In article e.nl,
Frank Slootweg says ...

Agreed. So you're basically saying that Skype on *free-of-charge*
Internet is about the same "essentially free" price as a pre-paid
calling card, so the OP can choose whichever he likes best.

Well, consider that a typical traveller will check his/her emails once a
day or every few days at least, so he/she can use a VOIP service to make
calls with no additional internet cost.

And personally I always choose a hotel which provides internet access,
even if internet access is not free, because I want to check my emails
and surf the net while travelling.

I would not purchase internet access just to be able to make phone calls
via VOIP because that would not make financial sense.

You seemed to be pushing Skype. Perhaps I 'read' you wrong, but since
you again silently snipped relevant comments, I don't think I do.

I'm not employed by Skype or linked in any way to them. I just happen to
use them. Besides there are other VOIP services around, which are
probably all good. It's just that I have used Skype in several countries
and can recommend them as a cheap and high quality option.

Minor nit: Your attribution line is broken, it mentions the poster's
e-mail address - which, as in my case, often is rather meaningless - but
does not mention the poster's name.

That is because I reinstalled the newsreader and the default
configuration of Gravity is to show the email address in the reply line.
I've now changed that to show the name.
--

Alfred Molon
http://www.molon.de - Photos of Asia, Africa and Europe