It is easy to pick up temporary pay-as-you-go 2G SIM cards at Chunghua offices and at the airport and then refill them from 7/11.
Are temporary pay-as-you-go 3G SIM cards available similarly? Ulterior motive to use it with my new iPad without setting up a phone company contract. Don’t need unlimited as can use wi-fi, but will want 3G availability when not in range of wi-fi.
[quote=“tango42”]It is easy to pick up temporary pay-as-you-go 2G SIM cards at Chunghua offices and at the airport and then refill them from 7/11.
Are temporary pay-as-you-go 3G SIM cards available similarly? Ulterior motive to use it with my new iPad without setting up a phone company contract. Don’t need unlimited as can use wi-fi, but will want 3G availability when not in range of wi-fi.[/quote]
The Chunghwa Emome prepaid SIMs allow access to the 3G network. If yours doesn’t, you can go get a new 3G SIM at a Chunghwa office (or possibly a Senao if they can pull up the info for you).
No microSIM’s in Taiwan as of now, so I don’t think you will be able to get 3G hooked up to it. Vibo and Taiwan Mobile offer unlimited 3G internet by the day with their prepaid SIM card. With Chunghwa I think you need to go and get a throwaway SIM for pay by the day internet.
Shouldn’t be an issue, as one can make any standard SIM into a microSIM by just trimming it to size. No commercial SIM these days uses anything more than the contact footprint (with the exception of some special function cards that have not yet hit market).
By the way am I the only one who finds it ironic that microSIM is debuting with the iPad, a device that probably least needs it?
[quote=“catfish13”] With Zhonghua I think you need to go and get a throwaway SIM for pay by the day internet.[/quote] ???
My Zhonghua 3G USIM has the standard 2G SIM terms… recharge good for 6 months, number good for a year w/o recharge.
[quote=“maunaloa”][quote=“catfish13”] With Zhonghua I think you need to go and get a throwaway SIM for pay by the day internet.[/quote] ???
My Zhonghua 3G USIM has the standard 2G SIM terms… recharge good for 6 months, number good for a year w/o recharge.[/quote]
I’m talking about their prepaid “internet by the day program.” To get mobile internet by the day, you need to go to a Chunghwa Telecom office and pay for 3 or 5 days worth internet, and they will give you a SIM which is activated then and set to deactivate at the end of your paid internet period.
You can get your 2G prepaid service converted to 3G by going to a Chunghwa Telecom office and filling out some paperwork. They’ll hand you a new SIM which is set to turn on a couple of days later.
If you don’t use unlimited plans, your balance will run out within minutes. At CHT’s $.005/packet (128 byes) rate, a MB of transmission will cost you NT$40.96.
Shouldn’t be an issue, as one can make any standard SIM into a microSIM by just trimming it to size. No commercial SIM these days uses anything more than the contact footprint (with the exception of some special function cards that have not yet hit market).
By the way am I the only one who finds it ironic that microSIM is debuting with the iPad, a device that probably least needs it?[/quote]
I facepalmed when i found this out. All of the other silly restrictions PLUS requiring a relatively rare sim card.
Are there any unlimited temporary (i.e. no contract required) 3G SIM cards available? Perhaps use in a dongle with Macbook for instance.
If you mean “no contract required” you can just get a data-plan without contract. I have a 3g card that I pay monthly and can quit any time.
Thanks. I know they are available with 2 year contract but did not know they are available without a contract. This I will go check.
Same. And unlike carriers in the United States, unlimited 3G means unlimited 3G. WHAT A CONCEPT!
The best part of all is you can get an unlimited dataplan at the $25-$30 level without an accompanying voice plan. In the U.S., this is commonly referred to as a datacard plan and can run around $60 (and is still bandwidth capped).
You have to give a deposit of 2 months or something, which is returned after 2 months. I guess it is to stop tourists from using the much cheaper postpay plans.
Seems Chunghua has some umlimited 3G data plans with no contract. Buy the dongle and then pay monthly $850.
Pricing with dongle something like:
Dongle Model Price Monthly Fee
HUAWEI E161 (3.6Mb) 2990 850
HUAWEI E169u (5.76Mb) 4990 850
Qisda Flying Beetles (H21) (7.2Mb) 4990 850
More info at http://www.emome.net/channel?chid=106&pid=1067.
I’m going to try it…
If you have a smartphone, dongle really isn’t needed. Most can tether easily.
Edit: You don’t need the dongle for those plans. Just tell them you want the plan. They will ask you if you have a device. Tell them yes.
I have an iPhone 3G, but not wanting to tether as I need to use the phone separately and frequently.
Good idea not to buy the dongle. But brings up more questions like: Where to get dongle in Taipei? What is a good dongle? How much for a good dongle?
Can’t help you there. I use a smart phone as a dongle and skype to make calls when I am at a computer
[quote=“tango42”]Seems Chunghua has some umlimited 3G data plans with no contract. Buy the dongle and then pay monthly $850.
More info at http://www.emome.net/channel?chid=106&pid=1067.
[/quote]
I guess that is a pure data thing, and thus can not be used with a smartphone - or can you also do normal phone calls with that card?
Also it mentions something about “3G + WLAN”, so is it including something like additional free access to a city wide WLAn … I guess the “HiNet WLAN” mentioned there could be similar to WiFly…
Sorry my Chinese is too crappy to understand the details, yet 
You can use it to make calls as well. The 850 data plan includes for free the 383 voice plan. This means you don’t pay the NT$383 monthly tariff, but your voice calls will be billed using the 383 plan’s rates. My internet connection at home is an Android phone tethered over USB using a 850 plan. When they say “unlimited 3G” they mean unlimited 3G. No hidden 10GB caps or bandwidth throttling or anything like that.
I’ve never heard anything of this sort, but it would be worth investigating.
Thanks a lot for those details on that plan 
ACtually, I just went to Chunghua the other day to ask about all their available plns. I have a paper here, but that does not mention any 383 plan, the closest I see is a 399 one. Are the 383 plan details online somewhere, doesn’t matter if it’s chinese?
Also, do you know if the deduction from phone call fees will be NT$383, or the full NT$850?
Sorry for asking so much dumb stuff, I’m kinda new to this and a bit helpless, even the Chunghua people here in Nangang speak a bit of English
There is no deduction from phone call fees. The 850 is for only the data plan. You are billed at a plan rate, but it is totally pay as you go. You use only what you pay for.