For those with a fiance(e) is Brazil I thought it would be good to share information about phone service and rates.

I have used viapin.com for about a year now. Rates vary for regions of Brazil, but I pay 3.3 cents per minute. We talk almost every day, and I spend $30 - $60 per month. If you live in the LA area or if you can call the LA access numbers for free with your home (such as Vonage) or cell phone you can get their lowest rates to Brazil. You have to call an access number, then put in a pin number, but the low cost is worth it. Another great advantage is that you can call from anywhere in the US, as long as you know the Viapin access number for where you are calling from.

If I am in a hurry or know it will not be a long call I can direct with my Vonage service, and this runs me 9 cents. Direct call from home.

My friend told me about Skype which is free if my fiance had high speed internet in Brazil. But she does not have high speed. I suspect high speed is not available in most of Brazil. Maybe Rio or SP?

Trust me I'm not advertising for any phone company, but I have tried several other options, and this is the cheapest that I've found.

Bill

The cheapest for me is Skype: $0.2 per minute to regular phones, and $0.17 per min to cell phones.

I see the lowest rate on Skype at 3 cents and 24.5 for mobile. Can you use your land line phone, or do you have to use pc and mic.?

We use speedypin.com

Rates from Skype

Brazil $ 0.054
Brazil - Mobile $ 0.213
Brazil - Rio de Janeiro $ 0.033
Brazil - Sao Paulo $ 0.026

PS (Prices b4 taxes)

What i found to be the best for calling brazil is http://nobelcom.com There are 4 different choices, and they range from 2.4c a minute to 4.5c a minute. $20=7.5 hours of talk time with the 4.5c/minute, and the billing is 1 SECOND increments-these cards are clean

Another website for competition rates is http://uniontelecard.com (be careful of dirty cards)

and I found for calling brazilian cell phones, the .99c store sells Wildgate cards...those are really good too....and if you want to call within the US it's also only 99 minutes for .99c http://www.wildgate.com/callingcards/99cstore/default.aspx (this card is also clean)

Rey calls me on my SkypeOut account. I can't have Skype because I have a Mac 10.2.8, too early of a system (needs Mac 10.3 I believe)
I used to use aloavenidabrasil.com. I think it was 1 cent/min FROM Brazil... never used it from here

I used to use Skype, but now use Yahoo Phone Out. It appears to be cheaper than Skype and your not limited in terms of payment options like you are on Skype.

Here's the Yahoo rates to Brasil

Brazil $0.039
Brazil, Belo Horizonte $0.039
Brazil, Mobile $0.120
Brazil, Rio De Janeiro $0.015
Brazil, SaoPaolo $0.015

I have and we still use zscomm and buy "sti love" pin numbers for about 11 dollars which is pretty economical and has decent phone reception to Salvador BA.