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How Do You Make International Calls?
Futurepower(R) asks: "How do Slashdot readers make international calls? I know about OneSuite, Vonage, Skype,
and iConnectHere. I know that BigZoo is quitting business. What other telephone, VOIP, or other kinds of services are available? Is there any open source VOIP software that can connect directly through port 80, bypassing firewalls?"
I'm an American!
(It's a joke! Not flamebait!)
www.mywdt.com They even provide you with an 800 number to use for free.
I use a telephone.
I have a linux based Asterisk PBX at home and sign up with nufone.net to provide calling to POTS lines both US and international. nufone is a purely pay as you go so it costs very little to try them. The key is Asterisk, then there are a few options for the VOIP side.
I have a magic box on my desk where I just lift part of it, type some numbers, and I get connected to the person I want to talk to. There's no IM but it's really easy to use. It doesn't even require a power connection, and it's super-simple. Only a "hangup" button and the numbers. Maybe Apple designed it?
I think it works with VoIP, but it's so small and light I don't know where the computer is. There's a DSL wire so it must not be wireless. Maybe it's VoIP over DSL? Yes, that's probably it.
A friend of mine says this is called a "Phone". I think that might be a play on "Vonage", I hope the Phone company doesn't infringe their trademark.
Anyway I use it all the time and I get a bill every month for minutes used. Not the cheapest rates around but I"m willing to pay extra for simplicity and reliability (the other day we had a network problem in my office but the Phone still worked! They must have some good QoS routing).
I make quite a few international calls.
The cost depends on two major factors....
1. Which country you are calling
2. Where the calls are originating
I was a big fan of BigZoo, especially for calls from the U.S. into Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and most of the stans.
Though I don't know why, most of the indepent resellers seem to be ditching the business.
Your local company (AT&T, etc.) always seem to have the cheapest price into neighboring countries (Canada, Mexico, England, and now even Japan.)
For calls originating outside of the US and calling in, callback services always seem to work best, though there doesn't seem to be much difference between them. The internet call back service are tolerance for voice communications.
Next On Ask Slashdot:
How do you go to the bathroom?
For help answering that question, I direct you to episode 3, season 4 of Beavis and Butthead: Trouble Urinating.
I find it hard to beat phone cards. www.uniontelecard.com has good selection. Pay a little more and get the ones from IDT. Their connections are much better than Entel. IDT phone cards are 1/10th the price of Verizon for calling South Africa and 1/3 Vonage direct dial. You can use phone cards from your cell phone and VOIP phones too.
Doesn't everybody?
Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
My mom uses those, but she got frustrated about all the bizarre extra charges that you get just for dialing a number, even if no one picks up.
:)
So she started probing with her normal phone service.
If no one picks up on the normal phone call, no charge. If someone does pick up, it's a quarter or so connection fee for a 15 second call consisting of "Ah, you're home. I'll call you right back." Then she calls back on the card, and juices it for every single minute it's advertised to get.
I have a lot of friends and family scattered around Europe that I keep in touch with. I know the calling abroad game as I've been doing it for decades. It is still a royal pain in the arse.
:)
Before VoIP, your only choice other than paying your regular LD provider a ton of money per minute was a calling card. These things are very problematic and inconvenient to use. First, you have to choose one that appears to have good rates to where you are calling. Then you have to read the fine print to see if they charge a connection fee, a maintenance fee, and so on. Usually, what appears to be a good deal isn't, unless you use up the whole amount in one call, or very few long calls. Then, after you find one that appears to be good overall, there's the difficulty of actually placing the call. Sometimes it's hard to very hard to get through, and it's a pain in the ass to keep calling their number, enter your pin, then dial the number. Some/most of these only allow a set number of attempts per call, so you have to keep calling back every X failed attempts. During peak usage of their network, like during the holidays, this becomes a huge problem. Then, if you get through, during peak usage call quality is fair at best, as they lower the bitrate to accommodate a larger volume of calls.
Some providers allow you to sign up. It works the same as a calling card with but you are billed monthly. Sometimes they can read your home phone # so you don't have to enter a PIN every time you call. More convenient, but still inconvenient to use and annoying when you can't get through.
Then there's pure VoIP, like Skype. Very convenient. No more wasting time finger-dialing 30-digit sequences of numbers. Add them to your address book then simply select & click call. Problems: very expensive (compared to the rates offered by calling cards) and sometimes you still can't get through.
The adage of "what appears to be a good usually isn't upon closer inspection" applies here too. Skype, for example, boasts ~0.02/min to Western Europe. Yeah, if you call a land line. But it's pretty much a rule - when you call Europe, you'll be calling a mobile phone. I have friends who don't even have land lines. And the price for calling mobile numbers is much higher. And _not_ competitive with what the calling cards offer.
So, it's pretty much a mess. I refrain from calling, as most of my friends have email and we keep in touch on a weekly basis. Add IM into the mix and you've got even less of a need for calling. Then some of them have broadband and headsets, so we can place calls for free over the net. The problem with this is that we must both be in a certain place at a certain time. When the planets align just right, it happens
For emergency use, I purchased 10 of SkypeOut credit which I use when I need to call someone and express my love toward them I can't deal with the calling cards any longer, and I'm willing to pay a premium price for this advantage for my limited use. If I'd be a heavy user, I'd probably use the cheapest service that worked, tho.
Must-not-watch TV!
However Skype has a few issues that really piss me off. One: you can't set the port in the OS X version (All version pick the port randomly). Two: It sounds weird on Mac but not on Win32. Three: Their FAQ dealing with this is ridiculous full stop: Ideally, outgoing TCP connections to all ports (1..65535) should be opened. This option results in Skype working most reliably.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.