Cheapest Way To Call Thailand To Thailand

[tjansen]

Hello,

I am currently making a weekly conference call to two, three, or four people. I live in Thailand and am calling Thai phones. I am using Skype, but only one person that I call has Skype or the Internet. The others only have their cell phones.

If I buy a special subscription on Skype, I think it still costs around $0.017 US per minute, which is about 1/3 the cost of using regular Skype minutes.

Does anyone know of a cheaper way? The call lasts 60 minutes, so it amounts to about $1.00 per connection per week, and if I don't manage my subscription well (a little tricky with Skype), it can cost $3.00 per connection.

I reviewed a thread and saw a lot of options, including magicjack, rebtel, and several others, but I am hoping someone can make it easy for me by suggesting one that fits my situation.

Thanks for any help.

Tom

[metisdead]

Moved to the Internet, computers, communication and technology forum for better responses.

[RandomSand]

Are you joking?

The copper in the lines that make telephonic communications possible costs over $8000 per metric tonne. Fibre cable is massively more expensive. And what about all the network switches and routers that shuttle the bits and bytes around? A single cabinet in a data centre full of Cisco or Juniper network equipment will cost a least $100,000 to deploy.

"$0.017 US per minute" --- is this not cheap enough already ?

Just my 2 cents

edit: fair enough there might be a voip/sip company with plans that are easier to manage but if you can work out how to manage the account then 1.7c min is hardly expensive in any country let alone Thailand.

Edited February 17, 2013 by RandomSand

[JakeBKK]

so all you guys are online to use skype? how about a direct conference for free?

[sirineou]

I singed up for Skype premium service $18.00 a month, no problem first couple of days, the third day my wife could not call all the people she called all the time such as her sister and mother, after searching Skype forums and having an internet chat with a Skype representative I was told that these numbers were blocked from Thailand, could not tell by whom but most likely the Thai government or Telephone company, upon further research I found out that this happens a lot to numbers you call a lot or talk on for a long time,

So I canceled my Skype subscription and went back to my VOIP Lingo. $32 a month unlimited talk to land lines and cell phone , never had a problem for years.

[geriatrickid]

Apple facetalk. It's free if via a wifi link.

[barryw52]

If they have a smart phones then Tango or Viber etc. They could also then have Skype on their smart phone Iphone or Andriod. If not I don't think you get much cheaper than Skype for Thai to Thai call landline or mobile also. Me interested in any service that do better this rate.

[muratremix]

Betamax is 1 us cents / minute Thai mobiles but your voice will be routed via Europe, sound quality will suffer a lot.

Thaitelephone.com voip service was 0.49 baht + VAT before (not start from 0.45 baht + vat / min) and it should offer much much better sound quality (due to in-Thailand voip service) than the rest.

[tjansen]

I singed up for Skype premium service $18.00 a month, no problem first couple of days, the third day my wife could not call all the people she called all the time such as her sister and mother, after searching Skype forums and having an internet chat with a Skype representative I was told that these numbers were blocked from Thailand, could not tell by whom but most likely the Thai government or Telephone company, upon further research I found out that this happens a lot to numbers you call a lot or talk on for a long time,

So I canceled my Skype subscription and went back to my VOIP Lingo. $32 a month unlimited talk to land lines and cell phone , never had a problem for years.

This sounds like it would save me money. What is the difference between the $23.95 version and the $30+ version for mobile phones? Also, how much is it with taxes added on?

Thanks a lot.

[tjansen]

If they have a smart phones then Tango or Viber etc. They could also then have Skype on their smart phone Iphone or Andriod. If not I don't think you get much cheaper than Skype for Thai to Thai call landline or mobile also. Me interested in any service that do better this rate.

It sounds like Skype is close to the cheapest, but it requires managing a tricky subscription system. You can purchases a 400 minute package for Thailand, I forget the price, but if that runs out in the middle of your call, your rate reverts to the regular rate, and it seems to drop my call at the same time. Also, you cannot buy a second 400 minute package; you have to buy a different amount of minutes, like 120. Then both of these subscriptions automatically renew on a certain calendar day, maybe a month after purchase. Too tricky for me to save money over the other options mentioned on this thread.

