In Reply to: Phone Card - Not SMS help pls?? posted by Masali on Thursday, 22. September 2005 at 11:20 Bali Time:
We get a bali sim for our mobile in Bali but always SMS back home . Buts heres a Quote from Baliku from the Forum "I used Pro XL in December January. SMS to AUS was 500rp SMS's to Bali was 350RP, Phone calls within Bali was 1,600rp I was told it was around 6,000Rp per minute to AUS(didn't matter where in AUS the call was to)"
Keep in mind that to use a simcard in Bali your mobile MUST be unlocked ( try using another providers sim card to test while in australia)
other options you could consider are Wartels which are like communication centres with internet and phone facitities , they charge by the minute and are quite reasonable to ring home, perhaps others could elaborate
another option depends on the phone company your family uses , we use southernphone and it has capped rates to indonesia of $3.00 for ten minutes, so perhaps you can ring home or maybe sms them to phone you at the hotel depending on the rate their provider uses
http://www.southernphone.com.au/home_fixed.php
a new one is iscard which i know nothig about but could be worth investigation
http://www.iscard.com/rates/home.asp
another option is setting up an internet sms account with your home mobile phone account , they could also use this given the password
for more info regarding roaming and charges from australia hers some links
telstra
http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/products/overseas/roamingoutbound.cfm#cdma_roaming
optus
http://www.optus.com.au/portal/site/personal/menuitem.9b38bb3dfffbeae30f7416058c8ac7a0/?vgnextoid=2c8c1308f0054010VgnVCM10000029a67c0aRCRD
vodaphone
http://www.vodafone.com.au/rep/coverage/going_os/prefnetworks.jsp?gs=foryou&hd=coverage&st=going_os&ss=prefnetworks
Cheers
GnM