Best Phone plan for calling Asia from Calif.?

International Students
1

<p>Any suggestions for the best cell phone plan to have for a student in California, whose parents are in Asia? I suspect he won't be calling us as much as we call him. It would be great if his phone works in California, as well as Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, etc. etc.</p>

2

<p>Are you looking for a contract or a prepaid plan?</p>

3

<p>And how extensively do you think your son will be useing his cell phone?</p>

4

<p>I guess contract, as that would be more reliable than if the minutes run out of a prepaid plan.</p>

<p>I don't expect him to be calling very many people on it, it's more likely that folks will be calling him. He doesn't SMS much either.</p>

<p>We will be calling him from Asia. Most others will be calling from California. </p>

<p>Most important is reliability. I want him to be able to get hold of us if he is stuck in an airport in California, Bangkok or Singapore, when flying to meet us somewhere in Asia for Christmas.</p>

5

<p>What about internet calling? Do you know <a href="http://www.freecall.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.freecall.com&lt;/a> or <a href="http://www.skype.com?%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.skype.com?&lt;/a> its free or at least much cheaper than normal phones.</p>

6

<p>I vote skype.com</p>

7

<p>Yep, Skype is a good deal, can you forward calls from the computer to cell phones? </p>

<p>The idea is for him to be able to call when he gets bumped from a flight; be able to call us from Grandma's or where ever without having to mess with a calling card, or their phone or computer, etc.</p>

8

<p>All contracts I am aware of charge at least $30 a month and prepaid phones don't work outside the US. A calling card is probably the best option for "emergencies" overseas. Cell phones also tend not to work when there is a real emergency (say, no coverage or the battery is empty).</p>

<p>For calls made within the US I would recommend these two prepaid plans: The NET10 plan charges 10 cents per minute within the US, 15 cents per minute overseas and 5 cents for text messaging. However, one has to add $30 to one's cell phone account every 60 days to keep the phone activated (meaning your son should use his phone an average of 5 minutes per day).
There is another plan by Virgin Mobile that requires only $20 every 90 days. It charges 18 cents per minute within the US, 43 cents for calls to Asia and 5 cents per text message.</p>