My husband and I are planning to spend two weeks in India during January. I hope to telephone my elderly mother daily. Any thoughts about the best way to do this? Are telephone cards a good option? They worked really well for me in China.
Many thanks for any help.

do you have an "unlocked" cell phone??

It's not unlocked now. My husband thinks it could be unlocked potentially. Thanks.

If you are referring to making calls on hotel phones or public telephones with a calling card, like an AT&T calling card, I don't think this should be a problem. I believe you would be able to call long distance directly from your room with the card, most hotels in India (above B&B types) have direct dial international service from each room, including with the use of a calling card (I have seen your other posts and other than B&Bs and perhaps 2 stars, I think you would find this to be the case, certainly the hotels on the list suggested by Compass would have this capability, it is also a question you can ask when making a booking.) You may have an issue finding working public phones on the street, esp in small villages. However, there are many small "IDD" shops all over the place in every Indian town and most small villages where you can pre-pay to use a phone to make a call; these rates would be local Indian long-distance rates and should not be too high. They may even been cheaper than your calling card rate.

You can also use skype at local internet cafes to call, you can load skype into a USB and simply plug the USB into the computer, and use a headset (usually provided by the cafe). This is how many people communicate basically for the price of a cup of coffee or a very low charge. There are internet cafes all over India, even in the smallest vilalges (you would be surprised).

Finally, if you are talking about buying a local sim card for your mobile telephone, that may be another issue. I travel to India frequently, but have never had to buy a sim card in India (as I just use my Hong Kong sim card) but I know that it is, unfortunately, not as easy as many other places in Asia where you can walk into the local 7/11 and buy a local sim chip. First off, you have to fill out a bit of paperwork and also provide a passport, and you have to have a local address, a hotel address is fine but they actually will check this by calling the hotel. (This is all for secuirty becuase of the use of mobile phones to set off bombs remotely, e.g. the Madrid bombings.) The whole procedue can take some time and the sim card will not be activited until this is done. I also understand that cannot always recharge/add value to a card except at the place where you bought it; which may be miles away for a tourist moving from place to place. This is what I have heard from others, this is not my first hand experience and this could be incorrect or over exaggerated, and perhaps others have different experiences to relate that are more positive. But if you are planning to communicate by mobile phone, to be safe I would bring a phone which will work in India and which already has the capability to make calls without needing a local sim card so you can keep in touch with your mother other regardless of cost.

To dial to the USA from India,

00 1 and your 10 digit USA number ...

We allways buy a local sim card, bring a foto to make things easier.
It usually takes 15 min to have it all arranged. Different companies works in different parts of India, try to make sure your card is good for the area you are visiting.
You can have your card recharged in any shop, that are dealing with the same company.
The local phone is very usefull for staying in contact with your driver, making reservations at restaurant, and it is very cheap to call abroad.

I am in NE India now, and I would say for two weeks, your best option is a phone card. You can purchase one through the government (BSNL) at different increments. A 10-minute phone call costs about 40 rupees on them. If you use the boothes (places with a PCO STD/ISD sign), it's a bit more expensive, and you won't have the privacy you can get in your hotel room.

Unlocking your cell may work, but calls to/from here are REALLY expensive (and don't forget that will mean you'll have to buy a converter once you arrive!). However, whether or not you use it to make outgoing calls, it may not be a bad idea to unlock it if you feel there may be an emergency.

And getting a SIM card will not be so easy. It took me a week to get mine. And for proof of address, I had to bring in an electric/landline phone bill, which I doubt any hotel will release to you.

(And I haven't had much luck finding Skype...and I wouldn't recommend using a USB in one of the computers if you want to use it again...I got a horrible virus from using a USB in a cafe computer then back in mine!)

Good luck!

Jayna
travels at www.ususbaby.com

All you need is an unlocked phone with dual band, as you come from U.S.
We have 3 times bought a sim card when we arrived at Delhi airport, they take a copy of your pasport and ask which hotel you are staying at, no need for dokumentation, it takes 10 - 15 minutes.
On our last trip we bought a card in Bangalore, Airtel, and had it recharged in Cuchin.
It is 4 INR pr. min. to make a call to Denmark.
We find it very usefull to have a lokal phone.

WE were just in the Delhi airprt and right before you exit to where all the greeters are waiting is an AirTel booth. It takes about 5 minutes to get a SIM card. You will need to let them xerox your passport and they want your hotel name. $20 gets you the card and I don't know how many minutes.

AirTel works just about anywhere in India where there is cell reception. My daughter used her Airtel card for 5 months, refilling it by phone with her debit card.

For calling the US though, it was much cheaper to go into a SIFY ( I think) internet cafe. They have little "phone booths" that have skype phones. Cost about 4 cents a minute in the fall of 05.