Cheapest way to call Asia -> Vonage

[retlem 0]

hey I've used various carriers for VOiP and i found this carrier to be the most reliable and they offer a lot of perks and it's only 24.95 per month for their service. They offer unlimited local and long distance calling in the U.S., Canada, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico plus FREE calling to land line phones in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, France, China, Portugal and Australia. You can go here to check it out and sign up here. You can either get the DTA adapter free or their VOiP video phone for about $200 bucks which is awesome that they offer that and I seen it work and its unbelievably smooth quality video but check it out!

[yankee 0]

Vonage has a great way to call Asia, cheap and clear.

$10/month extra unlimited time. Better sound than any cards I've used before. I dumped my landline and had cable internet already. No interference with surfing/gaming/calling at the same time.

Vonage, Call Asia plan

Enjoy this one!

waaaaaaaa!!! Philippines is not included..I used skype anyways..I tried www.oovoo.com but got lazy to continue..

[CK&Tydi 0]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but you can sign up for vonage, then send the vonage box back to your love ones. They will need internet(ADSL), which is pretty cheap in Vietnam. 30 bucks a month, unlimited calling, since they will have your local area code and number. This is what I did with my wife. I would call her about once a day using SavingCall for about 30 minutes to and hour, then I would switch and call the vonage number and talk as long as I want.

hehe, smart man! Actually there was a thread that i started back in 2006 about vonage service. Just use Vonage as long as you can, and Vonage do have a record of all your calls. So save your money on the phone card, unless she not at home and you have to call her cell Damn, i still got like 30 bux on saving call like a year now. Did not even touch it. Just call the vonage line.

You can also call Vonage to get a discount on your service. For unlimited minutes plan at $24.99, they will discount it down to $14.99. Just try to call and ask them for the discount, or else you will switch to TMobile @ home for $10 a month. They will do it for you.

Good luck!

[CK&Tydi 0]

Unfortunately, my wife's family does not have internet (nor a working computer, for that matter, which probably explains the "no internet" thing.

So in the meantime, we go with Startec, which as a 5.5 cents / min rate to land lines and 9.9 cents / min rate to cell phones. The rates actually just decreased, so I have to call them to find out how to switch to the new rate. (This is just a regluar, old-fashioned long distance plan tied to your home phone.)

Startec also provides a 1-800 number that you can call from your cell. Then you get a message prompting for a phone number to call. So to your cell carrier, you're just making a "continental US" call, using your regular minutes, and you can call internationally and get Startec's rate billed to your home phone. I never used it to call my wife when she was in Vietnam, but she's used it to call her family now that she's here. Very convenient!

You should try savingcall.com. Much cheaper only 4.7 cents to land line and 7.7 cents to mobile. You can print your phone logs.

[ding 1]

SKYPE, It's FREE

Try it and you will never go back to the substandard Yahoo Voice Chat.

Skype's voice and video quality is superiority over anything out there. and it's FREE!

We have this Netgear SPH200D setup here in the States, Kim's family in Saigon, siblings in Australia

Skype - SPH200D

Always ON, always in-touch and it's FREE. This phone is a regular cordless house phone, just plug your phoneline into the phone and you can receive house calls as well as SKYPE calls.

We haven't paid for phone cards, pin card or any of those Saving Calls service for over 4 years now. Highly recommended! Even if you don't want to have the setup I have shown above, just your computer, regular headset and webcam will be a MAJOR communication improvement over Yahoo/AOL/MSN voice/video chat.

I think folks in the US is pretty slow with this stuff where as Asia (Japan Hong Kong Taiwan Singapore etc.) and EU/AU have been using Skype for years now.... Give it a spin and let me know!

Skype was nearly inaudible. I had Skype-in and Skype-out too, thinking premium plan would increase service. It didn't. I have cable internet too. And it was a pain to resolve cancellation issues with them too. Not recommended.

