Alternative ways to phone overseas (VOIP)

[PPT]

Hi all, was wondering if someone could help. I currently use 1899 as phone abroad from home regularly. However, the service I have been getting is patchy- I often have to try in excess of 20 times to get connected to an international mobile. Very frustrating.

However, as DH set it up, I have no idea who the competitors are. Any suggestions?

Hi, we use 18185. Have been for several years and only one day the service was poor. The rate seem reasonable as well HTH

Great! I'll look into that later as 1899 is doing my nut!

Have you thought about using Skype? And I don't just mean Skype-Skype calls. What you can do is put credit on Skype and use it to dial real numbers. The prices are incredibly competitive.

I do know a bit about how the backend works and suffice to say that they have a lot of international capacity and the quality is very good. That said, your own Internet connection or the last mile connection could still be dodgy if you are phoning the back of beyond.

A couple of years back we were really struggling to get reliable and good quality calls to the Philippines and Skype proved to be a good solution.

1899 and 18185 are both from Finerea (spelling? ... possibly based in Switzerland) I think... I've been using 1899 for years now.

Perhaps it would help if you identified which country you want to call in case that has any bearing on reliability.

Thanks for that! Have used Skype in the past (quite along time ago) and didn't find it reasonable or reliable- but more than happy to give it a other whirl!

Should have said Skype out... Regularly use Skype to Skype which I think is fab!!!

Network guy- I'm phoning a Bangkok mobile

suggests 1p/minute while thread from 2010 has many suggestions and another thread from 2011 also has several suggestions...

The 0844 869 0044 numbr given on the first is shown on Telecom Tariffs checker shows this as being BT tariff 'G8' charged at 1.02p per minute and set-up cost of 13.87p (call costs include VAT at 20%, minimum call 60 seconds, charge is the same all week, no difference between evening, daytime or weekend).

Works out at about 75p an hour. Some of the other suggestions might be lower (eg 50p/hour from a 5 quid phone card) and you will get charged around 15p even if the mobile is switched off. Also, if you're not with BT, do find out what this 0844 will be charged at. It's in an "up to 5p" category and there may be wildly different charges for connection and per minute from firms like Sky, TalkTalk, Post Office, etc.

Some firms would default to using BT for the call and then charge you what BT charges but others might have their own set of (costly) rates as they are far less regulated than BT.

Few best VoIP alternatives for business users are Vonage, CallHippo, and Aircall in terms of affordability and reliability.
callhippo.com/virtual-phone-number

A pre-eminent VoIP alternatives for small and medium business customers are callhippo, linkedphone, 8x8 with regards to easy and flexible.
linkedphone.com/features

The absolute best VoIP alternatives for small and medium sized businesses across the globe are Global Call Forwarding, United World Telecom, and AI Telephone

www.globalcallforwarding.com/services/virtual-phone-numbers/

We use phone cheap from work (2p a minute to Thailand 0844 access number). I use my mobile at home to call my dad in France as it’s only 2p a minute (giffgaff)

I think that you, like everyone else, want to make cheap calls. When I encountered a similar problem, I was recommended to try the services of non-top providers of VoIP services, but they are of high quality, but they can afford it, but something less known. A friend bought a room at Freeje and was satisfied, I first bought for SMS, but then I realized that it was not very convenient for me and also bought for calls, it suits me. (freeje.com/services/virtual-phone-number)

Virtual phone numbers are the best option for this. I am super happy I discovered this option a few years back, because for both business and family, being able to affordably communicate overseas is amazing. This is basically a VoIP solution where the numbers are routed over the cloud. I purchase virtual phone numbers from Global Call Forwarding and have found the service to be reliable and very efficient.