International phone calls in wifi

[Deleted member 29185]

Vodafone Red Roam unfortunately not available in PNG - International Roaming | Vodafone Australia

Thanks for doing the leg work for me! I see even for our fast approaching holiday, only SIN works with that plan, so no point for me. In fact, the list of countries is fairly short. Seems Viber and Skype will be the go.

 

[Sprucegoose]

You obviously do not live in Gippsland where Vodafail is useless :!:

Or most country areas for that matter

 

[GaryBne]

There was a post above about Vodafone. Perhaps not off topic because it deals with the underlying question : how to make cheap calls back home.

And "Yes" they have some service disappointments ... but there is not a Telco alive that hasn't disappointed me in some way or other. (pun intended)

Vodafone has a series of "Red Sim" plans with sims only in the nano size. (but you can overcome that with an adapter for $2) These plans are available sim only; month to month; 12mo, 24 mo, or with a phone. Varying levels of data ... the sweet spot for me was $45 for unlimited calls, texts, texts to OS 3gb data AND 300 minutes (yep 5 hours) on international calls from Australia. Handy for pre travel calls …

The plan also allows you to pay an extra $5 / day to use the same services (calls, sms, data) in any of 47 countries. I think you need to pre book the days. By contrast Optus has a different set of countries , calls only, and a skinny data allowance for $10 / day.

I could no see any such sweet deal from Telstra. Perhaps others are aware of one?


So one sweet plan is to move to Vodafone for one month only, for a single OS vacation .. then move back to your preferred carrier. OR, even take out a new monthly contract just for the vacation and the pre planning time ( to call hotels etc from AU) . Put that Red sim in an old phone and you have full travel communications in a phone you don’t mind being stolen … Leave your good phone turned on (yet hidden from theft) to see who is calling, don’t answer it… but call them back on your travel phone.

The super sweet deal for the frequent international traveler is the Vodafone $100 red sim plan. It looks like you need to sign up for this one and take a phone for 24 months; however it includes infinite calls, texts in Australia and OS, and the 300 minutes of OS calls and 6gb of data. But the real sweetener is that it includes the $5 roaming fee. That's all the calls and 6gb data WHILE OS. Assuming the 47 countries listed suit your travel plans that caps your annual costs at $1200 p.a. and gives you a new phone. For some Frequent Flyers that would be a stunning deal.

The devil is often in the detail, but on my reading it seems very fair. For example if you are in one of the 47 countries, and call Australia its included. if you call a 3rd country the call comes out of your 300 minutes call allowance, as if you were in Australia. Very Fair!


Gary

PS I’m not a Vodafone employee. I dropped Vodafone as my carrier following a series of disputes last year but not over call issues - only accounting matters. My advice is you should take this deal if it suits, sign up with a direct debit authority to a cheque account, rather than a credit card... and then that allows you to cancel the direct debit authority with your bank. Then of course pay the account on time. With 20:20 hindsight that would have insulated me from their accounting errors.

 

[timster]

Simple to person using the same app: Skype/ Viber/ Line/Tango/ Kakao/ Whatsapp

Whatsapp announced app-to-app free calls would be available in Q2 2014 but I believe they're now looking at Q1 2015 release. The Call button that you currently see in Whatsapp simply uses your phone's internal sim, ie whatever your phone plan charges.

 

[GaryBne]

PPS In the interest of saving readers’ time I have listed the Vodafone 47 “countries “ below

Sigh … I see that they list England, Scotland and Wales as separate “countries”- so take the claim of 47 countries with a grain of salt.

Albania

Belgium

Indonesia

Austria

Brazil

Bulgaria

China

Croatia

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

England

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hong Kong

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Japan

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Montenegro

Netherlands

New Zealand

Northern Ireland

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Scotland

Serbia

Singapore

Slovak Republic

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Thailand

Turkey

USA

Wales

 

[russ]

I have Naked DSL at one home in Australia, so I have a VOIP account with an ISP. I put my VOIP credentials (phone number, password, SIP server) into a free iPhone app ("Whistle") and make outbound calls just like I am using my landline VOIP back in Australia. No Skype subscription required. However, like Skype, it does require half-reasonable WiFi access.

I haven't figured out how to receive calls on the app, but haven't tried hard because I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night anyway. Any voicemails on that line get emailed to me, so I can review any calls the next morning.

