Has anyone ever purchased a cell phone for international calling? If so, from what service provider and how exactly did it work? Were you pleased with it?
I think in any region that your studying. You need to shop around and ask the locals which cell phone service is the best. However when calling international, I think it's usually best to use Skype or an international calling card rather than a cell phone. The cards don't costs a lot and, I don't know how long you plan to call home but, usually it's enough and you don't need worry about the minutes rolling over to the next month if you haven't used it all.
In London there is a service provider called Talk Mobile and they offer pre-paid cell phones with good rates for making international calls. I dont use it, but I heard good things about it from my friends. You should look up to see if they are available where you are or going to be and their rates. Hope it helps.
You should shop around first, see if you can contact anyone who has studied abroad there before and ask them what service they used. There are some study abroad cel services like piccell which I am using while I am in Denmark, it is pretty good but expense for making calls outside denmark. To call home I would suggest using skype they have a feature where you can add money on it and use to call a landline anywhere in the world and the rate is really good plus the sound quality is great!!!!
