Hi,

So what are people paying for long distance to call back to Europe? What about the US?

Is there any VOIP service in Thailand yet, particularly in the Samui or Phuket areas? What is the best way to call people back home? What is the best rate to call a land line?

I mean, 20 Baht per minute calling from an overseas call shop is getting old. How much are these shops really paying for their long distance? Isn't 20 baht a minute a little much???

Help please.

VOIP is not bound to a region. Just convince the shop keeper of any internet cafe that you really need to install Skype and your in business. You need to have a mike and a pair of speakers or a headset. From PC to PC is free, both PC's need to have a ADSL connection. Don't forget that the one youre calling needs to have a Skype nickname to reach him/her. But that is free.

Skype rom PC to public service telefphone net is expensive. skyping to Thai mobiele is 10 eurocents, PSTN phones 5 eurocents. Oddly enough calling back with Skype to a phone in falang countries is twice as expensive (!).

I use it to call my GF's mobiele in LOS and works like a charm.

I used to buy telephone discount cards, but service numbers are more cheaper. I don't know if they are available in your home country. In Holland my GF uses telediscount.nl for about 7 eurocents / min to Thailand to phone the inlaws. No idea on calling from LOS to overseas.

Thanks for the help.

But the Skype thing may not work for me in a net cafe. I need to call regular land lines. And then I would need to pay somehow.

My real question is, what is the best way to call long distance from Thailand to back home. And most importantly, how much does it cost per minute?

Does anyone know?

Thanks

Is a mobile phone and a pre-paid SIM an option for you? If so the use the 008 (TOT's low-cost service) prefix with rates to both the UK and USA of b6 per minute.

If you've got your own internet access in your own home, Vonage works quite nicely if you're making lots of calls - or long calls. (However, it needs ADSL - and ideally not the cheapest packages, so is only for those who have ADSL for web use anyway...)

i.e. UK Vonage is £10/month, and the router has UK power supply - so works fine in Thailand - That £10 includes unlimited calls to UK landlines.

The biggest hassle I have with it is that - because True drops the ADSL line every 24 hours (approx.) - I sometimes need to reboot the router in order to make a successful call. (which also means it's not that useful for people to call you on...)