 

[hossein_au]

There was a post above about Vodafone. Perhaps not off topic because it deals with the underlying question : how to make cheap calls back home.

And "Yes" they have some service disappointments ... but there is not a Telco alive that hasn't disappointed me in some way or other. (pun intended)

Vodafone has a series of "Red Sim" plans with sims only in the nano size. (but you can overcome that with an adapter for $2) These plans are available sim only; month to month; 12mo, 24 mo, or with a phone. Varying levels of data ... the sweet spot for me was $45 for unlimited calls, texts, texts to OS 3gb data AND 300 minutes (yep 5 hours) on international calls from Australia. Handy for pre travel calls …

The plan also allows you to pay an extra $5 / day to use the same services (calls, sms, data) in any of 47 countries. I think you need to pre book the days. By contrast Optus has a different set of countries , calls only, and a skinny data allowance for $10 / day.

I could no see any such sweet deal from Telstra. Perhaps others are aware of one?


So one sweet plan is to move to Vodafone for one month only, for a single OS vacation .. then move back to your preferred carrier. OR, even take out a new monthly contract just for the vacation and the pre planning time ( to call hotels etc from AU) . Put that Red sim in an old phone and you have full travel communications in a phone you don’t mind being stolen … Leave your good phone turned on (yet hidden from theft) to see who is calling, don’t answer it… but call them back on your travel phone.

The super sweet deal for the frequent international traveler is the Vodafone $100 red sim plan. It looks like you need to sign up for this one and take a phone for 24 months; however it includes infinite calls, texts in Australia and OS, and the 300 minutes of OS calls and 6gb of data. But the real sweetener is that it includes the $5 roaming fee. That's all the calls and 6gb data WHILE OS. Assuming the 47 countries listed suit your travel plans that caps your annual costs at $1200 p.a. and gives you a new phone. For some Frequent Flyers that would be a stunning deal.

The devil is often in the detail, but on my reading it seems very fair. For example if you are in one of the 47 countries, and call Australia its included. if you call a 3rd country the call comes out of your 300 minutes call allowance, as if you were in Australia. Very Fair!


Gary

PS I’m not a Vodafone employee. I dropped Vodafone as my carrier following a series of disputes last year but not over call issues - only accounting matters. My advice is you should take this deal if it suits, sign up with a direct debit authority to a cheque account, rather than a credit card... and then that allows you to cancel the direct debit authority with your bank. Then of course pay the account on time. With 20:20 hindsight that would have insulated me from their accounting errors.

Thanks for the info. This is exactly what I was talking about up the thread. I am on the first example in your post, although I pay $50 per month?!

Another feature of these plans are that while you are OS, all calls within the country are considered part of your plan (i.e. unlimited calls and text within, say, France, while you are in France). Calls to or from Australia are also part of the plan (i.e. unlimited calls to or from Australia from or to France, while you are in France). Calls to other countries comes off the 100 minutes of calls included in the plan (i.e. calling Germany while you are in France).

Oh, and you do not need to book the days in advance, the $5 per day is automatically activated on days you use you phone overseas (make or receive calls, or use data).

 

[hossein_au]

For those people who prefer VoIP, you can visit betamax price comparison to see which provider has the cheapest calls for the country/countries you are interested in (green cells are the cheapest per row, while red are the most expensive). Then you can register with the particular provider(s) and use any VoIP software for your particular handset. I, for example, use 123voip.com as well as dialnow.com, and I have a VoIP software on iPhone (3CXPhone) which allows adding multiple SIP accounts, and I choose which one I want to use before each call.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

And with Vodafone Red Roam when you overseas any calls you receive are billed to caller at std local Aust rates - caller pays no extra to call you than they would if you were inside the shores of Oz.

 

[hossein_au]

And with Vodafone Red Roam when you overseas any calls you receive are billed to caller at std local Aust rates - caller pays no extra to call you than they would if you were inside the shores of Oz.

I think this is true of any Telco. Caller pays for the first leg of the call (to your Aussie mobile number), and you pay for any call forwarding, whether explicit (if you forward your mobile to your home number, for example) or implicit (overseas if that is where you happen to be).

 

[Cruiser Elite]

But with Red Roam only 1 leg - no chance / no danger extra charges - just your 5 clams a day.

