I don't know if this is the proper place for this. We are going to Argentina about mid August and I am arranging some communications to take along. My expertise is soreling lacking in this area. I have used satellite phones in Africa but I have read that a cell phone would work and for a lot less money. My daughter in law has found me a website planetomni.com that rent these and are quite reasonable. The phone rents with a sim card called passport lite sim .
Also you may purchase a sim card that is Argentina specific for $39.00. Is it neccesary to have an Argentine specific card? The chart shows that it would cost $1.99 a minute but not how many minutes you get for the $39.00. Some of you Guys or Gals who have expertise with these things please give me some advice as to how to go about this. We are going to Argentina in August, Mexico in January and I hope Argentina next year,would it make sense to buy the phone and update it with sim cards as needed. Thanks for the advice in advance.

What I have done is when in Argentina just bought a cheap cell phone there that you then buy a minute card for to log time with. Have used the same one for several years and it works great, calling U.S. and other spots in Argentina. And the rates are very reasonable.....much more so than what you mentioned....

Down here almost everyone (no matter his economic condition) has a cellphone... the main difference can be noticed in the equipment and the type and quality of the service provided, but the fact is that comunication at its basic level is given... imagine that even the very poor ones have cheap unlocked phones to which they buy a sim card (you can find them for just one dollar) that only needs to be recognized by any of the service operators here (movistar, claro, etc) them you can buy some credit to charge in it - not so sure since I have a corporate service, but I think that it might be something around 0.30 USD per minute for a call made from and to Buenos Aires (at least that is what my maid told me )

Then the real cost might be something subjective to calculate since it would depend on how much would you use that service and what type of service should you need - you might just want to receive some calls or perhaps you might even want to make international calls, received sms, mns, chat, email, internet service, etc... but the point is that basic cell phone service is accesible for everyone.

Another thing to have in mind is where in Argentina are you going to stay, since not everywhere signal service is available and thus your cell phone might turn out to be a rather cheap & poor quality camera

Thanks for the advice but would we need some grasp of Spanish just to use the system? We would only be be calling back to the states as I see it.We will be staying around Corrientes which is reported to have a decent cell signal.

Knowing the local languaje always helps... but the fact is that every single cell phone you might find here has its functions displayed in several languajes, including (of course!) english... and as far as the communication is concerned, it is pretty much systematized so I guess that you might need "some grasp of Spanish" only if you use your cell phone to talk to an "only spanish" speaking person

1) Corrientes... street (in Buenos Aires)? No problem at all
2) Corrientes.... city (in Corrientes province, north of Buenos Aires)? no problem at all
3) Corrientes ... province? There are some places with rather bad signal, even with no signal at all (my experience was in north west Corrientes)

You can also get a cell phone in the US, and ask the carrier to "unlock" it for you, to use it internationally - not all models can do this.

Its really pretty simple - just buy a sim, some credit, and then it works like a normal cell phone - mobilecaller.com might be able to be set up to allow you to make cheap calls to the US - I know it could be set up to allow cheap calls to your phone abroad - Skype may also work.