For those of you that use Skype to contact your BF overseas, Skype is always a good alternative to land lines. It has good rates, although they have increased since Paypal bought the service. They have a new WiFi phone that is out. You can use it anyplace that has WiFi to connect to your skype account. It is also 110-220 for those that travel you can use it in most places. I bought one last week and have used it many times and the quality is nice. It is easy to use and quite enjoyable. If you travel and have family in USA, you can get a one year unlimited calls to USA for reasonable price and talk for free.

I have put the link for this below.

Also, I have Vonage and they offer now an International Plan which includes free calls to Thailand. As I travel a bit, this make it cheap for me as well. I don't think Brazil calls to mobile are included but would have to check again.

These are just 2 choices and I know there are more out there but I have used the above services for a few years and always gotten good reception while in Thailand and abroad.

http://accessories.skype.com:80/servlet/Co...ductID=80816800

I am always open to more options. Anyone used other services and had great results?

Hi Oz,

I have used Skype quite a while, but I recently stopped using them for two reasons:

- They forced me to stop using verson 1.2 and to upgrade

- Their start-rate is now 4 cent per call.

Regarding version 1.2 :

The reason that I stuck to version 1.2 is because on my notebook it gave the best quality ever. With their newer versions the quality is sometimes really good, but other times unacceptable. The quality is still the weak point of calling over the Internet, and I really can't afford to call companies over a crappy telephone-line.

Regarding their start-rate :

I got irritated when this happened. If they can change their rate that easily, then they may do it again in the future, and then I don't want to be forced to use them.

They steadily grew to 9 million users before they raised their rates, and now they seem to stick to 9 million.

Please be wary with their "one year to the US" plan. The title is not what you expect it to be. You will only be allowed to make calls WITHIN the US to US phone numbers. Once you travel outside the US, you can still make calls to US numbers, but they will charge you according to their normal fees. If you're in the US, then this plan is interesting to you. If you travel a lot, then better forget about it.

So there are some alternatives:

- http://www.abeltelecom.nl/index.php?pageID=12

- http://www.budgetphone.nl/page.php?page=bpc_card = Talking2ya?

- http://www.freecall.com/en/index.html

- http://www.google.com/talk/

- http://www.internetcalls.com/en/index.html

- http://www.mobivox.com/

- http://www.pilmo.com/

- http://www.talkin2ya.nl/

- http://www.voipbuster.com/

- http://voice.yahoo.com/

Currently I'm using Yahoo Voice. My experience is that their quality is better than Skype's. The fun thing is that you can call toll-free numbers straight away (= without buying call credit at all), but what I miss is that I can't pay them through Paypal.

With Yahoo Voice I often get the message "Your call could not be completed, please check the number and try again", even when the number I'm dialing is 100% sure. I have the strong impression that sometimes they don't have enough connections available to landlines and then they give this message.

Btw, those who like Skype may like the "Multi-Link TeleVoIP USB Phone" , http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm...105&c=10260 . It's a phone with a really beautiful design, and the quality is amazing. It's a Skype-certified phone, but not certified for other VOIP providers.

Anyone else more experience and/or suggestions?

Warmest, Anton/Amsterdam.

ps: I'm travelling in the US in January 2008. For those who like to know more, click the link on the very first page of my website.

mobile : +31 6 2523 1001

website : http://www.antonamsterdam.com/

reviews : http://www.antonamsterdam.com/reviews.html