Call Home (how much, living in, codes)

[tero]

As many of us expats living in this glorious land we sometimes are limited by the telecom oligopoly or forever condemned to use long distance calling phone cards to call back our folks back home... well someone at work time ago sent me a site gonevoip.ca It essentially provides you voip (voice over IP)alternatives to the usual big telco found in the Canadian landscape. In many cases beign a lot cheaper.

I/we switched earlier in the year and now we do not have to use phone cards anymore and talk to our folks in uruguay every other day (if we want to - not that we have to ) Saved close to 80% in the process and got a lot more. Anyhow; tis being the season thought could be useful to others.

I'll get back to my reading newspapers now cheers!

[jambo101]

I use SKYPE, yeah it does cost but its such a trifling amount as not to be bothered with.

[ellemint]

Originally Posted by tero

As many of us expats living in this glorious land we sometimes are limited by the telecom oligopoly or forever condemned to use long distance calling phone cards to call back our folks back home... well someone at work time ago sent me a site gonevoip.ca It essentially provides you voip (voice over IP)alternatives to the usual big telco found in the Canadian landscape. In many cases beign a lot cheaper.

I/we switched earlier in the year and now we do not have to use phone cards anymore and talk to our folks in uruguay every other day (if we want to - not that we have to ) Saved close to 80% in the process and got a lot more. Anyhow; tis being the season thought could be useful to others.

I'll get back to my reading newspapers now cheers!

thanks tero. it's always good to know there's another option out there.

[ellemint]

Originally Posted by jambo101

I use SKYPE, yeah it does cost but its such a trifling amount as not to be bothered with.

How much does Skype cost?

Does it allow you to call anywhere or do you have to select your countries?

[botticelli]

I use onesuite.com. You save all your numbers in the speed dial and only have to press two keys to call anyone overseas.

You don't need internet access like Skype does, or have to remember all those numbers and pins like the phone cards.

$10 lasts like 8 hours for me (depending on countries)

[sunshineleith]

Originally Posted by ellemint

How much does Skype cost?

Does it allow you to call anywhere or do you have to select your countries?

Skype is free computer to computer (anywhere in the world). If you want to call from your computer to someone's phone, there is a charge for that. Rates are here: Cheap international calls, low call rates, international calling

[ishabad]

Whatsapp works good for texting though calling is not its thing

[tero]

Hi there, well we used to have Bell as our home phone and used to go through good knows how many phone cards. So we switched to Phone Power, took an offer available at that site. Essentially it does uses your internet connection but unlike Skype it behaves just like a regular phone. You receive and make calls as you normally would. We kept the same phone # and it has included unlimited calling Canada/US calling plus 60 minutes of international calling; voicemail, caller id and all that stuff. Now my wife probably uses those 60 minutes in just one call - but here's the kicker - rates are even cheaper than the best calling card rate we could find anyways. It also has a app for the mobile; I've only tested it. But I guess could become handy. Also there is a desktop app; which I do use from time to time when I'm at work.
In terms of texting apps - I heard Blackberry's BBM will introduce voice (only when using WI-Fi though) which will be pretty neat...

[tero]

Hey someone had sent me a Direct Message asking for the address. Sorry but I accidentally deleted the msg. Anyhow the site was mentioned; but here is the address http://www.gonevoip.ca Voip Info site, with the discount codes etc..

Cheers, and happy new year!!

[stufried]

If you haven't checked out MagicJack in a few years, it is worth a new look. They have upgraded the quality of their equipment and they still have free call forwarding to Canadian phones. If you have a smartphone and free incoming calls in your market, you can have some real fun with Google Voice. Have someone sign up for Google Voice for you in the States and then login and register it to your MagicJack. Forward to your Mobile. If you have an Iphone, download GVMobile which gives you callbacks on your Google Voice number with an app which is just a dialer. Trigger a callback to your MagicJack number (which is forwarded) and you now have unlimited free minutes to call the US or Canada. You also have unlimited text messaging to the US or Canada (but your Canadian friends may be paying international text messages to respond depending on their plan).