Phoning Thailand From The Uk

[Mercury]

Just wondering what the best offers are these days.

I'm looking at Rebtel but know nothing about it. It comes out at 0.6p per minute.

What about mobile options ? I know about Skype out but that is a crap service when I've tried it. Echoes and bouncing sounds. Just unusable for voice calls.

There used to be some using local numbers and not charging anything from mobiles except they use your free minutes.

Any updates welcome.

[Penkoprod]

Rebtel are coming on in leaps and bounds from the time when they were charging much higher rates, according to what i have read about them.

So they might be worth a punt

I found Skype to be good enough, tbh, unlike your experience, and now with its unlimited one country option its a decent enough bargain to reconsider, depending on your usage.

It costs £3:39 inc VAT per month and the "fair usage policy" exists of 6 hours a day usage, and no connection fees like with other forms of cheap international calling services

Those "not charging anything from mobiles" dont seem to exist anymore, as all i have seen expect a call per minute fee to be paid as well as using your free minutes. Localphone is one of them, and i am sure there are plenty more

HTH

Penkoprod

[CrossBones]

Skype... will cost you less than 5 quid a month for unlimited calls to thailand (mobiles too)

Sign up for the unlimited country package

[NHJ]

voipdiscount, 6hours per week for 10 euro every 120 days.

you can do a phone to phone if you have a landline at home at 5 cents per connection.

[BuckBee]

I use the numbers below for the Call Happy access numbers.

Connections to Thailand Mobiles has always been good & the cost is 1 pence a minute, it's a good simple cheap option pending on your monthly gross call times.

Thailand - Land Line 1 p/min 0844 759 9525 0066

Thailand - Mobile 1 p/min 0844 759 9525 0066

http://www.callhappy.co.uk/

Edited September 13, 2009 by BuckBee

[endure]

This really ought to be a pinned topic

Voipdiscount is good if you're phoning from home. All my Thai friends in the UK use it.

Otherwise www.niftylist.co.uk.

[sumrit]

I use the numbers below for the Call Happy access numbers.

Connections to Thailand Mobiles has always been good & the cost is 1 pence a minute, it's a good simple cheap option pending on your monthly gross call times.

Thailand - Land Line 1 p/min 0844 759 9525 0066

Thailand - Mobile 1 p/min 0844 759 9525 0066

http://www.callhappy.co.uk/

I think he's asking about cheap rates calling from a UK mobile to thailand, not the cost of phoning a Thai mobile. The cost of phoning a Thai mobile and a landline from the UK is the same

[MB1]

Just wondering what the best offers are these days.

I'm looking at Rebtel but know nothing about it. It comes out at 0.6p per minute.

What about mobile options ? I know about Skype out but that is a crap service when I've tried it. Echoes and bouncing sounds. Just unusable for voice calls.

There used to be some using local numbers and not charging anything from mobiles except they use your free minutes.

Any updates welcome.

I have been using Lycamobile for the last year or so, go online for a free sim card @ lycamobile.co.uk, calls rates to phone Thailand from mobile to mobile are 6 pence per minute, mobile to a Thai land line 4 pence per minute. Top up easy, supermarkets and corner shops ect or top up via credit/debit card.

Text messages 10 pence per text. None of the hassle of phoning another number first, just call the Thai number direct from your mobile.

At the moment people who have a lyca mobile sim card can call each other for free within the UK, so it's also a good thing if you have freinds in the UK who also have a Lyca Mobile sim card, sometimes have offers where you get extra credit which depends on the amount you top up.

Up to now never had a problem with service so a thumbs up from me. (Up to you, you choose.)

Edited September 14, 2009 by MB1

[BuckBee]

I use the numbers below for the Call Happy access numbers.

Connections to Thailand Mobiles has always been good & the cost is 1 pence a minute, it's a good simple cheap option pending on your monthly gross call times.

Thailand - Land Line 1 p/min 0844 759 9525 0066

Thailand - Mobile 1 p/min 0844 759 9525 0066

http://www.callhappy.co.uk/

I think he's asking about cheap rates calling from a UK mobile to thailand, not the cost of phoning a Thai mobile. The cost of phoning a Thai mobile and a landline from the UK is the same

Oops,

For UK Mobile to Thailand Mobile or Landline I use T-Mobile (have dual SIM in my PDA) & the access number 07755 220 919. Cost is 3 Pence a minute & call quality has been good. I prefer this to skype/Fring software on my PDA & as I only make short calls the cost is acceptable balanced to ease of use & connection quality.

This is also a Call Happy service: http://www.callhappy.co.uk/page20.htm

Edited September 14, 2009 by BuckBee

[mickylonster]

I use the numbers below for the Call Happy access numbers.

