Carrier AT&T roaming in China access to Google/YouTube/Facebook

[bniu]

Sometimes in China I use the AT&T daypass which is ok at $10/day and my stays are only a few days so a local sim doesn’t save me much. I noticed that when I’m roaming, I’m able to YouTube/google/Facebook all I want even read stuff about Tiananmen Sq with no problems at all.

Is this because since I’m roaming from a US carrier, the Chinese government firewall isn’t concerned about what I see since I’m just a visitor? Or is it because in the background AT&T is VPNing me back to a stateside server?

 

[dontwalkhand]

It doesn’t block visitors based on your international SIM Card. It’s not a VPN.

 

[matthewyip]

All traffic are routed back to AT&T network in the US then connect to the destination website server so you are not affected by Great Firewall of China. It is the same for other US carriers like T-Mobile.

 

[Mrbobb]

Oh heck if this so simple, even Chinese should do this more often, $10/day a lot better than deal with funky VPN, I hear.

 

[Shirasaki]

China has a dedicated line specifically for those users who are roaming internationally, such as using AT&T card to access the internet. I used Optus to roam when I travelled to China a while ago, and I had no problem accessing Facebook YouTube etc with that Optus SIM card.
[doublepost=1524380917][/doublepost]

Oh heck if this so simple, even Chinese should do this more often, $10/day a lot better than deal with funky VPN, I hear.

$10 is the equivalent of ¥60 a day. Imagine if you need to pay $60 a day to bypass GFW. Do you want it?

 

[nicho]

It doesn’t block visitors based on your international SIM Card. It’s not a VPN.

Actually in this case it works pretty much exactly like a VPN.

 

[Mrbobb]

$10 is the equivalent of ¥60 a day. Imagine if you need to pay $60 a day to bypass GFW. Do you want it?

Not on a permanent basis no, but I hear complains of youtuber trying to upload their stuff and takes forever because of unreliable VPN. When you are up on a deadline, money is no object.

 

[Shirasaki]

Not on a permanent basis no, but I hear complains of youtuber trying to upload their stuff and takes forever because of unreliable VPN. When you are up on a deadline, money is no object.

Sure. Curse the GFW for unreliable VPN like anywhere else (minus NK).