We all make phone calls to China very often. It seems that it may be helpful to get to know the options how to make a phone call to/from China. I tried to summarize as foloows:
1. ITalkBB service with fixed monthly charge. Covers all calls to China. Bring a box to China and you can call from China to the U.S
2. Many other phone services have an international service. Pay a monthly fee to get a cheap rate.
3. Use Skype --- Internet service
- If both ends are using Skype, it's free
- if call from Skype to a landed phone, you need to pay minute by minute
or you can pay a monthly fee or yearly fee.
- I pay $12.99/ month so I can make a free landed phone call anywhere as long as I am on the Internet. I can share my account with my family and relatives so that they can use it to make a phone call both from/to China or to/from U.S.
4. Magic Jack --- from Internet (anywhere) to call in/to U.S and Canada: Add magicJack Telephone Adapter to your PC and you can make telephone calls to/in the USA and Canada for FREE! Skye uses a peer-to-peer network, whereas magicJack uses a dedicated telephone network. Other VoIP carriers do not have dedicated telephone networks, and lease this service from other companies. That means higher costs and poorer reliability. magicJack uses its own dedicated telephone network. You can use magicJack with either a regular telephone handset, or with a headset. You can also use both, and switch between the two. You can move magicJack between Internet providers. You can use magicJack from anywhere in the world (where broadband web access is available). It requires - PC - Windows XP or Vista operating system; (Mac/Apple expected soon); Broadband, high-speed internet, cable internet, DSL - WiFi - WiMax magicJack comes with an easy-to-use device to allow you to use a regular telephone handset. Service is free for 1st year. $20 per year thereafter.
I used it in 2009 when I was in China, so that I could make a phone call to U.S for free. But the sounds are not so good at that time. It seems they can only call to U.S/Canada, you can not call to China.
In this way, Skye is better, since you can call anywhere in the world (most).
But Magic jack is cheaper, buy one set is $40 for the first year, $20 after it.
5. Calling cards --- using by phone. The most convenient (not cheapest) calling card I think is
Pro: (1) it allows you to authorize 3 phones without setting the password/pin.
So from my home phone, my cell and my husband cell, we can
just dial the service number to call China without typing the pin number.
(2) it allows you to preset 50 phone numbers.
like if you enter 10, it goes to your home in China
enter 11 goes to your sister
enter 50 goes to your friend in Shanghai
Anywhere you want to make a phone call, just dial
1-781-454-0003 10 --- which calls your mother in China!
(3) you can charge it online --- expiration date is 6 months.
Con: a little expensive, over 2 cent per minute call to China
Other calling card may be cheaper like 1 cent per minute to China
Even 50% cheaper, but you have to enter in the pin number and called phone number!
6. To save money, I did use this kind of calling card for a while. I preset it in my cell-phone to make it automatic dial. E.g. in my cell phone, the phone number to friend A would like this:
17815555555PPP888888888PPP011861022222222#
17815555555 is the calling card service company number
PPP --- pause for 6 seconds
888888888 --- enter my pin number
PPP --- pause for 6 seconds
011861022222222 --- a whole phone number to China.
But for each friend in China, I have to setup a different entry.
Now you compare to http://www.onesuite.com/, you can tell how convenient it is.
7. Sometimes, your cellphone minutes may be used up before a month ends.
You can use your calling card to make a phone call if you can set up your calling card service phone number as your friends phone number --- Verizon allows you to set up 10 free numbers to call!
Instead of $0.25 per minute, you just spend 2 cent per minutes. Do you get it from I mean here?
8. Other cellphone service (PCS?)
9. Just found out that you can buy a cell-phone like $40-60 monthly fee which
can give you unlimited calling to U.S. and also FREE or large number of minutes to oversea! But they don't have a family plan.
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