Travel Technology - Best way to make phonecalls to U.S. from China

What are people's recommendations for calling the U.S. from China?
I'll have a cell phone with a Chinese SIM, but I can't get good information on the rates. I have an MCI phone card from Costco, but they want .57/minute, which seems high. There are *lots* of phonecards for calling China from U.S. for a couple of cents/minute or less, but I can't find anything going the other way. I'd like to be able to call from my cell phone so anything with a local access number in the Shanghai area (Suzhou to be exact), would be fine.
Thanks for any tips.

so, last time I was in china I was using a riiing.com card, now unitedmobile, and the enlinea and callbackworld call back programs, which were .14$ cpm. The riiing card has free incoming calls to china. I had connectivity everywhere in china, xian, beijing, shanghai, chongqing, etc. Even on the yangtze for four days.

calls were all billed at .14$ cpm.

I got the card off ebay for 30$ delivered, and it had 10$ of calling on it.

Its all about VoIP (I'm mildly obsessed)!

check out my post on this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=549622
and the links I posted.

you have a few options. You could run Asterisk right on your laptop (VMware Player version for windows or nativly in OS X). You could set up a box at home and connect via softphone...or even get a DID (local number) in China that connects to your Asterisk box and then get a dialtone just like you were in the US.

I did a quick google and there are some providers that have DIDs in China, but not many.... still 'doable'.

Its all about VoIP (I'm mildly obsessed)!

check out my post on this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=549622
and the links I posted.

you have a few options. You could run Asterisk right on your laptop (VMware Player version for windows or nativly in OS X). You could set up a box at home and connect via softphone...or even get a DID (local number) in China that connects to your Asterisk box and then get a dialtone just like you were in the US.

I did a quick google and there are some providers that have DIDs in China, but not many.... still 'doable'.

Hmm. I'm not having any luck finding a DID in China. I'll have access to an Asterisk server back in the states that should run about .03/minute (.015 each direction) for forwarding U.S. calls to my Chinese SIM'ed cell phone in China. So far the best deal going the other direction seems to be using a call-back service, (enlinea.com looks like it's .08/minute for the U.S. from a Chinese cell phone), in conjunction with a SIM with free incoming calls or minimal airtime charges.

I have packet8, which works ok, but usually just use IP cards. 17910 (Liantong) is my favorite because the quality is good and you can register your number (i.e. don't need to enter the account + pin each time), but some of the other cards give you more minutes. Street prices of IP cards are around 33% of face value, so for y33, you get 38 minutes of talk time to the US, which works out to around 11c per minute.

I have packet8, which works ok, but usually just use IP cards. 17910 (Liantong) is my favorite because the quality is good and you can register your number (i.e. don't need to enter the account + pin each time), but some of the other cards give you more minutes. Street prices of IP cards are around 33% of face value, so for y33, you get 38 minutes of talk time to the US, which works out to around 11c per minute.

If I understand, I'll still need a SIM and pay for airtime, correct? Do you know of a SIM available in the Shanghai area, (Suzhou), that has free or cheap incoming?

If I understand, I'll still need a SIM and pay for airtime, correct? Do you know of a SIM available in the Shanghai area, (Suzhou), that has free or cheap incoming?

yes, you will, in which case ip_card plus airtime doesn't yield a lot of savings. (i was thinking of landline phones when i posted.)

from your cell phone, you may be better off to prepend with dialarounds like 17951. at minimum, this method entails less hassel than stocking up on ip cards.

the only way i know to get free incoming is to sign up for a postpaid plan or use xiaolingtong. both of these options require proof of residency, unless you simply borrow someone else's card. what's more, xiaolingtong (wll) can be quite unreliable.

since you're going to be in suzhou most of the time, you should get a prepaid number there (no roaming). if you're really concerned about minimizing costs, you could get a unicom cdma number, but that will probably entail getting a cdma phone if you don't have one already. plus, unicom call quality can be sketchy and recharging is a pain.

that leaves china mobile (shenzhouxing) and probably a handful of local providers, which may be a little cheaper. however, beware of local providers because recharging can be difficult, even from the next city over. for example, the only way for me to recharge my shanghai number when i'm not there is to call someone and have them buy me some load.

btw, iirc china mobile prepaid rates are y.6/minute and roaming doubles that, as does domestic long distance so calling beijing from shanghai using a suzhou phone would cost y1.8 per minute (six second billing).

If you're going to have broadband access in China, pick up a Vonage box (or possibly Sunrocket). Register it in the US, get your local number working, etc. Then just take the box with you! Plop it down in your room and hook it up to whatever router you've got. It'll connect home and you'll have your US number right there on your desk.

People calling you will call your US number and your Vonage box in China will ring. Call out using it and it's a local US origination number.

Thanks for all the good information. A dialback service to the asterisk server in the states seems like it would be the cheapest, but might not be worth the 10 cents/minute I'd save over straight dialback.

What are people's recommendations for calling the U.S. from China?
I'll have a cell phone with a Chinese SIM, but I can't get good information on the rates. I have an MCI phone card from Costco, but they want .57/minute, which seems high. There are *lots* of phonecards for calling China from U.S. for a couple of cents/minute or less, but I can't find anything going the other way. I'd like to be able to call from my cell phone so anything with a local access number in the Shanghai area (Suzhou to be exact), would be fine.
Thanks for any tips.

1. skype.com
2. italkbb.com - this is VOIP but through regular phone, unlimited calls to/from china with $24.99 and up plans, includes local call back china tel number.

What are people's recommendations for calling the U.S. from China?
I'll have a cell phone with a Chinese SIM, but I can't get good information on the rates. I have an MCI phone card from Costco, but they want .57/minute, which seems high. There are *lots* of phonecards for calling China from U.S. for a couple of cents/minute or less, but I can't find anything going the other way. I'd like to be able to call from my cell phone so anything with a local access number in the Shanghai area (Suzhou to be exact), would be fine.
Thanks for any tips.

My wife has one of those cards, I think it says "Teamwork" on it. She says it has a Shanghai access number.

if you're really concerned about minimizing costs, you could get a unicom cdma number, but that will probably entail getting a cdma phone if you don't have one already. plus, unicom call quality can be sketchy and recharging is a pain.


i just learned today that unicom has a new promotion that couldn't be more relevant to this thread, as it can be added to all unicom plans, including pre-paid:

-all calls to usa, canada, hk, taiwan, japan, korea, and some european countries cost between y.8 and y1 per minute
-y40 registration fee
-validity period is 5/1/06 thru 4/30/07

what i couldn't figure out, is whether you need to register prior to 5/1 in order to qualify, but my guess is no.

cdma phones are cheap here so the investment would easily pay for itself, if you make a lot of calls. however, if you go this route, i would still advise keeping a gsm phone handy for incoming calls and text (two areas where unicom has lots of problems).