is there an air-time charge in india for "toll-free" calls?

tacita

i have an unlocked international GSM phone that i use for travel, buying a SIM card for my destination country before i leave the US, from a company called "telestial" (www.telestial.com). with that, i either buy recharge cards in the destination country OR use a service called "IDPhoneCard" (www.idphonecard.com), to which i prepay, and pay a very small amount per minute. thus, i need the SIM card for access, but access my IDPhoneCard account through a toll-free number. IDPhoneCard provides toll-free numbers for destination countries. it's beena great service. however, this all only makes sense if i can call toll-free numbers in india without paying for air time. does anyone know whether this is the case? or has the telecom system become so complicated that this is unanswerable without a gazillion other variables?

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SANJAY_DEL

Toll free numbers are not charged for.

Caprimax

Hello! Janice, is that sim card good for all of India? I've been reading in so many posts that you have to buy a different one for each state...How does that work?

tacita

thanks, sanjay. good to know.

caprimax, it appears the sim card that telestial sells is good for all of india, but i looked for it at their site before i read here about the wide and inexpensive availability of more localized sims.

the sim card that telestial carries for india also carried the obscene minutes time of $3 and $4, respectively, for incoming and outgoing. you get a little air time to start, and then recharge in the destination with pre-paid cards from tabacs or newspaper vendors.

with IDPhoneCard, it looked from just my quick scan of their site that india calls would be about 40 cents a minute. still a lot, but the call-back option might reduce that.

i haven't explored this in any greater detail since my post because i first needed to know if toll-free numbers incurred air-time charges (thanks again, sanjay). armed with that info, i can call telestial and IDPhoneCard and see if this will all fit together as i'm imagining. both websites are very user friendly, not too technical - or, rather, they explain things so that even *I* can understand. and telestial's phone support is outstanding; very patient and willing to explain all the details. you might try calling them.

tacita

caprimax, just to clarify, the IDPoneCard acount works independent of any particular phone, so long as you can dial a toll-free number. the company gives you each country's toll-free number list.

i also use it to make personal international calls from work so as not to charge my employer. i dial an 800 #, it tells me how much money i have on account. i then dial my destination number and it tells me how many minutes my balance will cover to that destination. i used it in france and turkey with no problems and even use it from my home phone for international because the rates are better than anything my telecom is offering. hard to explain how it all works technically but, again, their website is good. i don't want to promote it over other systems, and have no interest in doing so. other companies may offer the same sorts of services. however, it's the only one with which i'm familiar. it's served me well and so i've stuck with it.

hmm..whatcanthisbe

a better option/ cheaper option would be to get a sim card once you are in india from airtel or hutch and get national roaming activated on it this will fall mch much cheaper