How-to have a world iPhone for peanuts a month

I have had the same landline phone number in Santa Barbara for over 30 years. I have lived in Beijing China for almost 7 years and have it on my landline phone and on my iPhone. I have no mobile phone contract, and can use my iPhone to call nearly anywhere in the world for 1.3 cents per minute via Edge/2G while in Beijing or WiFi anyplace else in the world. The monthly fee for my Mobile with Edge in Beijing is $2 per month (no contract). The monthly charge to keep my Santa Barbara number is $1.95 plus 1.3 cents per minute. I truly have a "world" iPhone for peanuts a month.

Here's how...

I have lived in Beijing for almost seven years. Before anyone told me I could, I moved my Vonage service to China by taking the Vonage modem with me from Santa Barbara to Beijing. A couple of years later, Vonage allowed customers to take their modems with them overseas. I used a variety of services on my China Mobile phone to call the US from China, most were unacceptable and expensive.

I switched from Vonage to CallCentric.com about a year ago. It has more features, is easier to configure and costs $1.95 per month plus 1.3 to 1.9 cents per minute for incoming and outgoing calls. You can port your number from other services. Instead of a Vonage modem, I use a much smaller adapter (Grandstream’s HandyTone 286) that plugs into my router that allows me to connect a landline phone to the adapter and router. I have a two-line phone that has both a local Beijing phone line and my Santa Barbara line. I have had the same Santa Barbara phone number for over 30 years.

I have a jailbroken and unlocked iPhone which I use with China Mobile (CM). CM does not have compatible 3G service for the iPhone, only China Unicom, and I would have to change my phone number. You cannot port numbers to other carriers in China. CM includes Edge for RMB 20 per 150mb per month (US $3). I bought the Acrobits Softphone iPhone app ($6.99, App Store, pictured) and it even works with Edge! With push notification, you can receive calls on the iPhone when the app isn't loaded. You can use it with Google Voice for free calls via WiFi if you have an unlimited mobile account in the US. According to the reviews, its the best SIP app out there.

While riding a bus or subway or even in an elevator (repeaters are installed in most elevators), I can make calls to the USA from China for 1.3 cents per minute. Since I forward my calls from CallCentric to my mobile in China, I pay 1.9 cents to CallCentric and about .5 cents a minute to China Mobile. While traveling in other countries, you can buy a local SIM to put in your iPhone, you can make and forward calls to your iPhone.

Not a bad "World Phone."

Any thoughts from expatriates living abroad? Any feedback on the other SIP clients for iPhone?