What's the cheapest way to call local and home while travelling around South America?

_allan_

Hi,

I'm shortly going to be travelling around South America. I'm planning on taking a mobile, but am unsure what the best plan for calls (both local calls and calls back home) is.

Do you reckon I should:-
a) continue to use my SIM card (giff gaff obviously!)
b) get a local SIM card
c) get a international calling card type SIM
d) use Skype on my mobile using local WIFI
e) any other suggestions?

For each of these options, any tips for how I do this, and what it might cost would be welcome?

Cheers,

Allan

benjus

Unfortunately there are a lot of countries in South America and I don't think the best answer is going to be the same for all of them (or maybe not even for different parts of the same country). For example, option (c) might be quite reasonable in Argentina but not work at all in Bolivia.

Option (a) is likely to be very expensive, and don't even think about using data.
Option (b) is likely to be cheapest, although you may have to shell out minimum top-ups to buy the SIM cards. http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/operators.html is a useful site to look at but doesn't cover all countries.
Option (c) is fine for occasional use of the phone but don't use for long conversations. Check if it works in all countries you plan to visit.
Option (d) is a good one if you're in a major city, but don't expect to find wifi everywhere you go.

Worth looking at http://www.localphone.com/ - they can supply you with numbers in some of the countries you will visit which can be forwarded to numbers back home, so you only pay for a national rate call in the country. Also, providers such as Nonoh (http://www.nonoh.net/en/geo.html) have access numbers in many countries worldwide, so this might be an option too (and if you can install a SIP app on your phone, you can use them over wifi as well).

You can also use Localphone to forward calls made to your UK number - get a UK localphone number that forwards to your number in South America, then set your phone (with the UK SIM card inserted) to forward when unavailable to the Localphone number.