Connections to Thailand Mobiles has always been good & the cost is 1 pence a minute, it's a good simple cheap option pending on your monthly gross call times.

Thailand - Land Line 1 p/min 0844 759 9525 0066

Thailand - Mobile 1 p/min 0844 759 9525 0066

http://www.callhappy.co.uk/

I think he's asking about cheap rates calling from a UK mobile to thailand, not the cost of phoning a Thai mobile. The cost of phoning a Thai mobile and a landline from the UK is the same

Oops,

For UK Mobile to Thailand Mobile or Landline I use T-Mobile (have dual SIM in my PDA) & the access number 07755 220 919. Cost is 3 Pence a minute & call quality has been good. I prefer this to skype/Fring software on my PDA & as I only make short calls the cost is acceptable balanced to ease of use & connection quality.

This is also a Call Happy service: http://www.callhappy.co.uk/page20.htm

When I was in the Uk I used 18185.com - 1p per minute , for mobiles and landline , billed monthly. hope this helps .

[Greenside]

This website usually has a good listing of the best of the current options for calling Thailand from the UK. I use PhoneCheap when I call from a land line in England their premium rate number is 0844 200 9898 and connects you for £0.005 per minute (that's half a penny). There are no connection, subscription or other hidden charges and although it must be a VOIP routing, the call quality is always excellent.

[BuckBee]

This website usually has a good listing of the best of the current options for calling Thailand from the UK. I use PhoneCheap when I call from a land line in England their premium rate number is 0844 200 9898 and connects you for £0.005 per minute (that's half a penny). There are no connection, subscription or other hidden charges and although it must be a VOIP routing, the call quality is always excellent.

Just checked out http://www.phonecheap.co.uk/rates.php will test them out, good prices for Thailand, Japan & Spanish mobiles. Thanks.

[BKK2509]

I use 18185.co.uk. You have to register on line. Once you registered, you can phone from your mobile using this no. 0208 180 2828 and follow the instruction, providing your UK mobile's tarif is free on UK landline. It costs 1p/minute. Sue

[Mercury]

Thanks for the above posts.

To clarify a couple of points. I was trying to use Skype out on the 3 network to have it capped at $5.95 or whatever a month because all those 1p a minute and 8p (soon to be 9p) set up charges add up to way more than this. You phone and you cannot connect ? pay 10p (9+1), get cut of ? pay 10p, phone switched off ? pay 10p, signal no good ? pay 10p etc.

I find that this feature is not going to work as the mobile thing is just not geared up for long time calling and the Skype quality is just not good enough to compete with the background noise when you are both out and about on a mobile. For this, I'm thinking that the Skype deal is housebound with DECT and I'm seriously considering the Siemens S685 IP which is pricey at £90 (cheapest I've found) here http://www.home-phones.co.uk/home-phones/s...p-ansaphone/f4/ This has the advantage of running VOIP without your PC being on.

If you go the GBP route, then you're paying £3.39 a month which is about 10p a day or 1 call after they rip you off for the 8/9p set up. I don't think you have any cheaper or better method unless you call infrequently and then you can get SIM cards which charge only 5/6p a minute on your mobile.

I think that soon, someone is going to bring out a SIM card which does call abroad for 1p or so and that will be the end as someone else will cap that just as Skype have done.

[Mercury]

Just found out that I cannot use the Siemens phone with Skype out as it will only work with SIP providers. Looking into alternatives now.

[Mercury]

Philips VoIP 855 should do the trick when it is released (soon they say). This should also work from Thailand or anywhere there is a broadband connection and it does not need a PC either ! No prices as yet.

http://share.skype.com/sites/skypegear/2009/09/

[tezzaaa]

as others say voipdiscount is great.

I would add that if you have a mobile phone with a lot of allowance (landline), you can use one of voipdiscounts access numbers in manchester (starting 0161, it's a landline number) and therefore phone to thailand for next to nothing from your mobile (depends how long you talk)....

[Mercury]

as others say voipdiscount is great.

I would add that if you have a mobile phone with a lot of allowance (landline), you can use one of voipdiscounts access numbers in manchester (starting 0161, it's a landline number) and therefore phone to thailand for next to nothing from your mobile (depends how long you talk)....

I disagree with you. If you have lots of surplus minutes then you are probably on the wrong price price plan and are wasting money. If you pay £20 a month for 400 minutes, then each minute costs you 5p which is far more expensive than the 1p a minute providers. I admit that it seems free, but it is not.

What is free or at least capped is where you have unlimited landline minutes free but they are not cheap tariffs.

