Thanls evetybody just to clarify my situation - I have a smartphone with skype and would use that whenever possible BUT i want mobile capability for CALLS only as a backup for to reasons 1 to call ahead to hotels and make reservations inform them of delays etc (only need to do this on 6 nights of the trip where I am not prebooking because I don't know in advance where I will end up. 2. As an outside possibilty for my gf to call Thailand in case her 97 year old mother (in Thailand) has any problems in this would only be whilst we are on the road.

In this cae the TRACphone sounds a good heap option BUT can it make international calls

Thanks

Thanls evetybody just to clarify my situation - I have a smartphone with skype and would use that whenever possible BUT i want mobile capability for CALLS only as a backup for to reasons 1 to call ahead to hotels and make reservations inform them of delays etc (only need to do this on 6 nights of the trip where I am not prebooking because I don't know in advance where I will end up. 2. As an outside possibilty for my gf to call Thailand in case her 97 year old mother (in Thailand) has any problems in this would only be whilst we are on the road.

In this cae the TRACphone sounds a good heap option BUT can it make international calls

Thanks

Yes, you would buy an additional air card for around $10. Since you have a smart phone and will want to use Skype then you would probably be better off with a Tracfone air card which would give you data and voice, see this url for all their offerings, some of which can be purchased on line

http://www.tracfone.com/got_a_tracfone.jsp

and here:

http://www.tracfoneild.com/index.html (for International calling)