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Advertising while surfing over 3G


Since I got my 3G USB connector last week I am using it every day while driving to and from work. So far the experience has been great, but there is one small annoyance: China Telecom sometimes serves up ads for its 3G service while you’re surfing. Not sure what triggers it and I certainly don’t see what the use is. I am already using 3G so why bother to tell me I should use it? It happened to me twice so far when I click a link, the page then redirects to another one owned by Shanghai Telecom. When I go back and click the link again the ad does not reappear and the requested page loads. Very strange, I cannot explain why this happens.

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11 Comments

  1. I see similar ads on my home internet through China Telecom. They've been getting much more frequent as well.

    Perhaps it's not 3G service specific?

  2. We have now taken over your computer! xD
    Same happened when using HotSpot Shield…

  3. @Mark Evans If you also get it at home it means it's likely not 3G specific. I still find it weird to get ads from the Internet provider, though. They should not interfere when I am surfing the Net.

    @Jakob With HotSpot Shield I would not be too surprised, but for an Internet provider to do this…

  4. @Mark Evans If you also get it at home it means it's likely not 3G specific. I still find it weird to get ads from the Internet provider, though. They should not interfere when I am surfing the Net.

    @Jakob With HotSpot Shield I would not be too surprised, but for an Internet provider to do this…

  5. I also get those ads at home from China Telecom. Very annoying, especially because the advertisements cannot be closed in Firefox due to bad programming. I actually have to refresh the page to remove the ads. Well, I guess that's the level of service you can expect in a near-monopoly. Those companies can just do anything they like.

  6. @Thijs That's a coincidence! I have actually never seen something like that before, the ad you got is superimposed on the page by the Internet provider – I certainly don't get a penny for it. Only in China I suppose…

  7. Just installed the same package on my laptop and loving it (except for the ads).

    Now to find out how to reach Blogger, Twitter and Facebook while on 3G…

  8. @3kes A VPN connection also works over 3G for me, so you can access all the pages as if you're not in China.

  9. Hey, I actually get some of these China Telecom super-imposed ads once in a while! Or when I get a 404, it'll redirect me to a China Telecom search page. Happens randomly, of course. I guess it depends on when I'm being tapped or not.. 😛

Webmentions

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