phone cards

If you'd prefer to avoid having to refill calling cards, there's always the International Callback route through someone like UWT, which would be 23 cents per minute for calls to Ecuador landlines (more expensive for connections to mobiles).

In that case, your folks would call the UWT number, hang up after one second, then UWT would call back and prompt what number to call from there, via cheaper connections.

More about that...
http://www.uwtcallback.com/international_call_back.html

Then again, if they are at all techie, they could try Skype, or perhaps a VOIP account if less so (if they have a good connection there).

i get a $5 one to call the philippines and that usually lasts about 30 mins.

I video skype with my friends in Madrid and Budapest all the time. I love skype

that's probably it. you can test it - if your computer has a voice recognition thingy to control the functions, it probably has a mic.

like my technical terms? thingy, whatsit, doodad...

i buy phonecards very frequently since college to call my parents in south east asia. and usually i buy them online, here is where i usually buy them: http://www.phonecardsforsale.com/

looks like you could get less than 10c/min to ecuador. i have heard comments about how the website looks shady and stuff (it does look that way), but it works. some cards may not have very good connection at certain times, but i probably have bought dozens or maybe hundred of cards throughout the years, most of them are fine.

my parents live in a small town, and i would have done skype or something like that too if their internet connection is more reliable. and skype to phone's international rate is not that cheap either, at least to the country where im calling to. so phonecards are still cheaper.

i never tried cell phonecards, so i cant say for sure. i believe even the regular cards could be used to call cellphone anyway, although at higher rates.

so im assuming the cell cards are the cards with lower rates for cell? maybe. you may want to compare them.

yeah, sometimes it's cheaper by phonecards. in my case, it's 2-3 times cheaper than skype's international rate.

sometimes it takes trial and error to see which card is most suitable for you. different countries may have different quality. i'll usually try $10 first for the brand that i never used before, if the calls sound clear, then i'll stick to it.

depending on how heavy you use the cards, you may want to avoid cards that charge service fee or maintenance fee. and get cards that have local access number (in this case, NY), they usually have cheaper rates. and avoid using 1-800 access number when making calls, they usually charge extra.