Calling the Philippines for Even Less

From the NY Times article in Frugal Traveler

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 City will instantly reach me wherever I happen to be. 

 

Read the original article here

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/calling-home-for-even-less/?hp 8/18/09