 

[hossein_au]

But with Red Roam only 1 leg - no chance / no danger extra charges - just your 5 clams a day.

I totally agree. In fact I was the one who brought Red Roam to the conversation here. It is, for me considering the places I visit often, the best plan out there.

 

[GaryBne]

Calls to other countries comes off the 100 minutes of calls included in the plan (i.e. calling Germany while you are in France).

Oh, and you do not need to book the days in advance, the $5 per day is automatically activated on days you use you phone overseas (make or receive calls, or use data).

... just to update, the 100 minutes is now 300 minutes - ie 5 hours . not sure when that changed but since at least August ...

and that's handy news that the $5 is automatic Thanks for that and the better explanation than mine about calling within France or calling Germany from France

Gary


PS - I guess that one downside is that if you are in France, locals wont feel like calling you - for them to call you they dial an Australian number and its an international call cost. ( even though you are also in France) So there is no avoiding a local sim for me. A Dual sim phone like a Nokia 635 ( and many others) does the trick .... One sim is the Vodafone Red, the other is the local sim with a small pre load balance.


I'm starting to feel all too nerdy for one day. I'll have a beer , light the bbq and watch the cricket to de-nerdify ...

 

[hossein_au]

... just to update, the 100 minutes is now 300 minutes - ie 5 hours . not sure when that changed but since at least August ...

and that's handy news that the $5 is automatic Thanks for that and the better explanation than mine about calling within France or calling Germany from France

Gary


PS - I guess that one downside is that if you are in France, locals wont feel like calling you - for them to call you they dial an Australian number and its an international call cost. ( even though you are also in France) So there is no avoiding a local sim for me. A Dual sim phone like a Nokia 635 ( and many others) does the trick .... One sim is the Vodafone Red, the other is the local sim with a small pre load balance.


I'm starting to feel all too nerdy for one day. I'll have a beer , light the bbq and watch the cricket to de-nerdify ...

True about the 300 minute thing; I don't know why I keep saying 100... my bad.

 

[moa999]

For those people who prefer VoIP, you can visit betamax price comparison to see which provider has the cheapest calls for the country/countries you are interested in (green cells are the cheapest per row, while red are the most expensive). Then you can register with the particular provider(s) and use any VoIP software for your particular handset. I, for example, use 123voip.com as well as dialnow.com, and I have a VoIP software on iPhone (3CXPhone) which allows adding multiple SIP accounts, and I choose which one I want to use before each call.

Do you have an indial and how does that work.

Have always thought about using an oz in dial then setting up a forward on my oz mobile

 

[hossein_au]

Do you have an indial and how does that work.

Have always thought about using an oz in dial then setting up a forward on my oz mobile

No, I don't use DID these days. The closest thing I used for DID was buying a Skype number in the UK, and forwarding all calls to my Aussie mobile. This was about 10 years ago and I think it costed around $20-$30 per year for the Skype number, plus actual charges incurred for calling an Aussie mobile number through Skype.

 

[Champo]

I used Viber to contact people in Bali and when in Bali used it contacting people in Bali and worked very well and clear with occasional drop outs. The other party needs to be conscious of likely calls and have their phone nearby.

 

[hossein_au]

I used Viber to contact people in Bali and when in Bali used it contacting people in Bali and worked very well and clear with occasional drop outs. The other party needs to be conscious of likely calls and have their phone nearby.

Which brings us back full circle: you need a decent internet connection if you want to use Viber, Skype, etc. Additionally you probably do not want use expensive data roaming at all while overseas.

 

[aussiejohn]

I have a basic account with Freshtel, which I have had for a number of years. It gives me 10 cent untimed STD calls, which I use to call friends at home on their landlines when I am travelling overseas. Have the Freshtel software loaded on my netbook, and also my windows tablet now. Bought a little headset (earpiece and mike) years ago at Challenger in Singapore, and it does the job.

Before moving to TPG, I used to use it at home on my PC to make all my STD calls instead of using Telstra. As far as I can recall, in all the years I have had it, I have only deposited a total of $20. At 10 cents a call, it goes a long way! I guess calls to mobiles would cost more, but I use Viber etc in that case.

For international calls to countries not covered by my TPG free call plan, I use Skype and PowerVoip.

 

[pauleg]

Viber is the winner for me. Free - works well and widely accepted.