What's Cheapest Way to Call India?

chaiii....

You can call through skype or yahoo, check out for dollar details based on your requirement of minutes.....

Other options:Lot of VOIP companies are there, which offers at low cost...ex:Lingo - Home Telephone Service | Unlimited International Calling | Internet Phone Service

 

I have been using Amantel for many years and prefer them due to call quality, no wait, no hidden charges, no waiting, doesn't expire quickly and you can use from any phone. They run a new sign up promotion of 1500 mins for $10:

Amantel.com:: CALL India Get 1500 minutes in $10

 

Vonage - Flat monthly fee of about $25 and unlimited calling to India, Europe and nationally. You will need an internet connection as well. You can carry the number with you wherever you move, even if you move back to India!

 

DNM:
MagicJack is cheaper than Vonage....$20 a year for unlimited USA and Canada. Vonage is good though for free calls to Europe etc.

 

I use this service called dial91 and have had no problems so far with regards to call quality etc. They charge 0.0417 cents per minute, which I think is a pretty good deal!!

 

Tashi, Yeah. I heard about the magic jack rates as well but since Vonage offers flat rate to call India and so many other countries, it is better for us. We have bought magic jack for inlaws and my parents in India for them to call for free. It is good.

PT - that is cheap for sure. Still vonage or magic jack allows us to call india directly without putting in any pin first. We only use Vonage for calling everywhere. My landline number is only for inbound calls (from peeps where we have not given out the vonage number).

 

DNM:
All calls between Magic Jack users is free no matter what country they are in. So if you get one unit for USA and one unit for each relative household you can call each other for free unlimited. In addition you get phone number and all messages left you can get from your email. This is significantly cheaper than Vonage.

 

Vonage has that function too. I find the free call from phone jack to phone jack limiting. There are too many peeps to call abroad and we can't get the phone jack for everyone. Even, the inlaws live like nomads and don't always enjoy carrying thier phone jack and so we have to call them at various numbers. They use the phone jack only when it is convinient for them. With vonage, I can atleast call any number (cell, landline, magicjack etc.) anywhere and my bill for the month does not change.

My uncle in India uses magicjack exclusively to call his daughter here and they talk every day and so she has one too and that works out for them. However, I am pretty sure she has another landline number for other purposes.

 

DNM:
I can see your point. All these different types of service carry their limitations. Here at my home my phone line (regular not net calling) is fiberoptic. The downside of that is that during a power failure the backup power in the basement lasts for a little while and then you are out of a phone until the power is back up. The old low tech way you had phone without interruption.