[tjansen]

Apple facetalk. It's free if via a wifi link.

Can I use a wifi link on my end to call a standard mobile phone on their end, including conference calls? These people don't have Internet.

[tjansen]

Are you joking?

The copper in the lines that make telephonic communications possible costs over $8000 per metric tonne. Fibre cable is massively more expensive. And what about all the network switches and routers that shuttle the bits and bytes around? A single cabinet in a data centre full of Cisco or Juniper network equipment will cost a least $100,000 to deploy.

"$0.017 US per minute" --- is this not cheap enough already ?

Just my 2 cents

edit: fair enough there might be a voip/sip company with plans that are easier to manage but if you can work out how to manage the account then 1.7c min is hardly expensive in any country let alone Thailand.

OK, so I'm cheap, I confess.

[USNret]

I have Vonage World which lets me call up to 60 countries for "free" (with a monthly subscription). The free calls include calls to Thai landlines & cell phones. I live in the States & my wife calls her parents mobile phones & talks endlessly, for no extra charge.

This isn't the cheapest solution, but I like the fixed price & predictability, so I stick with it. If you pay for the whole year upfront you get something like a 10-20% discount off the monthly rate. Also, you can do conference calls with Vonage which I've never tried. I expect you would be able to conference in several Thai numbers at no charge.

[WonnabeBiker]

Hi,

check out the Thailand flat rate. It get Thailand as part of the $ 13.99 World Flatrate (Thailand, USa, UK, ...).

Thailand means you can call mobile phones as well as landlines.

Way to go - it's about $ 6 for just Thailand. Shun the overpriced Skype credit b.s. and

be careful to untick the box or else you will add the %$#%$%$ing Skype credit when you buy

the subscription.

[BrianCR]

How about two tin cans on opposite ends of a piece of string? Use enough cans and you've got a conference call!

[sirineou]

I singed up for Skype premium service $18.00 a month, no problem first couple of days, the third day my wife could not call all the people she called all the time such as her sister and mother, after searching Skype forums and having an internet chat with a Skype representative I was told that these numbers were blocked from Thailand, could not tell by whom but most likely the Thai government or Telephone company, upon further research I found out that this happens a lot to numbers you call a lot or talk on for a long time,

So I canceled my Skype subscription and went back to my VOIP Lingo. $32 a month unlimited talk to land lines and cell phone , never had a problem for years.

This sounds like it would save me money. What is the difference between the $23.95 version and the $30+ version for mobile phones? Also, how much is it with taxes added on?

Thanks a lot.

First you have the $ 23. 95 plan, it provides you with a Lingo adapter that connects to your modem router, to the Lingo adapter you plug your normal home telephone much the same way you plug it in your land line, and you can make and receive calls that are indistinguishable from the calls you make with a normal land line telephone, The $ 30+ version provides you in addition to the above with the capacity of making calls from your cell phone. From a normal cell phone you dial an access number and you get a prompt to dial the telephone number you want to call, For an Android smart phone there is and App. They don't as of now have an App for an I-phone . You can also have a Mobile phone option only.

I and all my family only use I-phones , and since they don't have an app for I-phone I don't , and have never used their Mobile device so I have no further experience,other than what was explained to me by their rep,

I dont have my billing info available to be right now, it is deducted from my credit card automatically every month , but I seem to remember that the final bill for the $ 23.95 plan is about $31.00 so the tax is about $8,00

Unlike Skype, with which I had bad experience, and from reading the Skype forums , I am not the only one, Lingo is a very reliable system, with excellent technical support over the telephone, I have used then for over 10 years with little or no problem . It is important to note that I have purchased their service in the US, and use it there to call Thailand on a daily bases, but their adapter can be connected up to any fast internet convection in the world.

Your best option would be to call their sales dept at :888-752-3382 and they would be better able to explain the different options available to you.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Apple facetalk. It's free if via a wifi link.

