I’m amazed by how hard it is to get GPRS when you’re traveling. Prepaid GSM cards don’t seem to support it unless you subscribe to some special service, and even then it’s crippingly expensive (altho not as expensive as roaming). I know 3G is going to replace this intermediate technology sometime, but given the popularity of the BlackBerry, wouldn’t you have thought that some of these operators would be trying to sell a bit of extra airtime to users keen to stay in touch on the road?
I’ve tried four different Hong Kong operators now and only one of them says they support prepaid GPRS. Even then, it’s not been possible for people to send me straight SMS messages on their network. Agh. I’m going back to smoke signals.
Can you tell us the name of the one provider in HK that offers prepaid GPRS? Is it 3/Hutchison? Smartone?