You may live in India and want to call relatives in the U.S. or another country, or you might be a tourist visiting this fascinating land. Either way, you can make an international call from India without hassle and at reasonable cost with a little advance planning so you call at a convenient time using a low-cost service provider. The procedure varies slightly depending on whether you are calling a North American Numbering Plan (NANP) nation or some other country.
Instructions
1. Locate a low cost service provider. Here you have several options. Traditional phone companies like ATT have discount international calling plans that provide reduced rates from anywhere in the world, especially if you call in the evening or on weekends (see Resources). You may be able to find plans costing less than 5 cents per minute with discount providers like PennyTalk.com and Pingo.com. Consider buying calling minutes in bulk. Some companies offer lots of 1000 minutes for as low as $20 (US).
2. Plan the time of your phone call. You want to get the best rates, of course. However, you should check the time in the country you are calling to avoid inconveniencing the person you want to speak with. For example, when it's 12 noon in New Delhi, it's 3:00 am in the Eastern Time zone of the U.S. However, with a little planning, you can usually call at a reasonable hour and still get good rates, especially if you do most of your calling on weekends.
3. Make an international call from India to the United States, Canada, or other NANP member nation by first dialing 001. Then, dial the area code and phone number. NANP members include the US, Canada, Caribbean nations like Jamaica, and Pacific U.S. territories like Guam and American Samoa. For a complete list, see Resources.
4. Locate the country code for a country not a member of the NANP (a link to a list of country calling codes is below). Dial 00 plus the country code and then the area code and phone number of your party. For example, to call London, England, you would dial 00 + 44 (country code for the UK) + 20 (London area code) + phone number. In some countries (Costa Rica and Germany, for example) you have to add a digit in front of the area code if you are calling a cell phone number.
