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How to Activate MMS on iPhone OS 3.0 in China

After upgrading my iPhone 3G to iPhone OS 3.0, I wanted to try out MMS, but it’s not activated by default on the China Mobile network.

Google sent me to these two sites, which provide the answer in Chinese.

In case other people are looking for the same info, I thought I’d reproduce the info here in English:

China Mobile GSM Users

1. Go to Settings –> Phone –> My Number
and enter your number.

2. Go to Settings –> General –> Network –> Cellular Data Network
and enter the following settings under “MMS”:

APM: cmwap
MMSC: mmsc.monternet.com
MMS Proxy: 10.0.0.172

3. Restart your phone

China Unicom GSM Users

1. Go to Settings –> Phone –> My Number
and enter your number.

2. Restart your phone

3. There is no step 3.

China Unicom 3G Users

1. Go to Settings –> Phone –> My Number
and enter your number.

2. Go to Settings –> General –> Network –> Cellular Data Network
and enter the following settings under “Cellular Data”:
APM: 3gnet
and the following under “MMS”:
APM: uniwap
MMSC: http://mmsc.myuni.com.cn
MMS Proxy: 10.0.0.172

3. Restart your phone.

Good luck!

Notes:
1. I’ve heard that China Mobile limits the size of MMSs, and that pictures taken with the iPhone camera sometimes exceed that limit. My experience is that some go through and some don’t.

2. I suspect that jailbroken phones have had MMS for a while, but I’m not sure. I haven’t yet found a compelling reason to jailbreak. Is there a killer app out there that I can’t get in the app store?

3. I haven’t been able to find a similar method for activating tethering, another much-hyped iPhone OS 3.0 feature. This could be because I don’t know how to say “tethering” in Chinese, which limits my Googling abilities. Does tethering only work on a 3G network? Maybe tethering is the killer app that will convince me to jailbreak…

26 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized.

By John
— June 27, 2009 at 6:53 am
Comment Feed

26 Responses

  1. Hey John..thanx for the update..appreciated..!!

    I am living in Shishi (Fujian) and have been using iphone 3g for a while now !!

    In ur blog u mentioned about jailbreak..well first of all after jailbreaking..u can open the door for all new dimensions for ur phone..like themes..which u can’t get from app store..ssh (its a advance feature where u can connect ur phone via wifi n view everything in folders)..sbsetting (it is irritating to go to settings every time to open or close wifi..airplane mode..adjust brightness) but with this feature u can get drop down menu on ur home screen..caller id fix..n many more..but the best of all is to get the apps that u can get on app store for free..without paying a cent..I have almost every app that is useful..n haven’t paid anything till date..

    In all jailbreaking is great..n if u want to know more on same..u can reach me at 13636989499..

    Regards,
    Jim

    Jim Gagan Seth — June 28, 2009 @ 8:24 pm —

  2. Thanks, Jim.

    Of what you mentioned, the drop down menu for common settings sounds the most interesting to me. I don’t really care about themes, and I don’t mind buying apps on the app store.

    I guess the primary advantage of *not* jailbreaking is stress-free upgrades.

    John — July 3, 2009 @ 5:43 am —

  3. My iPhone 3GS with iPhone 3.0 software on China Mobile (CMCC) Go-Tone would only send MMS after I changed the proxy to: 10.0.0.127:8080

    Other than that all my settings are the same as John’s. Hope this helps.

    Forest — July 4, 2009 @ 4:29 pm —

  4. hey john thanks i also have iPhone 3GS but i am still not able to work out with MMS, i am on China Mobile.

    Jasdeep — July 7, 2009 @ 4:27 am —

  5. Hi Jasdeep,

    Thanks for the feedback. Where are you located? Did you try the proxy setting that Forest mentioned?

    John — July 8, 2009 @ 2:12 am —

  6. Settings work perfectly for me as they are. Stopped me changing to Unicom this weekend & then having the problem of telling 400+ business contacts that my numbers changed.

    Thanks very much.

