sim card in India
 

We will be visiting India during the month of November. We have Cingular/At&T phone service and I have added the International/World Choice service to all our phones so we can stay in contact with our sons in the US. I also had my phone unlocked so I could purchase a sim card while there if that is the more economical way to go.
If our sons call our hotel landline, the cost per minute will be around 32cents.
Would we save more by purchasing a sim card?
I would appreciate your advice. Thanks.

for calls back home, it will be a lot cheaper with a SIM than using roaming. For the absolute cheapest calls FROM India, go to an internet shop. Their skype type of calls run just a few cents a minute, especially if you prepay for 30 minutes or so.

If you are travelling on your own,it is very usefull to have a local card.
Staying in contact with your driver, making reservations etc.

Thank you for your help. We may get a sim card and subscribe to and use Skype. I will have to do some research on Skype to make sure I am technologically adequate enough to do it.

In the internet shops, they have little phone booths that have a real phone. It uses Skype (or similar) but you won't be able to tell its anything but a phone! Just dial and talk! Cheap and very easy.

meant to say that "SIFY" shops are the best we found for making calls. You can also use their internet computers for very cheap.

If we subscribe to Skype and go to the internet or SIFY shops, will we need to purchase any special equipment to use there (like headphones)? We do not have a WiFi phone just a "smart phone" with Windows and email capabilities. Will our sons be able to use Skype (with a subscription) back in the US to call us on it? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks !

I send email messages to my brother's cell phone in the U.S. when I am in Asia by using an internet shop.

I pull up my regular email account and send a short msg to him just like as if he had a computer.

Works pretty good and it is real cheap! Works both ways!

Hal

Thanks for your help. We will most likely get a sim card and also try to use Skype and then stick with whatever works better and is more economical.