Has anyone used "rental phone" at
http://www.95wireless.com/
1) can you call home to US from China
2) the rental rate is $35 weekly or $59 monthly. Is it unlimited calls during the specified term (week or month)? Are calls to US included in this package?
3) what's your experience using this phone? connection wise? is it worth it?
4) Does it work in Beijing, Hunan Province and Quangzou.

thanks

1) & 2) - The rental doesn't include talk time. If you go to their site, pick a phone and then you can choose the type of prepaid calling card you want. They range from 90minutes local or 15 minutes to the US for $7, to 1,260 minutes local or 210 minutes to US for $98.

3) & 4) - I have never heard of this company before your thread, so I don't know.

Well, i was just recommended by one fellow traveller here on www.tourfone.com. I have just rent one, I find it not bad, and reliable! You can have a try on it, as for 95 wireless, i have never heard of it either.

If you have a cell phone already, your service provider might have a plan for China. My husband and I were going to rent a phone in Japan, but found that T-Mobile provides service for a flat rate of 1.99/min internationaly. Certainly worth checking into.

Let me expand this discussion a little bit more.

China's cellular networks use the GSM 900/1800 frequencies, like most of the world. So, you can rent from any company that offer a dual/tri/quad band GSM phone that has those two frequencies.

But you can also buy an "unlocked" phone on ebay with the above frequencies for as low as ~$50. Of course, new, newer, fancier and smaller phones cost more.

Once you're in China, you can get a prepaid SIM card for the air time. Vendors for these cards are everywhere. [I don't know the current rate, but should be cheaper than what 95wireless.com is charging.

Phones work in all major cities, and most areas in the central part of the country. Of course, if you're in the mountains, that's another story.

As for T-Mobile USA's plan, first you need to have a tri/quad-band phone. Second, their rate for China is $2.99/minute, regardless where you're calling. It may make sense if you already have a T-Mobile USA tri/quad-band phone, and is only planning to use the phone for emergency. But if you need to use the phone often, the cost can build up quickly.