Cheapest calls from China to the UK from a mobile

tmoggie

Hi there

I'm heading to Beijing shortly for a couple of months and would like to know what way do people recommend for keeping in touch with those back home. I'd like to use my existing mobile, but i'm confused as to the cheapest means to call mobiles and landlines back home, plus the cost of receiving calls. Is a local sim that makes most sense? Or should i use a provider that routes all calls through them?

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

benjus

I would look at either a local Chinese SIM or a worldwide "no-roaming" SIM. That way there will be no roaming charges to you to receive calls, and you can give people a list of numbers from the callchecker to call you cheaply in China.

For making calls back home, one option would be Jajah (www.jajah.com). They have a plug-in you can download to your mobile to initiate the calls (either using a data connection or by sending an international text message - this will be charged to the SIM). Once the call is connected, your Jajah account would be charged about 2p/min to call a UK landline - if the person in the UK also becomes a Jajah user the call would be free. Calling a UK mobile would cost about 11p/min regardless of whether they are a Jajah user or not.