Depending on where you live, China Mobile has 3G.  But, in order to get it you will need a 3G number, at least that was the way I had to do it about a year ago.

However, I am fully unimpressed with the 3G here, it is almost indistinguishable from 2G data transfer and in a lot of places there isn't even 3G coverage.  In hindsight, I should not have paid for the 'upgrade'.

As I remember, China Mobile's solution for 3G was that they were forced by the Chinese gov to avoid paying licensing fees to the creators of the technology (western countries).  In doing so, basically China created their own 3G standard called TD-SCDMA which works only on phone sold in China and those phones aren't capable of using 3G in other countries and vice-versa.. It's not an international standard, so I'd suggest avoiding 3G on China Mobile if you ever plan to travel.

It's also a good idea to avoid using niche technology as they could very well be dead in a couple years as a result of never being an international standard.

If you want 3G, you're better off going with China Unicom or China Telecom as they have adopted nternationally recognized standards for 3G and you're far more likely to have a phone that is worth more than a paper-weight outside of China.

I'm running an unlocked Motorola Razr XT910 and it works just fine on China Mobile 2G.. There is a China variant of the Motorola Razr that works on China Mobile's 3G, but it doesn't work at all in the USA 3G, Japan 3G, South Korea 3G, Canada 3G, etc. etc... Unlike my Razr XT910 which works on 3G GSM networks everywhere but China.

I don't think the China Mobile2G network is too slow. Get firefox on your phone, open a lot of tabs, and be patient.

So get a China Unicom for an unlocked iPhone bought outside of China for 3G?

In future????????? They already have

in the us its now 4g

China Mobile offers 3G, but it is highly likely your phone does not support the technology they use.  If 3G is important to you, dump China Mobile and switch to Unicom or Telecom.