Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internationalcalling

International calling fail

Funky Claude — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:12:55 -0800

Trying to call a number overseas... Despite having a international calling as part of my phone plan, I can't seem to get through! I need to place a call to Thailand and I'm having no luck what so ever in getting my call to go through. I'm calling from a land line and I made sure to check with my phone company, I DO have the ability to call international from my phone. I even dialed the operator to verify that I was using the correct country and city codes. So what exactly am I doing wrong?

I've tried placing the call like this:
011(international code)(city code)(local number I was provided with)

All I hear after placing the call is some loud beeping, almost like a busy signal but not quite. However, I know that the phone I'm trying to call is not busy. If it matters, my friend is able to place calls to me and I receive them just fine.

What's the cheapest way for a traveller to call Germany from S. Africa?

gkhewitt — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:16:49 -0800

I'm traveling to South Africa next week, and need to make regular calls to Germany. I'm from the UK and have a UK mobile. What's the cheapest way to do this? I'm traveling around South Africa for a little over two weeks and need to make calls to Germany, probably each about 30mins to an hour long, maybe every two days.

I have a UK mobile with Vodafone but the rates will be extortionate. The call rates back to the UK are 75p/min (US$1.50) and then I'm guessing I'd have to pay on top of that for the call to Germany.

I'm thinking that the best bet would be some kind of call saver account where you can dial a free access number and then make calls via that, but Googling for this turns up very little from South Africa. Does anyone know of any such account? I don't mind having an account that would be linked to a credit card, since this would save having to find a local calling card every few days.

Or even better still, is there yet a way to make calls FROM the PSTN network TO Skype? I know it would be good to have it the other way round but the simple problem is that I won't have a regular landline number since we'll be moving between hotels every few days.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

Best rates / strategies for calling a mobile in Portugal from the US

pandaharma — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:39:42 -0800

Best rates / strategies for calling a mobile in Portugal from the US I have a very good friend in Portugal and we talk very regularly. Right now we're splitting the cost of the calls, by taking turns on who initiates the call, but its pretty expensive for both of us.

When he's at a computer, he uses Skype. But a lot of our conversations are directly over the phone.

My cell phone company is charging me around $0.40 per minute and the best rate I've found is around 0.21. I know there's a premium for calling a European mobile because the caller pays for the recipient's minutes.

But it seems like there should be a better way. For example, is there a way I could get a local number in Portugal that would forward to my American number at the usual landline long distance rate of around .06? I could text him, he could call me back, and we'd both save a considerable amount of money.

Are there any other options I haven't thought of? I've looked into Jajah and similar phone-to-net-to-phone services but can't get better than the 0.21 rate for either of us.

Will my cellphone know I've moved from Detroit to Windsor?

wreckingball — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 10:35:06 -0800

I'm moving to Windsor, ON from the US, this fall, for grad school. I'm presently roped into a three+ year wireless contract with Cingular, here in the States. Given the proximity of Windsor to Detroit (I will be able to see Detroit from campus), is it at all possible that I'll be able to continue using my Cingular plan without paying $0.79/minute international roaming fees or acquiring a new plan? My only other experiences of bringing my phone into Canada have been in the Toronto airport and in Winnipeg, both of which are, of course, far enough away from any US city that I would no longer be receiving a Cingular signal. In those instances, my phone kicked over to Rogers, and I paid through the nose each of the few times I used the phone. But Windsor is so close to Detroit that I feel like I should be able to "trick" my phone into thinking I never left the States. Is this a case of wishful thinking, pure and simple? I'm having a hard time imagining that there's some kind of wireless-signal-blocking forcefield that runs the length of the Detroit River, but what do I know?

At this point it should be clear that I've never actually been to Windsor, so, on top of any phone-related advice, if people have any general, Windsor-related tips and/or tidbits, those would be greatly appreciated, as well (any "Windsor blows" type responses... aren't really helpful, since I'm moving there whether it blows or not). Thanks so much.

How can I call Ecuador on the cheap from a cellphone?

GilloD — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:45:29 -0800

I need to call Ecuador. Hola, Ask MeFi! My girlfriend is in Ecuador until December. We e-mail back and forth every few days, but I'd also like to be able to call her at some point. Here are the complications:

A- I only have a cell phone. So land line only options are a NO GO! UNLESS!
-A i: I have a landline at work
-Aii: Our boss is generous with letting us abuse the postage machine and whatnot, but I think long-distance calls to South America are probably not a good issue to push on

So! Phone cards? 800 numbers? I've never called outside the continuous 48 before, so I'm completely dumb on the subject. Help!