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Cheap international calling with JustVOIP

Published November 13th, 2008 in Money Saving Tools. 5 Comments

It is hard to find a bargain in the communication industry. The growth of internet and VOIP is bringing tons of options at our hands. Yet, today I found that at the rate of 13 cents per minute I am overpaying twice when I call my parents in Ukraine with WDT (my current provider). So much for being a pro- bargain hunter! ;-)

If I were to stumble upon JustVOIP in my web browsing I would move on. The website design looks cheap and important pieces (like About page) are missing. I did not however. It was my friend who recommended the service to me today claiming he has been using it for some time and is happy with the quality. So I jumped right in.

To begin with, rates to Europe are really low. Many countries are on the free list (below) meaning it doesn’t cost anything to call if you use the computer for your part of the call. Rates to other countries are very competitive too. (Ukraine was â‚¬0.05 + call initiation charge of â‚¬0.05). Here are the free countries:

Argentina	Hungary	Portugal
Australia	Ireland	Puerto Rico (+mobile)
Austria	Italy	Romania
Belgium	Japan	Russian Federation
Brazil	Latvia	Singapore
Bulgaria	Luxembourg	Slovak Republic
Canada	Malaysia	Slovenia
Chile	Mexico [guadalajara]	South Korea
Colombia	Mexico [mexico City]	Spain
Cyprus	Mexico [monterrey]	Sweden
Czech Republic	Monaco	Switzerland
Denmark	Netherlands	Taiwan
Estonia	New Zealand	Thailand
France	Norway	United Kingdom
Germany	Panama	United States (+mobile)
Greece	Peru	Venezuela
Hong Kong (+mobile)	Poland

You need to install software to create an account. The program runs on Windows and is similar to Skype. You can use it for calling but you don’t have to. If you prefer the old-fashioned way of calling like I do then you can do it by initiating a phone-to-phone call from the web-page. Login to your account, enter where you are calling from and where you want to call to and JustVOIP will call both numbers and connect the call together.

In addition JustVOIP offers a US based call-in number that can act as a gateway for international calling but it didn’t work well when I tried it. I heard the prompt but dialing the number didn’t connect me to the party I intended to call.

After you create an account you can buy credits â‚¬10 a piece and enjoy the savings. Don’t buy credits if free service is all you plan to use. Ether way if you give it a try - please leave a comment and let everyone know how it has worked out for you.

Relevant reading:

t-Mobile + GrandCentral = unlimited free calls

Published November 16th, 2007 in Money Saving Tips. 45 Comments

I won’t claim I invented this hack. It has been discussed a couple of times on bargain forums but I believe it is not getting the attention it deserves.

My cell phone has long become my primary way of communication and while I do believe we are slowly getting to the point when a phone will become just a VoIP platform and wireless providers will just sell data service so we all can enjoy unlimited voice calls and mobile internet (think WiMax), I also think we are far from being there and this hack brings me one step closer to this goal. Let’s see what combining GrandCentral and t-Mobile in order to get unlimited calls from/to your cell phone is really worth.

How does it work?

First ingredient you need is myFaves which is a t-Mobile feature that allows you to add up to 5 numbers to your “myFaves” list and make free unlimited calls to/from these numbers. If you don’t already have it, it costs extra $10 a month to enable it with your regular service. Alltel has a similar thing called “My Circle” and I believe it is free with any plan over $59.99

Second ingredient is GrandCentral, a service owned by Google which gives you a free local phone number to use as a relay to the other numbers you have. It is a very useful service on its own (I blogged about it last year) but for the purpose of implementing this hack you really only need a subset of the functionality it provides.

Steps to implement the hack

Inbound calling

Sign up for an account at GrandCentral. You will need an invitation for that. I have several that I can give to the first people who reply to this post.
Add the phone number you get from GrandCentral to your myFaves list (or My Circle if you use Alltel).
Configure GrandCentral to redirect all calls to your cell phone number.
Change GrandCentral Caller ID settings to “Display my GrandCentral number”. Now every time you get a call to your GrandCentral number it will be treated by t-Mobile as if you received a call from GrandCentral and counted against the pull of unlimited myFaves minutes.

Outbound calling

There are really two ways you can implement unlimited outbound calling. First is to ask your friends call your GrandCentral number and leave a short message. Once you have them all, you can listen to them by calling your GrandCentral number. One of the options GrandCentral offers as you are listening to a message is to return the call. So when you want to call one of your friends, simply call your GrandCentral number, skip to your friend’s voice mail message and then select “Return the call” option from the phone keypad.