Can I use a wifi link on my end to call a standard mobile phone on their end, including conference calls? These people don't have Internet.

To use the FREE calling features of things like Skype, Tango and Viber, I do believe that BOTH ends of the conversation either have to have Wifi or 3G data on their phones. (Different apps are different about that, some allow both wifi or 3G, some only work via wifi). But if any one of the call participants only has regular GSM calling, then these various app-based services aren't going to work in the free mode.

For calling to regular landline or mobile phones, as mentioned, Skype has the 400 minute plan for Thailand that's pretty economical... I haven't run into the problem of blocked numbers with that in the past.

Skype also has an unlimited world calling plan for a bit more per month that includes calls to Thailand. While more expensive, it also has the advantage of you not having to worry about how many minutes you're using and whether or not you're going over some monthly limit. Obviously, it also would be best for someone who's also making other international calls outside of Thailand.

You might also look at using the combination of Google Voice via Gmail on a PC or Google Voice and the free GrooveIP Lite app on an Android phone. I was playing around with that latter combination on my Android tablet the other day, and it looked like calling to Thailand from the required U.S. Google Voice number would be about a flat 2 cents per minute for landlines and 3 cents for mobiles.

Here's the way to see and check the country rates for Google Voice:

https://www.google.com/voice/rates

Edited February 24, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Here's the recap of Skype's various plans for calls to Thailand:

Sometimes they offer discounts when you prepay for 6 months or 1 year of monthly service with one of their plans.

The "Unlimited World" plan includes calls to both landlines and mobiles in Thailand.

Edited February 24, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[lomatopo]

It might ultimately be easier, simpler, less expensive to utilize audio-conferencing services? All participants would call in, often to a free number, enter a PIN and get bridged into your conference. Or you,a s the conference manager, can initiate out-bound calls to conference participants.

Maybe check with TOT and CAT? There may also be some local VoIP solutions which would allow you to host a conference of both traditional (mobile/fixed-line) and IP end-points

How are you doing this now? Typically one can only bridge a 3-way call.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I haven't had the need to do it personally. But apparently, conference calling is supported by Skype. See the following support info:

https://support.skype.com/en/category/CONFERENCE_CALLING/

Making a conference call from Skype via a Windows PC:

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA2831/making-a-group-call-windows-desktop

Re Groove IP, I don't see any indication it supports conference calling.

But Google Voice, using a Google Voice account with a U.S. Google Voice number, does allow conferencing for incoming calls. Though that wouldn't help much for people calling using Thai mobile or landline numbers because of the international calling charges they would incur.

http://support.google.com/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=115137

This is another PC software related conference calling solution that right now is limited only to U.S. numbers, but they say they will be adding international capacity soon.

www.kuvicall.com

Do you allow international phone numbers?

At this time, only US phone numbers are allowed. International numbers will be added shortly.

Edited February 24, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

For conference calling to numbers in Thailand, it looks like Skype might be a good solution.

I launched Skype, I believe the latest version, on my Windows 7 PC and checked the conference calling feature. In my version of the program, it's a little different from the Skype support document link I posted above. But basically, you just choose a contact to call from within the Skype program, and then there's a button (a BIG + sign) that launches a menu enabling you to add other participants to the call, either via their Skype IDs or regular phone numbers.

I haven't tried it, but presumably some similar capability in present in Skype's various mobile phone apps as well.

[tjansen]

It might ultimately be easier, simpler, less expensive to utilize audio-conferencing services? All participants would call in, often to a free number, enter a PIN and get bridged into your conference. Or you,a s the conference manager, can initiate out-bound calls to conference participants.

Maybe check with TOT and CAT? There may also be some local VoIP solutions which would allow you to host a conference of both traditional (mobile/fixed-line) and IP end-points

How are you doing this now? Typically one can only bridge a 3-way call.

I am currently using Skype conferencing. As I mentioned, most of the participants don't have Skype or the Internet, so I pay charges for calling mobile phones.