Make Dearth Cheap International Calls from Across the World

Is it your first travel abroad? Have you ensured that you have everything as per the check list you made? If yes, then I wish you a very pleasant, successful & safe trip.

No matter where you go, you would always love to talk to your family & friends. Traveling and talking in case of domestic travels is not a problem. But, in the case of overseas trips, talking back home from your roaming cell phone, or from a public phone may cost you heavily. However, with a little bit of awareness about various other modes of communication available these days you can make extremely cheap calls to your family/ friends. Sometimes you can even make free calls.

Are you wondering, how? Yes, it is possible. Thanks to technologies like VOIP and internet telephony. You don’t have to be a computer geek or a techie to make such calls.

In this article I will brief about some of the modes of communication which I have used personally while traveling to the places like the USA, the Europe & East Africa. There are many options available in the USA & the Europe to choose from, as per your requirement. But, things are not the same in East Africa, yet there are still some reliable & cheap options to call.

Let us begin to explore the options.

1. How to make free calls/ voice chats?

Free calls/ voice chats are only possible when you call via internet. You can get connected to internet from a computer which has a microphone and a speaker or a head phone with a microphone. It is always advisable to use a headphone for better clarity & privacy of your conversation. These days you can get very good and cheap headphones in the market. Just grab one for yourself & get started. Sometimes, your voice chat can also be complemented with your live video & it becomes a video chat. Video chat is only possible if you have a webcam attached to your computer.

The biggest drawback of this is that you can talk to somebody only when both of you are online (i.e. connected to internet) at the time of making the call. It is a bit of problem but as the cost of call is going to be zero (you will only incur the cost of using the internet), you can afford to fix a particular time in advance to do the voice/ video chat.

Service Providers:

Today, you can find several companies offering facilities of voice chat. But, I will name only those which I have used & I find them simple to use.

a. Skype: My rating, it is the best of all. It is very simple & reliable to use. The audio & video quality is very high. You can also make conference calls with amazing ease. To make calls you will have to download & install Skype on your computer. It is free to install. You also will have to register & make a login id. Once you have your login id, you can invite & add your friends on Skype. That’s it! Now you can talk whenever you and your connections are online.

b. Gmail: You can call & talk directly from your inbox chat window. You can talk to anybody who is online. In 2011, Google is promoting Free telephone calls & Free sms to all the USA & Canada numbers. Try it from the same chat window. It works very well. But, the person you call to may be charged by his mobile service provider. I can use free calling to the USA number from East Africa. But, my folks in India are not able to avail this feature of free calling to the USA. Check out Gmail website for more details.

c. Yahoo Messenger: If you and your friend have yahoo messenger id then you can make voice chats.

All of the above can be achieved on your cell phone too. If you have a cell phone which supports – Skype, Gmail or Yahoo Messenger and your mobile service providers offers you internet services. You get freedom of talking on the move from the cell phone. That is fantastic! It feels same like talking from your mobile.

Caution: If you are your using your cell phone for above services please check the charges of browsing the internet with your service provider, to avoid future shocks of high billing.

Advantages:

i. Cheapest mode of talking from abroad. You have to just pay for internet usage, which now a days is free in most of the Hotels or you can easily buy one internet package for yourself in any country you visit.

ii. Simple to use.

iii. No matter in which part of the world you are you can talk.

Disadvantages:

i. Both of the parties willing to communicate have to be online at the same time and have to be registered with the same service provider like – Skype, Gmail, and Yahoo Messenger etc.

ii. You lose your mobility if you are using a computer.

iii. The quality of audio & video chat is dependent upon the speed of your internet. The higher the speed the better is the quality.

2. Cheap calls to Mobile/Landlines:

Now, we will discuss how we can call directly to the phones of our loved ones from abroad at cheap rates?