This will work well if you have relatively few friends and becomes really inconvenient if the list of your friends grows.

The alternative way is to use Yak4Ever which is a free service (read about it here) that lets you register up to 10 numbers and call them for free. If this is the way you want to go then you will have to add Yak4Ever number to your myFaves list as well.

I have not had much experience with Yak4Ever but it did seem to have worked the last time I used them and the voice quality was decent.

Update: Just as I wrote this, Yak4ever shut down the service, but you can still use GrandCentral for your free outbound calls as described above.

What are the benefits & drawbacks?

The main benefit is that you can have unlimited calls to and from your cell phone, something that is easily worth over $100 a month. The benefit however comes at a cost. First, you will have to ask everyone to use your new phone number (the one you obtain from GrandCentral). Second, you lose Caller ID functionality. GrandCentral will announce to you who is calling but I find it less convenient than seeing the person’s name and photo (yeah, I have a picture assigned to each of my friends).

For outgoing calls the inconvenience is in the extra steps you need to make to setup the call by either returning the voice message or by dialing Yak4Ever number and selecting the appropriate entry from your list of registered numbers.

Conclusion

So is it worth the hassle or not? For me it is. I still can assign 4 of my remaining myFaves numbers to my close friends and family, but I did reserve one for GrandCentral. I plan to use it with certain people who I don’t call very often but when I do my conversations tend to take a while. Think about your far-away relatives or anyone else who you sync up with on a periodic basis.

Tell me what you think about it. Are you planning to use this hack or is it just a waste of time? One thing I keep wondering about is how long is it before Google plugs this back door. Or will it?

Source: discussions at FatWallet and SlickDeals forums

Calling to Russia and Ukraine – money saving tips

Published August 13th, 2007 in Money Saving Tips. 10 Comments

Old Phone I have recently received an email from one of my readers asking how to call Ukraine without spending a lot of green. Since both my and my wife’s parents live in Ukraine (as well as many relatives) the topic of international phone calls to Ukraine has never been off the table and we have probably tried every possible way to save on international calling. Here are a few tips that will help you call Ukraine (and other ex-Soviet countries) without braking the bank.

Check what your current provider charges

If you are using one of VOIP providers the chances are they already have very competitive rates. SunRocket, when it was still alive, even offered $3.00 monthly credit towards international calling. My current provider Packet8 charges $0.13 to call a land line and $0.16 to call a mobile phone in Ukraine, which is a very good rate. For those of you still stuck with AT&T and the likes - read on.

For occasional calls use calling cards

If your provider doesn’t offer good rates and you need to call Ukraine just occasionally then check out this table (also in Russian). These guys are doing a good job maintaining it current. You can buy all these cards online. After you pay, you will receive instructions by email on how to call. I haven’t used calling cards for long time and can’t recommend any particular one. My own experience with those that I used was OK however I heard stories from people who claimed they were cheated (the card had less minutes than advertised).

Have broadband internet - give Skype a try

Skype has pretty decent rates if wearing a headset while talking is not an issue for you. They charge $0.134 to call a land line and $0.186 to call a mobile number in Ukraine. Rates to Russia are $0.048 to a land line, $0.071 to a mobile phone, and $0.021 if you call Moscow or St.Petersburg. There is a small connection charge of $0.039.

You will need to sign up to Skype Out if you don’t have it yet. Once you do so you will be able to call regular phone numbers just as you call other Skype clients. In addition I found Skype Out very useful when calling the US from Ukraine (more about it here).

Calling often - change your long distance provider

If your demands are more than a couple of calls a month and your current provider don’t over good rates then it will be cheaper and more convenient to change long distance provider. You usually can keep your service provider and just change the company servicing long distance calls. I can recommend WDT as one such company offering decent service and competitive rates to Ukraine, Russia and other ex-Soviet countries. I have been their client for several years and many my friends are using them as well.

WDT charges $0.139 to call both land line and a mobile number in Ukraine. For Russia the price is $0.059 for a land line and $0.119 for mobile phones. The rate is just $0.025 per minute when you call Moscow or St.Petersburg. These rates don’t have any connection charges or other tricks. If you want though you can sign up to a “Value Plan” where you prepay for certain number of minutes a month at a lower rate.

