Phone the world for nearly nothing using the Web and cheap services
By Gareth Powell
International calls get cheaper by the day. Phone bills are dropping as you read this. However, calling over the Internet is not always the easiest, cheapest, fastest or more efficient way to make a call. It all depends on the country you are calling from and the country you are calling too. Yet Internet calling is the reason why all international phone bills are falling. And with intelligent usage you can make them negligible.
Let us take a simple example which I have been using for the last few weeks — phoning Australia from Britain. I have a Skype-type phone attached through a USB port and it has been there for two years which makes it a very early Skype connection. But Skype is not always the best answer.
In Britain I always use Martin Lewis and his justly famous International Callchecker to see what is the cheapest way to make any call.
This suggests that if I want to use the normal phone to call Australia I can use Telestunt. This splendid service costs 1p (say 2 cents) a minute and it is a real telephone call.
First I dial 0844 861 8888 and then a recorded message tells me the call will be 1p a minute and then asks me to dial the number. Which I do. I can then speak to Australia for less than $1 a half hour — if you need to talk longer than that you have been away too long — and the quality is pure phone standard. In other words very, very good.
I could use Skype which is VoIP (voice over internet protocol) or internet telephony and for that I do not use a headphone with earphones and a little microphone because I think it looks naff and I do not like speaking that way.
So I have a VoIP phone which cost something around $50 — this was a couple of years ago and I do not keep accounts — and is fine. There is also, as shown in the illustration, now BlueTooth enabled versions.
But, but, but, and no one seems to mention this bit — the voice quality on VoIP calls can be variable. Sometimes it is better than an ordinary phone line. Sometimes a lot worse. Sometimes, indeed, unusable. Mostly you want to be using broadband to connect to the Internet and then it is often like using a not terribly good mobile phone.
It is improving and Skype is improving and the new Skype 3 is now available for download on Skype. But it still is sometimes less than totally acceptable sound quality.
Secondly, and this is important and needs a paragraph to itself:
***VoIP is normally ONLY totally free when it is computer to computer.***
You must get it into your head that you do not ever pay to make PC to PC calls via the net regardless of wherever in the world you’re calling from and to.
Most of the VoIP services will try and head you in the direction of computer to ordinary telephone and this can be expensive. Unless the person you want is sitting at a switched on computer then you will be charged for the call.
Which is where the International Call Checker comes in because the cheap calls it lists are normally cheaper than VoIP computer to telephone.
There is another service called Jajah which is an internet telephony provider allowing two people with web access to make free calls via a normal landline but it only works for a limited range of countries, mainly North America, Australasia and Europe.
With Jajah all you do is register — important you have relatives and friends overseas register as well — then enter the number you want to call from and to on its website. Your landline will ring and then when you’ve picked it up Jajah will call the destination number you entered.
The sign-up rate is totally free and so are the calls, providing:
A. Both you and the person you’re calling are registered.
B. You’re both using either a landline in Europe, Australia, New Zealand or Taiwan or a landline or mobile in the US, Canada, China, Singapore or Hong Kong.
And to keep it working you need to make a free call, a cheap call or a text message every two weeks.
Jajah makes use of both VOIP and normal landlines using voip for the major part of the call, then switching to the normal telephone system for the last leg. The quality is pretty good — better than standard VoIP — but you should only use it for, say, an hour a day, five days a week. Which is more telephoning than I would ever do but you may be different.
So VoIP is driving the price of international telephony down and according to TeleGeography Research use has doubled in the past year and is expected to continue along that path.
The important part about VoIP is not whether you use it or not — you should — but that it is making everyone look at the price of international calls and make them very, very inexpensive.
For example, I can now phone from Sydney to London, which is right around the world, for less than it costs me to call from Sydney to Mudgee which is 200 miles up the road.
Prices are in a state of flux, always heading downwards, and to keep on top of the VoIP game use VoIP Review which can also help you compare VoIP companies’ international plans and rates.
The latest news is that it is possible to do VoIP over mobile phones. I have been doing it on and off for a few months with a homemade lash-up which I am informed is on the edge of legality and, indeed, totally illegal in some countries.
However the new Apple iPhone cell phone will have VoIP capabilities and Skype is starting with cordless phones that let users toggle between Skype and landline calls.
All of which has combined to make the cost of international or intranational calls insignificant provided you do your research and invest a small amount in a VoIP headset or, better yet, a VoIP phone.
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