getting wifi in China

bohan2007

December 23, 2012, 02:33 PM posted in General Discussion

Hey guys,

I live on campus at a university. The internet here isn't good. I want to set up wifi with through some other service. Where can i go to do this?

There are a number of options bohan2007 - you have China Telecom for the basic ADSL or the faster fibre optic. But whether you can get this on campus, that seems unlikely from my experience. You could go on a data plan if you have a smart phone.

bohan2007

thanks. How do I go about asking a China telecom person about this? Are there China telecom stores?

bodawei

there are China Telecom shopfronts - ask at your campus whether it's feasible though. You may have to go mobile if you are in a dormitory.

podster

Any one of the operators, (China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom) should be able to sell you a data plan with a data card ("dongle") for your computer that plugs into a USB port on the computer. You do not need a smart phone. But I suggest that you ask around on campus to see how people find the signal strength and network quality on campus, using either smartphones or data cards, or even plain old cell phones. By the way, nothing in what I am describing is "Wi-Fi" so you may not gave the same experience as WiFi back home using a home broadband connection via fiber, for example. Can you give more detail on exactly what you mean by "set up Wifi"? By the way, there are some CPod lessons to give you some handy vocabulary. You can use it to ask some students on campus. Head over to the computer lab and find the computer science majors!

Newbie: Wireless Internet

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/wireless-internet#sthash.DP5K5TaG.dpbs

Upper Intermediate: Getting Internet at your apartment.

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/getting-internet-at-your-apartment#sthash.uuKc3Tma.dpbs

bodawei

good advice poster. I had forgotten about those cards for your laptop - they were very popular. I think that the smart phone has eaten my mind.

we do need to clarify 'WiFi' but if he is on campus I don't think ADSL or fibre to his dorm or apartment will be an option (from my experience).

dropped_chopstick

I have a China Telecom Dongle. It is fabulous when going travelling, but as a main source of going online not only is it slow it is fricking expensive. They charge on time and on 流量་ and it's not apparent without a complicated signing in procedure how much you've so far used.

None of the telecom providers are competitive since they're all owned by the government.

Friendly service though. I'll give them that!!

bodawei

thanks for that advice on the dongle - as to whether they are 'competitive' I note that you are with China Telecom. have you asked anyone about other deals? I know that a small Zhejiang company offered the best deals in the south west last year.