Keep your China Telecom number active while abroad

This card is short because most of China Telecom's published terms sit on provincial pages that refused every client we tried. What we did read, we read in full, and it covers the part of the story that decides whether a number is recoverable at all.

The ninety days after cancellation

China Telecom's Shanghai service agreement states the freeze in the carrier's own words: "本协议终止后，乙方有权收回甲方原使用的业务号码，为保证甲方权益，乙方对销号的号码至少冻结 90 日后，方可重新分配给其他客户使用" (after this agreement ends, the carrier may take back the number; to protect the customer's interests it will freeze a canceled number for at least 90 days before reallocating it).

That sentence is Shanghai Telecom's own agreement. It is the window in which a returning customer can still ask for the number back. It is not a quotation of the mobile appendix of the national standard: that appendix was not on the government page we read.

Paying, before and after

The agreement separates the two payment models, which is the distinction to settle before reading any advice about a Chinese number. Under it, "根据选择的电信业务种类，甲方按预付费或后付费方式支付电信费用" (according to the type of service chosen, the customer pays either prepaid or postpaid). The same agreement sets the postpaid rhythm at "每月 6 日至当月月底为支付上月费用的交费期限" (the previous month's charges are payable between the 6th and the end of the month), while a prepaid account must hold enough balance to cover the plan before the first of each month.

Suspended service is not free of consequence either way. The agreement provides that a customer in arrears "不能办理除交费外的其他业务" (cannot transact any business other than payment), with emergency calls excepted.

What we could not read

The hold service itself, 停机保号, appears in the Shanghai agreement only in passing: it is named as one of the states in which unused data does not roll over. The fee, the maximum hold period and the conditions for applying are published on provincial business pages, and the Yunnan page we tried on 22 September 2026 answered three different clients with an HTTP 412 and no content:

• curl with a browser user agent: 412, refused.
• A server-side fetcher: 412, refused.
• Node's built-in fetch: 412, refused.

So the four unverified cells above are a gap in our reading. The Shanghai agreement names 停机保号. It does not state the fee or a maximum hold period, and the Yunnan page that might have did not answer.

Before you fly

• The ninety-day freeze is the number to remember: it is the whole of your recovery window after a cancellation.
• Ask your province directly for the hold fee and any maximum period, and keep the reply.
• If you have the official page we could not reach, send it to us and this card stops being thin.
• The national layer and the other two networks are on keep your Chinese number active. China Mobile's card prices the hold service, and every verified figure across networks sits in one table at all carriers.