[Cham 3]

Requirement to setup Skype:

0. MUST have Internet 56kps Modem is fine! Recommend: ADSL or Cable Modem

1. Download Skype www.skype.com

2. Install it on both PC's (US and VN)

3. Sign up for a FREE account, just like you would with any FREE yahoo email, gmail account

4. Make sure to add your screen-name to her contact list and vice versa.

5. Make sure you already have MICROPHONE and SPEAKER hook-up already on the existing PC/Laptop/Notebook

6. Start making call to each other

NOTE: The Netgear system I'm showing here is a MUCH more fansier version of Skype, recommended for lazy folks (me ) who don't want to have PC turn on all the time, and still want to be able to Skype people Just keep this Netgear phone/skype setup plug in and you're good to go....

EXACTLY

I had both..vonage AND skype...I choose SKYPE (WAYYYYYYYYY CHEAPER!)

With Skype YOU can also buy minutes to call regular phones to those who DO not have internet access.

the minutes are WAY cheaper then vontage in the long run AND you can make a copy of the call log as well for the visa

we use Yahoo messenger AND skype..its CHEAP and FREE if you both have a computer:)

BUT if you just have the internet and your loved one does not YOU can call her/his home phone with skype:)

When you download they let you have 10 minutes then you can add more!

http://www.skype.com/prices/ (sign up though and check out the prices they are very good!)

if you get 10 bucks worth of skype credit ( i get about 20 a month)

Unlimited World

$9.95/month

$11.44 incl. VAT

EU residents only

Unlimited calls to landlines in 39 countries worldwide

Argentina (Cordoba) Argentina (Buenos Aires) Australia Austria Belgium Canada (incl. mobiles) Chile China (incl. mobiles) Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Guam Hong Kong S.A.R., China (incl. mobiles) Hungary Ireland Israel Italy Japan Korea, South Luxembourg Malaysia Mexico (Guadalajara) Mexico (Monterrey) Mexico (Mexico City) Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Russia (St Petersburg) Russia (Moscow) Singapore (incl. mobiles) Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan United Kingdom United States (incl. mobiles)

Includes discounted rates of:

2 US cents per minute to landlines in the rest of Mexico.20 US cents per minute to Mexico cell phone.

Unlimited World

Mexico

An Unlimited World subscription includes:

Unlimited calls

Unlimited calls to landlines* in 36 countries – any time of the day, any day of the week.

Up to 50% off

Buy a 12-month online number and get up to 50% off - a $30 savings. An online number lets people call you from a regular phone at their local rates.

(YES YOU CAN GET YOUR OWN ONLINE NUMBER AS WELL SO PEOPLE CAN CALL YOU!)

Never miss a call

Voicemail is included so you’ll never miss a call again.

Skype To Go

You dial a special access number to call almost anywhere in the world - from any phone - and save with great Skype rates.

Hope this has cleared up SKYPE CALLS!

Edited November 10, 2008 by Cham

[himher 634]

We dropped a vonage phone off at my MIL's house, so they have a local number (over there) that we can call or they can call us anywhere in the US at no cost. You get the savings that way no matter what country it is

[Steve_JP 0]

I first moved to Japan and brought my vonage router with me. After a few months the router stopped working and it was going to be a pain and costly to get a new one and that's when I found www.skype.com. I think the Skype sound quality is just as good as Vonage, I use a headset connected to my laptop, I get free voicemail and a US number, and it costs $60 for an entire year.

Signing up for Skype in Japan took a while because the site kept sending me to Japanese or some other currency default.

I ended up with this plan based in the USA: Unlimited Country

I also got $1.50 in free credit which I can use for international calls or SMS messages. And I got a Japanese phone number which forwards to a phone number in the US which I can change once a week. I tested it out, it's okay, and I have it in my cell phone in case of an emergency. Calling that number costs me about 20 yen a minute.

[Melrose Plant 1]

Welcome Steve_JP. I see by your story that you have been at this for a while, or at least long enough to have a router break down on you in Japan. Please feel free to fill in your timeline.

And, to say it again, Skype is still working great for us every day. And it still costs WAY more to call a Vietnamese phone than it does a Chinese or Japanese phone. Bummer. The internet does seem to have improved in the last six months, though.

Welcome again.

[Jasman0717 9]

The Philippines isn't on the list