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Can some advise best way to call USA from Europe



 
 
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  #11  
Old April 3rd, 2009, 03:57 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Dan Stephenson
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Posts: 591
Default Can some advise best way to call USA from Europe

On 2009-04-02 10:49:34 -0500, "Mike" said:

In the next few months we will be in Europe for ten days traveling in
Ireland and Spain. What is the best, most convenient and cheapest way
to call back to the USA? I
would also appreciate the names of telephone providers that worked the
best. With my luck I would make the wrong choice selecting one from the
companies advertising on the net.
Thanks


Do you plan to bring a computer? I use Skype, an internet telephony
program. It works great, and calling overseas with it is pretty cheap.
--
Dan Stephenson
Photos, movies, panos from the Europe, USA, plus N.Z.:
http://homepage.mac.com/stepheda

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  #12  
Old April 3rd, 2009, 04:48 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Hatunen
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Posts: 4,483
Default Can some advise best way to call USA from Europe

On Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:03:19 +1100, Alan S
wrote:

On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:18:24 -0700, Hatunen
wrote:


I should probably point out that with Skype and a WiFi hotspot
you can also call ahead to reserve rooms in your next destination
and or to contact European relatives, or whatever, and for that
same approx two cents a minute.

You could also point out that if the party being called has Skype on a
computer, the call is free.


I've found that very few of the people I might call have Skype.
And if they did they would have to be at their computers when I
called. But ya never know....


Calling their landline phone by Skype is likely to still be
cheaper than most other options.


That's the approx two cents a minute I cited.

That is also true in some
cases and some countries for calls to mobile phones.


Extra costs for cell phone calls is something to watch out for.
But it's probably still ceaper than calling those cellphones from
a landline.

I know a Skype call to a Finnish cell phone costs about $0.20
extra. That's because in Finland, the caller pays, not the
cellphone owning callee. In Finland each cell phone company has
its own area code.

I only installed Skype a couple of weeks ago and I'm already
impressed at the differences in call costs.


We haven't used it in Europe yet, but a year or so we drove down
to Guaymas in Mexico and took my wife's laptop along. Normally,
calling the USA from Mexico can cost $0.50/min and up, and using
our cell phones would have been prohibitive for any but urgent
calls. But our hotel had Internet in its rooms, and my wife used
Skype to call back to Tucson. She even chatted about a half hour
with a friend there at a total cost of about $0.75

The other option overseas is a pre-purchased calling card
bought from a kiosk or newsagent, which you use from any
local phone.


As I mentioned, we've had little luck with those. The first
problem is finding a phone that you can use it on. Many hotels
won't let you use the cards on their phones.

In Munich before we had Skype we gave up on using a phone card
and found a storefront near our hotel that had a number of phone
booths and was widely used by immigrants to Germany.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
  #13  
Old April 3rd, 2009, 06:36 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Hatunen
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Posts: 4,483
Default Can some advise best way to call USA from Europe


I also want to mention callback services. If you subscribe to one
of these services you are given a US number to call from abroad
from almost any local phone (it might not work from hotel phones,
though). You let it ring once and hang up. since there was n
connection, there was no charge.

In a few minutes you get a call to the local phone you just used
(or you may have to desgnate a foreign number). The callback has
simply an American dial tone and you can proceed to call just as
you would if in the USA. Your cost is for an intrastate call, not
an international call.

It's not as cheap as Skype, though.

When we go to Finland we have a relative there supply us with a
cell phone, and we used this system with great success. But that
was before a caller had to pay to call a cell phone. Once that
charge was put in place thre was no way for the callback service
to access our Finnish cell phone.


--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
  #14  
Old April 4th, 2009, 03:41 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
JuanElorza[_4_]
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Posts: 286
Default Can some advise best way to call USA from Europe

On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:49:34 -0400, Mike wroteÂ*:

In the next few months we will be in Europe for ten days traveling in
Ireland and Spain. What is the best, most convenient and cheapest way to
call back to the USA? I
would also appreciate the names of telephone providers that worked the
best. With my luck I would make the wrong choice selecting one from the
companies advertising on the net.
Thanks


In France, I saw advertisements from several alternative operators
offering lower tarifs.
With this one, for example, you just need a call a special number and
your call to US will be at the rate of a local call.

http://www.reductel.com/en/tarifs.html

Or this one, advertising US at local call fare calling first 0811 700 990
from any telephone in France.


Or this one 0811 655 600 US at local rate from France.
http://www.teleplanete.com/
http://www.gratostel.com/france_fixe.htm

 




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