Time for cheaper international phone calls

When my son left Beijing for France for his master's degree program in early September, I thought I could no longer maintain frequent contact with him for the next two years, as international calls were always too costly.

It turned out that I was wrong, and I was happy to be wrong. Less than one month after he settled down there, we found he could give us a call at any time he wanted. He bought a package from a local telecom carrier that allows him unlimited calls, for less than 20 euros ($22) a month.

But although he could easily reach us, we would still have second thoughts about calling him, as international calls to France could still cost us a fortune. A similar-costing package offered by China Mobile Ltd only allows me several hundred minutes of local calls, not even long-distance between Chinese cities, let alone international calls.