    Ian — July 9, 2009 @ 3:46 am —

  7. Glad to hear it worked! The Unicom switch is tempting for the 3G speeds. I think I’m going to wait until an official version of the iPhone comes out in the mainland. It would be devastating to switch to Unicom (and have to tell everyone about a new number) only to have a special China iPhone come out the next week that supported China Mobile’s TD-CDMA. :)

    John — July 9, 2009 @ 3:50 am —

  8. But the biggest drawback in the official version for mainland china will be..no wifi..as that is the only issue which have been keeping the iphone to be officially launch in China (mainland) and rumors are that apples designated manufacturers in Shenzhen and Taiwan are working on the iphone without wifi..lets wait and see what will be the deal..

    Jim Gagan Seth — July 21, 2009 @ 12:26 am —

  9. thx a lot mate it worked very fine on china mobile from Suzhou !!!!

    Carsten — July 25, 2009 @ 8:51 am —

  10. Thank you very very very much! Everything works properly on China Mobile (Beijing)! )))

    Nata — July 26, 2009 @ 10:31 pm —

  11. THX a lot just found out why it didnt work maybe u edit your post.

    1.Phone number must be 013XXXXXXXXX
    X ur number, i used first +86 13XXXXXXX
    2.If you change your mms file size to 50000 or bigger all pictures will be send

    I also installed the .ipcc file fromhttp://cuimengsuo.com/2009/07/13/how-to-enable-mms-on-iphone-2g which also activated Tethering !!!

    Good day from Suzhou !!

    Carsten — August 4, 2009 @ 4:18 am —

  12. Thank lots from Kunming. Worked as advertised!

    yada — August 24, 2009 @ 1:29 am —

  13. hello, I just arrived in China my cmcc sim card is recognized by my iPhone 3G but i cant activate the data network because I do not have the infos to put in it! Any idea what that might be?

    François — September 6, 2009 @ 9:00 am —

  14. Hi François:

    Go to Settings–>General–>Network–>Cellular Data Network

    and change the APN under Cellular Data to cmnet.

    That should work.

    John — September 6, 2009 @ 5:58 pm —

  15. i tried all of the above for my China Mobile service in Guangzhou. Can’t get it to work. Any assistance here? It is bugging the heck out of me

    Helen — September 14, 2009 @ 5:21 am —

  16. thank to you man

    Michael — October 3, 2009 @ 12:24 am —

  17. Thanks to all , i can now using NET on IPHONE more smoothly in China
    Great Going Guys

    Wildguy — October 4, 2009 @ 8:12 pm —

  18. How to Enable Carrier Bundle Support in iTunes (Windows)
    http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=4271
    THANKS TO ICLARIFIED

    Wildguy — October 4, 2009 @ 8:13 pm —

  19. Hi, it also worked for me here in Shanghai with China Mobile. Also had to remove the +86 in front of my number in order for it to work.

    John — November 7, 2009 @ 4:34 am —

  20. Setting Works on China Unicom! Thanks!

    Sam — November 11, 2009 @ 6:17 pm —

  21. you sir are the man, I have been fiddling with this phone (Iphone 3GS) for near on a week found everyones posts everything works great now thanks everyone

    sam — December 17, 2009 @ 3:24 pm —

  22. hi im in Guangzhou everytime i input mms settings in to my 3g 16gb running 3.1.2 it works fine and i can send/receive mms. But when the iphone powers down and turn it back on it cannot be read by itunes and tells me that my phone needs to be restored. this is like my 5th restore in 3 weeks please help!!!

    Raj — December 28, 2009 @ 9:31 pm —

  23. My iphone 3G is jail broken running 3.1.2

    Raj — December 28, 2009 @ 9:43 pm —

  24. Thank very much, i was Looking for these settings for quite some time. MR from Shanghai

    Martin — January 13, 2010 @ 9:31 am —

  25. Hi – I have a question that I hope some of you will be able to help answer. I have an original iphone upgraded and jailbroken to 3.0. I use China mobile and have a 2G package so the Edge network allows me to download email and browse internet (very slowly). The problem is when I leave Beijing (where I live) and travel to other cities in China the ‘E’ is displayed on my phone but it cannot connect to data network and download emails/browse the internet. Any ideas why this is or what settings might help?? Thanks A

    AJ — January 14, 2010 @ 12:04 am —

  26. I have unlocked Iphone 3GS from Hong Kong.
    So is below the correct MMS Proxy for China Mobile (CMCC)?
    MMS Proxy: 10.0.0.127:8080

    Taka — January 27, 2010 @ 5:49 am —



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