[tezzaaa]

many people have spare minutes from their mobile phone allowance/price plan. So the 1p calc you mention does not really apply: it's spare minutes they would not use anyway....

my wife get's 1200 minutes, the reason being she got that price plan is she wanted a nice handset and big allowance to not have to worry, so she's got minutes to spare, so she can use these minutes to call abroad with voipdiscount...

most people have minutes to spare from their allowance... not unusual

[Mercury]

many people have spare minutes from their mobile phone allowance/price plan. So the 1p calc you mention does not really apply: it's spare minutes they would not use anyway....

my wife get's 1200 minutes, the reason being she got that price plan is she wanted a nice handset and big allowance to not have to worry, so she's got minutes to spare, so she can use these minutes to call abroad with voipdiscount...

most people have minutes to spare from their allowance... not unusual

I don't deny that many people will have unused minutes but these are not free. If you had to take a heavy user plan to get a shiny new phone then you are just paying for the phone over the lifetime of the contract.

I would advise anyone to err on the side of caution for mobile price plans as the extra minutes are very expensive. However, most Thai women I've met spend a lot of time on the phone and if you have that many unused minutes, then you are definitely on the wrong plan.

Nothing wrong with voipdiscount, just one of a range of suppliers.

[dontheturner]

Skype... will cost you less than 5 quid a month for unlimited calls to thailand (mobiles too)

Sign up for the unlimited country package

Could not agree more - Skype is first class, for 99% of the time, I was ringing here from the UK for two years courting. We have Pay as you go - I credit them $10 each time it gets low. very very good. Now I live here, and use it the other way around. We also have and use Yahoo Voice, (Same pay system) but that is not always good. Do bear in mind, If the numbers you are calling, also have Skype, that is really almost free> Don

[katana]

Haven't tried it, but Poketalk's meant to be free (or was?) from several countries to Thailand.

http://www.poketalk.com/index.php/pages_c/services

"30 free calls per month"

Edited November 16, 2009 by katana

[lighthouse]

carphone warehouse Talk mobile sim 4p/minute landline 6p/minute mobile to mobile. Top up with £20/month get 200 extra minutes free. If talking to gf on her mobile almost 9 hours £20. Connection clear as day.Can't be bad

[fishism]

I used voipcheap and poivy which are both betamax services. You get 300 minutes per week free after you have topped up 10Euros or so(every 120 days). You can use paypal or a number of other providers if you are concerned about what others have reported that Betamax keep repeatedly using your credit card.(I have not experienced that)

They don't like you having multiple accounts if you want 600 minutes a week but you can be careful by keeping them completely separate.

The above services can be used via a SIP phone or through your PC like skype. I used on my N95 via Wifi to my home network or work so all calls were free. They have access number to use your network minutes if you are outside of wifi coverage. Some network operators have unlimited calls to UK landlines but watch out for Orange as they didn't turn the feature on when I asked several times and ended up with £400 phone bills for several months. They denied me even calling them.

I now use 3 mobile, £15 per month to call many countries. There is a fair use policy of 3000 minutes I think. I use 2500 per month no problem. The international saver is only available on a contract sim but they do do £9 contracts.

[fasteddie]

For mobile to mobile payg dial 290366 when lady starts talking dial oo66mobile no: and wait (do not press green key) for 3p a min

[bwalker1973]

We all have a computer, download virtual box, and install a freepbx server. I have a local land line that rings me on my computer, and the call quality is better than skype.

[crev]

Calling Thailand from UK using Onesuite phone card is about 9p and if you use the VoIP feature then it goes down to 3p. It's prepaid so there's no extra fee or anything.

[Kitsch22]

I use LocalPhone.

Dialling from a BT landline (on an AnyTime contract) my calls to Thailand from UK cost me less than 0.5p per minute (or part of a minute).

[nam-thip]

At this moment in time I’m in the UK for four months and restricted to using my mobile phone and after reading on the various forums about the best deals to call Thailand from the UK I opened an account with rebtel then loaded it with the minimum $10 in case it wasn’t suitable.

What I’ve now realized is that rebtels cheap deal is geared for using a landline and not a mobile phone.

After making my first call to Thailand i saved absolutely nothing as Orange who's sim card I use still charge me by the minute for the call and rebtel charge me for the international leg meaning I save little or nothing.

Most of these 1p a minute international calls are only worth taking if you’re making calls from a land line.

What I need is a dedicated international sim card then I can remove the Orange sim card who are charging me 25 pence a minute when using rebtel.

[yeesipha]

Nam-Thip

sounds like you need to get yourself a LEBARA sim card for your mobile, call costs are 6 pence per min from uk to thai mobile or 4 pence to thai land line,sim cards are free as well.