iPhone 4s and China Mobile "welcome message" issue

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Level 1

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iPhone 4s and China Mobile "welcome message" issue

Hi there,

I've bought iPhone 4s and use it with China Mobile sim here in China.

I'm experiencing a very annoying issue that makes my new iPhone 4s almost unusable: every now and then (pretty often actually even several times a minute sometime) I keep on receiving a "welcome message" from China mobile on a black screen with "cancel" and "accept" buttons in the bottom (see picture)

The message says "Dear customer: thanks for chosing China Mobile, China Mobile wishes you a great success" (or something like that, I got it translated by a colleague).

The annoying part is that this message keeps on popping up continuosly and it actually interferes with the use of the telephone (e.g. if I'm using Siri and the message pops up, I have to start all over again and so on).

Strangely enough the message pops up even in airplane mode, with cellular data deactivated, with or without WiFi etc.

I called China Mobile and they told me to call Apple, I called Apple and they told me to call China Mobile.... Nobody seems being able to support.

I've been using iPhone 4 with the same SIM card until a few days ago and never experienced such a problem!

I must also say that the battery life of my brand new iPhone 4s is very short and I think it's because it keeps on trying 3G data connection (not available from China Mobile) that unfortunately cannot be deactivated anymore in iPhone 4s with iOS 5 (the option is still there with iPhone 4 with iOS 5). Network reception is also disappointing I presume for the same reason: if I could deactivate the 3G data (while keeping 2G data active) it would probably not happen.

I hope someone out there is able to help me.

Obviously I've been trying all sorts of resets (iPhone restart and reset, data connection reset etc.).

Thanks, ciao.

Stefano Bizzarri, Shanghai.

iPhone 4, iOS 5, iPhone 4S

Posted on Oct 18, 2011 8:52 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 21, 2011 1:57 PM in response to carecose

I didn't have the same problem but my phone just roamed for 10 days and would not connect with any carrier in China. Needless to say the battery life was about 6-8 hours when roaming. I eventually gave up put it in airplane mode and waited until i got into a wifi area. Verizon said all of my settings were correct and to contact Apple when i got back.

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Answer 2

jwak

Level 1

4 points

Dec 1, 2011 12:48 AM in response to carecose

Have you resolved this issue? I get the pop up every 2 seconds, makes phone unusable...

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Answer 3

Dec 1, 2011 9:19 AM in response to carecose

I haven't been back to China yet, but i did speak with Apple. Why Verizon couldn't have told me this is beyond comprehension. Apple said to Settings, then click on General, scroll down to and click on Reset then click on Reset Network Settings. Apple said that should do it at least in my instance. Unfortunately i haven't been out of the country to test it. I can't tell you how much this infuriates me about Verizon because i called them twice to check to see what to do and they told me no it should just automatically hook up to a new network. All i can say is Verizon Global Technical support was useless and they need to learn there product line.

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