#39;s not too stupid, but do most American cell phone companies have an international program that can be used to call the U.S. from mainland China?

Thanks.

cell phones usable?

Depends on your carrier. If it%26#39;s verizon - no.

Here%26#39;s the discussion that happened when I asked a very similar question recently:

tripadvisor.com/鈥?1113708

cell phones usable?

thanks so much.

Now I%26#39;m completely confused. We leave for China this Friday and I called Verizon weeks ago to add international calling to both of our mobile phones. They said this was no problem and their website indicates there is international roaming in China. Is this incorrect information?

well, they do claim they have CDMA roaming in China. I know that CDMA coverage in China is limited and shrinking. So let us know how the coverage is.

It depends on the type of phone you have. I have a Verizon Blackberry 8830 which has GSM for roaming where there are no CDMA networks - whether it works in practice in China I won%26#39;t find out until a trip this September. I think there are other multi-band phones available.

Multiband GSM phones will work. Everthing else is unlikely.

I have a Verison Motorola MOTOKRZR K1-m which worked in Hong Kong but not in China. I also have a AT %26amp; T Blackberry Pearl worldphone which worked in both China and Hong Kong.

thanks my husband has t-mobile and they%26#39;ve told us it%26#39;s $5.99 per minute to the US...

just returned from China and visited Beijing, Xi%26#39;an and Shanghai. Both of our Verizon CDMA (not GSM) phones worked perfectly for text messaging and phone. Our biggest challenge was figuing out the Country and City codes while dialing within China and back to US.