I bought a local SIM card from PCCW the first morning. Surprisingly I didn’t need to show ID.
Cost was only HK$48/US$6 which included the full HK$48 worth of credit, i.e. the SIM card is effectively free (in comparison, I’ve paid up to US$30 in other countries for a SIM card with almost no credit).
This was for the “no IDD” (international direct dial) version, which means I’d have to call through a special number in order to make international calls, which I’m not planning on doing. The IDD version was maybe 50% more expensive.
Aside: the SIM can snap down to a micro-SIM size if needed, though the package made it sound like it was only micro-SIM, which I had to ask about, since I need a regular SIM)
This gives me a local Hong Kong phone number (good for 180 days or as long as I keep recharging the account), as well as data on my phone at a not-cheap rate of HK$3/U$0.39 per MB. The data was easy to set up on my phone – pretty much just two entries for the APN.
For another HK$48/US$6 I bought a wi-fi plan online from PCCW – that’s the one month one device unlimited plan.
Why one month? It was cheaper than 7 one-day plans.
Why one device? I have two (smart phone, netbook). One device actually means one device at a time (no multiple simultaneous logins).
Note that you have to have a local HK phone number (not necessarily from PCCW) in order to buy the wi-fi plan.
And how useful is the wi-fi service? They have wi-fi locations all over the city, including at some phone booths and in MTR stations (and in the Airport Express train, which is partly why I picked PCCW, so hey, good advertising move for them there).
So while I’m walking about, if I see the PCCW wi-fi logo, I can briefly turn on wi-fi on my smart phone and do a quick email download or google search…
Note: of course there are several competing companies offering pay-as-you-go SIM cards; I’m ntot saying this is the best one, but it works for me.
