yes, I remember the best deal was

from Sprint, $1.25 a minute, but only on Sundays. To make things worse, at that time, my parents in China didn't have the direct phone and needed manual switch board to get connected.  Some time they couldn't get connected but Sprint still charged me 1-2 minutes.  On the other hand, AT&T is better and usually can waive it off.  Well, they were charging $1.99 a minute.