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If you are reading this then you know that today there are more than a million calling service providers. After searching for a sometime now I know, which ones not to choose, for various reasons like some of them they have wonderful apps and all but do not have Mobile to Mobile calls (operator based), and I found many of them who provide only PC (internet) to landline/mobile calling services but since it requires a good internet connection which unfortunately I do not have at the moment (no ADSL, no 3G/4G) and some of the providers were even more expensive than my local mobile operator (couldn't even imagine how they are still in the market).

So, does anybody know of some genuine calling service providers with cheap call rates to call from a cell phone in France to another cell in India?

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  • The comments on this question had gone off-topic and chatty, so I've deleted them. Please keep this section free of back-and-forth exchanges, we have a chat room for that! Feb 16, 2013 at 19:11
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    Additionally, my opinion is that this is not an immigration question regardless of how long the OP is living / has lived there. A tourist may similarly want to know what the cheapest option for calling from country A to B is. Feb 16, 2013 at 19:17
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    Why not get a pre-paid calling card? They're available in most corner stores in France. Feb 17, 2013 at 3:43
  • @StephenP.: Tried to look for international calling cards. They aren't in my budget and also with my current SIM card (Lebara) local calls are costlier than calls made to India. Most of them they provide their local access numbers. Probably I will stick to my operator and stop looking for something cheaper, though its really hard to believe that there isn't anything cheaper than this. Feb 17, 2013 at 14:17
  • Couple of off-topic comments about his budget for price / min - which is getting too localised / specific.
    – Mark Mayo
    Feb 19, 2013 at 7:42

2 Answers 2

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Operators Lyca and Lebara are the best bet for your usage. Currently both of them charge around 4ct per minute to mobile and 1ct per minute to landline. I've seen couple of operators claiming to be lower than the above two, but they come with terms and conditions. At the end, Lyca/Lebara turns out to be cheaper.

Here are few tricks you can try to save few cents -

  • Go for online top-ups instead of buying a voucher over the counter. You get additional credit for online top-ups.
  • Buy higher denominations when you top-up. For a 20€ you get an additional 10€ credit.
  • Make calls to landline since they are 75% cheaper than calls made to mobile phones.
  • Look out for some 'bundle' offers for example you can call a set of numbers (2/3) for 1000 minutes for a fee of 10€
  • Have two SIM cards - one for local calls (with cheaper call rates) and one for international calls. You can buy a cheap mobile handset to avoid switching the SIM every now and then.
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  • Thanks. For the future viewers, I would also like to add that Lebara sim cards are free and can easily be ordered online. Note: Apart from the rates mentioned above, there is an additional Connection Fees per call of 15ct. Feb 20, 2013 at 13:19
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Try Rebtel. Unlike other VOIP calling services, the way Rebtel works is that it connects over a normal phone call locally, then connects to the destination country over the Internet, and then terminates over a local phone network again. This way, you don't use data and you only pay for local minutes (plus Rebtel fees), which should be cheap enough on pay-as-you-go. Another such service called Jajah exists too which I've used, but Rebtel is much easier / has a better interface.

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