Skype was very practical, in fact irreplaceable. And to my knowledge, there actually isn't a replacement, although some providers claim to come close.

Yet I'm ready to go with the times and adapt my phone habits accordingly. With one exception where it can't really be done - wonder if you know this situation too?: We need to contact a business abroad that is (as is nowadays unavoidable) hiding behind a hotline, and after calling them you need to first beat a lengthy voice menu, then try to reach a human that feels 'responsible', and that you can communicate with - not always easy, and often time (money) consuming. Oh, and did I mention nerve-wrecking?

Anyhow, I don't want to spend 'serious money' during this phase, so the idea was to find a shop that (also) offers VoIP. By coincidence, I actually found one, but they didn't seem to have many customers, so I wonder if they will survive? Would any other such shops be known to you?

I switched to mytello, OK.

I recently undestood that using the line app you could call landlines. Although trhere was information on how to do, I did not get it working. This could be a solution to you.

So no second or maybe even third VoIP shop in Pattaya? And no-one interested in knowing where 'my' shop is? Not everyone is in a position to use Mytello or Line, I would think.

Why don't you just tell us where 'your shop' is ?

CAT and ToT ( NT) used to have a VoiP service in their shops in Pattaya with a few networked PC's that customers could use though I haven't been to the shops for years now..probably gone ???

On 1/10/2026 at 1:39 PM, carlyai said:

I switched to mytello, OK.

I switched to Yolla. Much better than Skype

On 1/10/2026 at 1:35 PM, Tercera_Edad said:

With one exception where it can't really be done

You want to use your phone or pc/laptop?

Loads of Skype replacement threads last year giving all the options.

I got down to my last 10p credit on Skype over Xmas and needed to find a replacement urgently to call a UK financial institution.

Put credit on a couple of options which did not work at all or with unusable call quality - that one was Mytello although I know some people who use it and one who admitted after I tried it that the quality can be flaky.....now trying to get a refund..........🙄

I don't remember the last time I had issues with Skype quality and I haven't seen any current provider offering such low costs to fixed lines in the UK.

Sproutcall. Used it to call the UK and it was perfect.

I use Magic Jack (https://www.magicjack.com). MagicJack provides you with a device that you CAN hook up to a line at your U.S. or Canadian home, but you do NOT have to hook it up at all. The MagicJack app on any smart phone provides for FREE calls and texts to/from the U.S and Canada, and YES, you can call government agencies, banks, businesses, or any cell or landline with the Magic Jack app. When you activate MagicJack, you can select a phone number from their list in an area code of your choice. Also, in most cases, you can transfer your own number to your Magic Jack account. The cost of the MagicJack activation and device is about $50 U.S. a year.

MagicJack DOES REQUIRE a WiFi connection to make or receive calls. We have 3BB Broadband fiber-optic WiFi at our home in Thailand. When I am away from our home, I use a Ryoko portable WiFi device that is about half the size of a typical cell phone. The Ryoko device provides completely encrypted communication through a password you set. The battery is rechargeable and lasts about 8 hours. The device costs about $85 U.S., and comes with a SIM card that works in about 110 countries, but sadly NOT in Thailand. So I swapped out the SIM with one from AIS for 50 baht, and I bought a 100GB per month data plan for 400 baht that I just top up once a month using my banking app.

My 3BB Broadband WiFi went out one day for about 8 hours. I connected to my Ryoko device, and it worked just fine, streaming videos on several devices with no delay, latency, or hesitation, along with doing work on my laptop. So we could really use our Ryoko all the time if we want to.

The problem is that many credit cards, banks and other companies won’t accept a VIOP. I have some that do, but others that won’t and they said it’s going to get worse trying to use them in the future due to security reasons.

3 hours ago, Uncle John said:

The MagicJack app on any smart phone provides for FREE calls and texts to/from the U.S and Canada, and YES, you can call government agencies, banks, businesses, or any cell or landline with the Magic Jack app. When you activate MagicJack, you can select a phone number from their list in an area code of your choice. Also, in most cases, you can transfer your own number to your Magic Jack account. The cost of the MagicJack activation and device is about $50 U.S. a year.

Is MagicJack free, or $50USD a year?

On 1/10/2026 at 6:35 AM, Tercera_Edad said:

Anyhow, I don't want to spend 'serious money' during this phase, so the idea was to find a shop that (also) offers VoIP.

As others have said, chose a PAYG VOIP provider, load their app onto your phone, pay a small amount of money, and you have your own VOIP shop in your pocket. 🙂

I use Yolla - https://yollacalls.com/en/ and it displays your phone number to the recipient too. Really cheap and easy to buy top-ups.

To Khunheinekin -- the USE of the Magic Jack app and the owning of a U.S./Canada VoIP phone number subscription costs about $50 per year. You need to buy the Magic Jack DEVICE as part of your first year subscription cost, but as I said, you do NOT need to either set up that device or use it. The Magic Jack app gives you full access to VoIP calling for about $50 per year, but you will also need a WiFi connection.