MANY Shenzhen residents had found that their mobile phones received signals from Hong Kong phone companies and some were even charged for roaming services, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.
The problem was found mainly in border areas such as Houhai in Nanshan District and Futian Free Trade Zone in Futian District. Some people reported receiving signals in areas such as Yuanling and Huaqiangbei in Futian District.
I called a friend in Shenzhen when I was climbing Wutong Mountain in Luohu District during the New Year holiday and spent more than 50 yuan (US$7.56) in a few minutes. I thought it was strange but then found that my telephone company, China Unicom, had changed to a Hong Kong company on my phone, a resident surnamed Zhang said.
Another resident, identified as Guo, also received a message from Hong Kong s biggest mobile network, CSL, when he was about to take the Metro at Houhai Station in Nanshan District on Tuesday.
It said welcome to Hong Kong with a list of charges for roaming in Shenzhen. It was the third time I had experienced a similar situation in a very short time, Guo said.
Staff at China Mobile said that areas such as the Nanshan commercial area were very close to Hong Kong, so mobile phones could receive Hong Kong signals by accident if they had an international service and local calls would be charged as international calls.
The function could be canceled by deactivating choose network automatically on the mobile phone and by selecting China Unicom or China Telecom manually, China Mobile said.
(Wang Yuanyuan)
