international calling

My son is a wire pup in training at Sheppard. He leaves for Yokota in October. I was wondering what the best way for us to talk by phone is. Do you guys use cellphones? What's the best provider for this? Is it cheaper or better to use landline? What are the dorms like over there? Will he have a phone in his room? Don't laugh; I was in Okinawa 1981-1983 and we had phones in our rooms.

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This site has cards for both land line and cell phones...pennies on the dollar

If your son has internet capability, use skype.com. It's free when you are talking "skype" to "skype". Additional features include VoIP, keyboard chatting, Video Conferencing... Best of all, It's Free...

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[i]Originally posted by debwolfe[/i]
[br]My son is a wire pup in training at Sheppard. He leaves for Yokota in October. I was wondering what the best way for us to talk by phone is. Do you guys use cellphones? What's the best provider for this? Is it cheaper or better to use landline? What are the dorms like over there? Will he have a phone in his room? Don't laugh; I was in Okinawa 1981-1983 and we had phones in our rooms.

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I really messed up my first try. I added a reply without typing anything.

When your son gets to Yokota he will be able to get a phone number with the same area code as yours. His calls to you will be the same as local calls. I will check tomorrow to make sure but it should be the same for your calls to him. If your or your son have any other questions that I might be of assistance with don't hesitate to contact me.

I retired here in Japan after 5 years as the 1837 EIS Wire Chief. My email address is finufr@wta.att.ne.jp

Hey I'm back,

I talked to some folks at Yokota and found that the cost is about $30.00 per month and calls both ways are the same as a local call. That is where the area codes are the same .

I hope that thie is helpful.

Thank you so much! That's good to know. I have some more questions, but I don't know if I should start a new topic. I guess I'll try here first.
Yokota will be his first permanent duty station. Will his stuff be shipped from Sheppard to Yokota, or from his home of record to Yokota? I'm not sure if I need to send him all his stuff to Sheppard so that the Air Force will ship to Yokota from there. What a pain!
Does anyone know how long he'll be able to come home before he ships off to Yokota? His recruiter had said something about working as a recruiter for a couple of weeks, but we're wondering now if it's worth it. He knows he gets at least 20 days, but he thinks the 20 days includes his recruiting time, and he would rather just use leave.