Calls to and from India, advice needed.

Norman-B

I did a search on here but I'm still unsure. A friend has to go to India for her job and wants to a) receive calls from home and b) make calls home (UK).
I looked at the call checker and that suggests her husband can call her from as little as 0.5p per minute. That is great as the rate they have been paying is 21p per minute. But the problem is that her credit on her mobile (Voda PAYG) just vanishes after a few minutes!
Can she get a sim card in India (or here) and make it cheaper to receive and make calls from India? Her husband can save by phoning the hotel rather than her mobile (at 0.5p PM) but what can they do to reduce the cost of calls made to/from her mobile while in India?

Any advice welcome. Thanks

paulofessex

Have you looked at Skype. Call costs are £0.054 per minute. However if you have a closer look, you can purchase a telephone number which is country related i.e. the person in India has a UK number so calls to each other would be £0.014 (inc VAT) per minute. Of course Skype to Skype via PC is free.

It may or may not suit your circumstances but still it may be worth looking into

OneADay

Lebara is good for making calling to India from UK at 4p a minute I think.

Lebara use vodafone (who are in India) - now depending on where you are you could have a vodafone contract phone to call UK with vodafone passport (each call would cost something like 65p connection and rest is from your inclusive minutes). Well you need a contract mobile in UK with vodafone.

At least calls from UK will be 4p a minute.

My suggestion would be to arrange specific times in day for someone in UK to call her using a Lebara sim. And let her keep her voda pay and go for emergencies only.

Norman-B

Thank you both for the advice.:T

baldude

I am an Indian so may be able to throw some things that I know.
1. It is easy to obtain a PAYG sim in India, but rules are stringent there. To get a sim one should submit a photo ID card.
2. Maximum it would cost from a PAYG sim in India to the uk would be around 10 pence per minute.
hope this helps.

regards,
Bal.

Norman-B

Bal, thank you very much for that. Is there any particular Sim my friend should ask about? She is going to Pune(?) to work.

baldude

Norman-B wrote: »

Bal, thank you very much for that. Is there any particular Sim my friend should ask about? She is going to Pune(?) to work.

Unfortunately I am from a different state to that of Pune (Comes under Maharashtra state) so i have no idea about the networks there. But there is one indian govt owned called BSNL Network and I hope that is always the safest bet. But there are other companies too which are good such as Reliance mobile.

regards,
Bal.

redux

OneADay wrote: »

- now depending on where you are you could have a vodafone contract phone to call UK with vodafone passport (each call would cost something like 65p connection and rest is from your inclusive minutes). Well you need a contract mobile in UK with vodafone.

Vodafone Passport does not apply in all countries worldwide, and India is definitely not included.

There are almost no cheap roaming options when visiting India. Get a local SIM card