Ingo Fast
In the five months since I wrote about cheap ways to phone home in “Staying in Touch Internationally, on the Cheap” (March 24), much has changed in the world of making affordable, even free, calls while traveling. And not all of it is good.
Here’s a short version of the telephone setup I described in March: As soon as I land in a new country, I buy a local SIM card (usually $2 to $25) for my unlocked mobile phone, so that I can easily and cheaply call local numbers and so that local people can reach me.
But the real trick is how folks back home can reach me. I use Skype, the popular Internet phone software, not only to make low-cost international calls but to receive them. I set up its call-forwarding feature to direct calls to my new SIM number, so that anyone who dials my home number in New York Citywill instantly reach me wherever I happen to be.
Right after I wrote about this system, Skype released Skype for the iPhone, which has come in handy when I’ve been abroad and had access to Wi-Fi. (Skype for iPhone requires Wi-Fi and does not work over 3G or other cellular networks.) It’s a lot like the PC or Mac version of the software: a simple interface, contact list, virtual keypad. The call quality is good enough, as are Skype’s international rates.
But Skype is at a strange crossroads. When eBay bought Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005, the online auction company apparently only licensed — didn’t buy — the software code that makes Skype run. Now, Skype’s founders, who are no longer with the company and who own the code through their new company, Joltid, are trying to terminate that license. The legal battle is supposed to reach a British court by June 2010, and if Joltid prevails, eBay said in an S.E.C. filing that “the continued operation of Skype’s business as currently conducted would likely not be possible.”
In other words, no more free or low-cost calls for travelers.
Skype on the iPhone.
At the same time, Skype faces increased competition from new players in the cheap-international-call marketplace. Chief among them is a little outfit called Google, which recently opened its Google Voice system up to new subscribers. You need an invitation to join, but you can request one on its site. I requested one back in March, and received my invitation a month ago.
While both Skype and Google Voice let you make low-cost international calls, and at roughly comparable rates (Skype charges 30.8 cents to call an Italian mobile phone, for example, while Google Voice charges 25 cents), they do it through different methods. Skype works like a standard phone, making the call itself through the Internet. Google Voice acts more like a virtual switchboard, connecting you and your party over landlines, cellular airwaves and the Internet.
To place a call, users need to log in to Google Voice’s Web site (or fire up the Google Voice mobile app on a BlackBerry or Android phone — there’s no iPhone app yet, but iPhone users can visit the Google Voice mobile site) and dial a number. In a moment, Google Voice rings your phone, and when you answer you’ll be connected to the party you’re trying to reach. Fairly simple.
Business Wire
But there’s a big hitch for travelers. While Google Voice works great if you’re in the United States and want to call overseas, it doesn’t work so well in reverse. Google Voice lets you designate a half-dozen different numbers as your phone — a home landline, a personal cellphone, an office number, Grandma’s — but they must all be within the continental 48 states.
So, if you’ve bought a Bulgarian SIM card for your vacation on the Black Sea, Google Voice will not let you add it to the roster. Google tells me it’s working on changing this, but there’s no timeline yet.
There are, of course, other options, many of which were suggested by readers of my earlier post. Many wrote about Jajah, an upstart based in Mountain View, Calif., that lets you make inexpensive international calls by first dialing a local access number in the country you’re visiting, which then connects you to whomever you want to reach. Unfortunately, Jajah only has access numbers in 19 countries, mostly in Europe. If you’re in, say, China, you’ll need to use its more conventional Web-based service, which involves making a call in front of a computer. It also has a mobile app that works over 3G and similar data networks, but in my experience, data plans for prepaid SIM cards are, if even available, rarely frugal.
Some suggested GizmoCall.com, a Skype-like Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, system that has roughly comparable international rates (and built-in call recording—good for interviews!), but still requires a computer or Web-enabled phone to work. Others liked the magicJack, a U.S.B. dongle that lets you turn any Web-connected computer into an Internet telephone.
Others said that instead of buying a local SIM card, they carry an international SIM card from places like OneSIMCard.com, which work in more than 170 countries. The cards cost $39.99, but are free if you buy $200 worth of credit from OneSIMCard.
It’s a great idea — one low-cost number to carry when you travel. Unfortunately, the number in this case is an Estonian number. Which is great if you’re traveling in the Baltics, less so elsewhere. When I travel, I not only want to be able to call up new local friends — I want them to be able to reach me cheaply and easily. Handing out an Estonian number in Barcelona or Cairo is tantamount to saying, “Don’t bother to call.” Handing out a local number shows I’m making myself accessible.
Of course, plenty of people questioned the wisdom of trying to stay in touch in the first place.
But not all of us frugal travelers are on vacation. Some (like me) travel for work, while others simply travel as a way of life, and we like to maintain contact with the whole world at once. My favorite new way to do so is Voxox, which I’d never heard of until its publicist wrote to me in March.
Created by the San Diego-based company TelCentris, Voxox is similar to Skype and lets you make VoIP calls, at roughly similar rates (e.g., 20.65 cents a minute to Italian mobile phones). Of course, that assumes you can put up with Voxox’s software, which is one of the least intuitive and most buggy programs I’ve ever used. It crashes constantly, often before it finishes loading.
But that doesn’t matter! Voxox’s killer feature isn’t based on its clunky software. It’s called SMS Callback, and it works like this: Say I’m in Buenos Aires, using a local SIM card, and I want to call my wife in New York City. I simply send a text message with her number to Voxox, and seconds later my phone rings. I pick up, wait a couple more seconds, and there’s her wonderful voice, asking when I’m coming home. (Soon, baby, soon.)
What’s awesome about this system, which I’ve been testing the last couple of weeks while traveling in Canada, is that you don’t need a computer, Internet access or a fancy phone to make international calls. (O.K., you’ll need to go online to give Voxox your local SIM number, but that’s a one-time thing.)
As long as you’ve got cellular service, you’re set. And it works well. Only once have I sent the text message and gotten no response whatsoever. In that case, I just waited a few minutes and tried again. It worked, which is all I really ask for.
There is, of course, a hitch. (Isn’t there always?) Since Voxox is essentially connecting two phone calls — one to you, another to the person you’re calling — you have to pay two rates at once. But it often ends up cheaper than Skype. That Argentina-to-Brooklyn call would cost 8.48 cents a minute (Argentina charge) plus 1 cent a minute (U.S. charge). Skype, on the other hand, charges 17.2 cents a minute.
So, I guess it’s Voxox for me — for now, anyway. Two other services, Truphone and Call2, have similar SMS Callback features, though I haven’t managed to get them to work yet. And I’m sure that in another five months, Google Voice will have added international capabilities and there’ll be a new player or two (or three) on the scene.
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