Time difference and voice quality

And the last but not the least, when you call Ukraine or Russian, beware of the time difference. When it is morning here in the US, it is late afternoon over there. Midnight here would be early morning of the next day in Ukraine. I have noticed that voice quality varies slightly depending on when you call. This is especially noticeable when calling small towns where they have outdated equipment and century old phone lines. The rule of thumb is try to avoid busy hours when phone service is overloaded. This is usually weekends at night Ukrainian time (Saturday and Sunday morning here).

That is all I have. Do you happen to call Ukraine? What service provider do you use? Please leave your tips in the comments.

The photo courtesy of Rissmu @ stock.xchng

AllFreeCalls is back alive, for how long?

Published May 14th, 2007 in Business: Strategy. 4 Comments

Michael Arrington from TechCrunch just broke the news that AllFreeCalls, a phone company offering free international calls by taking advantage of a loophole in the complex telco laws, is back alive, now under a new name. The service launched earlier this year but only managed to stay afloat for about a month before AT&T sued them and a few other startups.

Notably FuturePhone, another company with similar business model, has removed the “service not available” sign and instead has a long message on their front page explaining why free international calls are legal. Here is an interesting bit that might shed some light on how these companies manage to avoid being shut down:

Since Futurephone did not charge for its service and 100% of the calls went over the internet, Futurephone does not fall under the category of a telecommunications carrier. Futurephone provided an internet connection.

Which brings an interesting point. You are only making a phone call if you pay for it, otherwise you are, hmm, browsing internet?

Anyway, I have never really questioned legality of what these companies are doing, yet I have always believed that building your business around hijacking tax subsidies is not a very good idea. This might work for a while but eventually legislation will catch up and the loophole will close.

For the time being however, if certain moral implications are swiped away, you can “yak” your free phone calls.

Goog411 vs. Free411 vs. Tellme — who is better?

Published April 12th, 2007 in Interesting / Other. 3 Comments

Cell Phone Pad Following the recent launch of Google’s free 411 service, I decided to take a closer look at the three competitors offering free directory assistance and compare them side by side.

The notes below is the result of my investigation. If you have used any of these services, please leave your feedback in the comments.

Goog411 — dial 1-800-GOOG-411

Google service is the only one that actually connects you to the phone number you requested. The other two will just give you details, or will send them to you via SMS. This by itself can be a deal breaker for some when choosing which service to use. It often happens that you don’t have a pen handy or need to make a call on the go, and the ability to connect right away can be critical.

The absence of ads is a big plus as well. The 20 seconds you spend listening to ads is your time to lose.

Voice quality is the worst of all. I hope it improves though. The introductory recording mentions that it is an experimental product, and I hope for gradual improvements.

Free411 — dial 1-800-FREE-411 or 1-888-FREE-411

Free411 which I reviewed before, is the only service of the three that offers live operator support. While the other two try to resolve errors by either asking you to repeat the name or by offering alternative search options (by category for example), Free411 turns you over to an operator after the first or second unsuccessful attempt to recognize what you are saying.

The navigational menu is better than Google but worse than Tellme, in my opinion. The voice menu quality is similar to Tell me.

I personally found that Free411 has the most lengthy and distracting ads of the three services. This is a big minus. Could it be due to the live operator support? My guess is that it is human labor what brings costs up for Jingle Networks, the service operator, which in turn prompts them to put up more ads.

Tellme — dial 1-800-555-TELL

Tellme Networks (now a part of Microsoft) seems to offer the most solid product of all. Here are my notes.

The menu sounded the most naturally of all three services. For example when I was looking for Jewel Osco, the prompt sounded like this “found 2 in your city, would you like the one on ABC or XYZ street?”. This is much more natural way of saying it rather than listing all choices and repeating “Jewel Osco” each time.

The voice recording often doesn’t confirm the successful match which causes false positive errors. This is certainly a drag, especially if you have bad line quality. I didn’t notice this problem with the other two services.

Tellme is the only service that saved my last search and offered it as an option when I called next time. I find it very useful for the cases when my call drops and I have to call back.

Bonus features by Tellme

My biggest discovery with Tellme was that it is so much more than a free directory assistance. You can use it to look up stock quotes, check sports events, listen to local weather forecast, verify movie show times and even buy movie tickets directly from your phone!

In addition, for cell phone geeks, if you are a lucky owner of one of these phones, you can install the recently launched Tellme mobile application which will allow you to query the directory assistance interactively from your cell phone and to lookup the location and driving directions on a map. Isn’t that cool?!

Photo is courtesy of JonJon2k8 at Flickr

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