We will be in China, Thailand, Singapore & Bali for 3 weeks. We will need to talk back to the states about 5 times. <BR> <BR>I have heard of Intl phone cards and/or cell phone rental. ATT is outrageous even for a 2 minute call. Does anyone have any suggestions of the cheapest way to make these calls. <BR> <BR>Thanks in advance

KTE <BR>I CAN ONLY SPK ABOUT CALLING FROM THAILAND. BUY THE CALLING CARDS THEIR CHEAP AND THE EASIEST WAY TO CALL HOME. YOU CAN BUY THEM IN MANY CONV PLACES.IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY YOU'LL NEED TO LOOK FOR YELLOW COLORED PHONES. tHEY ARE ION THE STREETS AND IN THE HTLS.

In China buy IP cards. These can be found in department stores and kiosks, easily identifyable because the letters 'IP' will stand out amongst the Chinese characters. <BR> <BR>These are not cards you can insert into phones, but the kind where you dial a local access number, and then dial in an account number and/or password number revealed by scratching off a panel on the back of the card. <BR> <BR>The first recorded message you hear when the phone is answered gives you a chance to choose English, so there's no problem following the instructions. <BR> <BR>This method of calling home is dramatically cheaper than any other, and although the quality of the call is not as good as on a conventional line (because it's routed via the Internet) it's perfectly adequate. <BR> <BR>Peter N-H <BR>Information about Travel in China <BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Why do you say that AT&T is outrageous? We are just back from China and used AT&T Calling Card Global Rate Plan to call home for about $0.65 per minute. It was extremely easy to do, the connection was wonderful and I didn't think the price was THAT outrageous.

I, too, will be in China shortly. After researching several options (including my own long distance carrier, Sprint), I found GlobalPhone (http://www.gphone.com/referrals/Main.asp) to be the cheapest. I can't testify as to how good they are, since I haven't used their services yet, but I did sign up for their card, and found them to be responsive and efficient as far as getting the info to me, the completeness of the information, their customer service, their security, and the options that they offer.