There are three options.

a. Using a Local Sim Card:

It is the simplest option to buy a sim in the country where you are. But, it is not always so easy to buy a sim in a foreign nation. The call rates of local number would be cheaper than calling from a phone on roaming. But, would not be as cheap as using any of the following two options.

b. Buying a Calling Card:

Remember, calling cards are different from the sim cards. You do not have to insert it in the cell phone. These cards are easily available on Kiosks on the streets selling newspapers or any store selling groceries, or any mobile shop etc. You just have to ask for a calling card for your country/ region. Many a times the cards come as World Calling Cards, Asia Calling Cards, India Calling Cards etc. Check all the options & choose the cheapest one for your region. One card may cost you around USD 5 or Euro 5 but you get substantial amount of minutes to talk like 300 mins or so, which means you pay around 0.017 cents per minute. Don’t you think it is cheap & substantial saving for you? I have used them and I really like them. (I have used these cards to call India from the USA, Germany, Italy, and Hungary to name a few. I have not used it from East Africa yet).

How to use calling cards?

These calling cards are in paper form with instructions written on them on how to dial any number you wish to call. There is always a unique code on the card which is used to activate & establish calls. Your call credit balance is linked with this unique number. This unique number is displayed after scratching the card. Sometimes, the vendors give a simple print out on a small paper on which number is written with instructions.

Caution: You have to always use the calling card number which is revealed after scratching the card for establishing the calls. So please preserve this number until you have not used all your call credits. The number once lost cannot be retrieved.

You have to use the calling card from a fixed line number or public phone. Dial the toll free number from the fixed line or public phone and follow the automated instructions to establish the call with the other person you want to talk. As you dial a toll free number to establish calls, so neither you have to put coin in the public phone nor you have to pay for dialing from hotel phone. In case you have no access to fixed line or public phone, you can buy a local sim & dial the local number to establish calls. It will be still cheaper than dialing an international number directly from the local sim.

In certain countries you may find instructions written in local language. You please first take help of somebody to understand the dialing procedures –may be from the Front Desk of the hotel you are staying. This will help you make calls smoothly.

Advantages:

i. Very cheap rates as compared to international calls from mobile or fixed lines.

ii. You can call from Public Phone Booths or Hotel phone by dialing toll free number. No need of a cell phone.

iii. Easily available at the stores.

Disadvantages:

i. You need to follow a set of instructions before establishing any call. It may take several seconds to do that.

ii. Call quality sometimes is not as good as talking directly from a phone.

iii. If misplaced or lost it can be easily used by others. You cannot block it.

3. Making Calls from Computer to Phones

There are quite a few options in which you can use your computer with internet connection to call phones. Just install the software on your computer, buy credit online by using your credit cards/ Pay Pal and start talking.

It is a hybrid of first two modes of calling we discussed above. As we are calling via internet the calls rates are very cheap. But, if we are using a computer the mobility is restricted. We can overcome this by using a cell phone which supports the installation of such features and buying a local sim card with internet browsing facility.

Some companies which provide such services are mentioned below.

a. Nymgo: I regularly use it for calling to India. It is the cheapest and very reliable in my opinion.

b. Fring: This is a very good option if you are using a local sim card to establish calls. Good service. To use fring you need to have a cell phone which supports 3G technology.

c. Skype: It is expensive as compared to the above two.

Advantages:

i. Extremely cheap rates.

ii. You can use these facilities from any part of the world.

Disadvantages:

i. You need to buy credits online using a credit card or pay pal etc. If you do not have access to these then you will find it difficult to buy credits.

ii. The audio quality depends on the speed of internet.

There are many other service providers too. But, due to the lack of awareness I cannot discuss all. You are advised to use your own discretion in choosing the services.

Special Note: I have written this complete article based on my experiences of calling from abroad to India. If you are going to make calls to some other nation please check the calling rates before choosing the most suitable option for yourself.

In case you have some suggestions, feedback & queries please feel free to write to me.

Happy Calling!

Devout Maven.