How Do You Make International Calls? 431
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?"
10 10 987 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I use www.mywdt.com (Score:5, Informative)
cheap international (Score:5, Informative)
mnb Re:Fire your long-distance provider! (Score:1, Informative)
Your local phone company didn't "SLAM" you. If you would read your TOS agreement with them I think you will find that they acted properly.
You were the one who canceled your former long distance carrier.
You were the one who did not pick a new carrier.
You were the one who placed a long distance call w/o having picked a carrier.
I have a feeling that you would still be complaining if your local phone company hadn't picked a long distance carrier for you and simply refused to connect the call.
"Slamming" is what happens when your long distance carrier is changed w/o your consent. You are the one who dropped MCI, and you are the one who expressed, through your own actions, a desire for the local telco to pick a carrier for you.
A pain (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Port 80 calling avoids opening firewall ports. (Score:3, Informative)
Calling through port 80, which Skype does, is a way of calling without hassling with opening ports in your software and hardware firewalls.
port 80 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I use www.mywdt.com (Score:1, Informative)
domestic or international long-distance (Score:3, Informative)
uniontelecard.com for calling cards close to rock bottom cheap with a minimum of gimmicks, but maintenance fees guarantee that ununused minutes will soon disappear. Voice quality ok, not great, typical for calling cards.
From the UK it's easy and cheap (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I don't (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously, I dial '+', then the country code, city code, and private number, which works fine*.
I've been very happy with my AT&T international dialing plan on my mobile. I pay <8c/minute for all international calls and I can use it anywhere - I'm not limited to making calls from home like I would be w/VOIP.
*I don't know about others, but on Sony/Ericsson phones if you hold the '0' key for a second it will turn it to a '+' for international dialing.
Skype option to communicate over port 80 (Score:3, Informative)
I've had perfect experience with Skype over NAT. We are heavily firewalled. Skype has an option to communicate over port 80 (which is always open, because it is used by browswers). Check that option, and you are good to go.
Re:I use www.mywdt.com (Score:2, Informative)
Strangely enough, I always thought quality/connectivity issues were due to the fragile Indian phone system. (Perhaps that's my western bias showing through; I'm a native US citizen.) However, when we visited India this year (or last year, depending on when you read this post!