Cheapest way to call Asia -> Vonage

[ding 1]

Vonage has a great way to call Asia, cheap and clear.

$10/month extra unlimited time. Better sound than any cards I've used before. I dumped my landline and had cable internet already. No interference with surfing/gaming/calling at the same time.

Vonage, Call Asia plan

Enjoy this one!

[Niels Bohr 72]

The negative for me would be that Cambodia is not covered.

[don2008 0]

i just checked vonage out, vietnam is not covered on the unlimited plan also.

[Melrose Plant 1]

Vietnam gets the short end of the stick in the area of global communications. I hope Vinasat does something to improve this, but I doubt it will make any real difference.

It is rather frustrating to think that there are so many cheap and high quality calling options to Guangzhou, China, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Hanoi, where the options are expensive and the quality is spotty on the best of days.

[hyper609 0]

Just do YM chat with webcam - it's free, provided you have internet access of course.

[Robert & Van 0]

https://www.savingcall.com/en/index.aspx is better than Vonage prices. Edited July 21, 2008 by Robert & Van

[Robert & Van 0]

Sorry, But I guess it depends on which Part of Asia you are Calling. But Saving call is what we are using.

[chuckandkim 0]

SKYPE, It's FREE

Try it and you will never go back to the substandard Yahoo Voice Chat.

Skype's voice and video quality is superiority over anything out there. and it's FREE!

We have this Netgear SPH200D setup here in the States, Kim's family in Saigon, siblings in Australia

Skype - SPH200D

Always ON, always in-touch and it's FREE. This phone is a regular cordless house phone, just plug your phoneline into the phone and you can receive house calls as well as SKYPE calls.

We haven't paid for phone cards, pin card or any of those Saving Calls service for over 4 years now. Highly recommended! Even if you don't want to have the setup I have shown above, just your computer, regular headset and webcam will be a MAJOR communication improvement over Yahoo/AOL/MSN voice/video chat.

I think folks in the US is pretty slow with this stuff where as Asia (Japan Hong Kong Taiwan Singapore etc.) and EU/AU have been using Skype for years now.... Give it a spin and let me know!

Edited July 21, 2008 by chuckandkim

[Melrose Plant 1]

Yes, Skype is the way to go, except the internet really sucks in Vietnam. Even so, the pluses outweigh the minuses. Mai and I used Skype every day we could, and now she uses Skype to talk to her family almost every day. The sound quality is much better than the telephone, and much better than Yahoo.

[violet18ac3 0]

SKYPE, It's FREE

Try it and you will never go back to the substandard Yahoo Voice Chat.

Skype's voice and video quality is superiority over anything out there. and it's FREE!

We have this Netgear SPH200D setup here in the States, Kim's family in Saigon, siblings in Australia

Skype - SPH200D

Always ON, always in-touch and it's FREE. This phone is a regular cordless house phone, just plug your phoneline into the phone and you can receive house calls as well as SKYPE calls.

We haven't paid for phone cards, pin card or any of those Saving Calls service for over 4 years now. Highly recommended! Even if you don't want to have the setup I have shown above, just your computer, regular headset and webcam will be a MAJOR communication improvement over Yahoo/AOL/MSN voice/video chat.

I think folks in the US is pretty slow with this stuff where as Asia (Japan Hong Kong Taiwan Singapore etc.) and EU/AU have been using Skype for years now.... Give it a spin and let me know!

Don't you need internet access to hook up that device? or just straight into regular phone line? I'm a bit confuse of that set up.

[don2008 0]

here is a quote from the page on that phone,

Call ordinary phones worldwide for pennies per minute---with no monthly fees*

so if i have cable internet is it free? im confused on this also. the page does not explain much.

[tway22 0]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but you can sign up for vonage, then send the vonage box back to your love ones. They will need internet(ADSL), which is pretty cheap in Vietnam. 30 bucks a month, unlimited calling, since they will have your local area code and number. This is what I did with my wife. I would call her about once a day using SavingCall for about 30 minutes to and hour, then I would switch and call the vonage number and talk as long as I want.

[Melrose Plant 1]

Yes, you need an internet connection to use Skype, but there are several ways to configure it with different handsets and so forth. I just use the computer itself (mine has a built in microphone and webcam).

And yes, you can call ordinary phones from your computer using Skype for about 2 cents a minutes, but NOT A PHONE IN VIETNAM! That will cost you more like 35 cents a minute. Doh! Call China from Skype! It's twice as nice!

[chuckandkim 0]

Requirement to setup Skype:

0. MUST have Internet 56kps Modem is fine! Recommend: ADSL or Cable Modem

1. Download Skype www.skype.com

2. Install it on both PC's (US and VN)

3. Sign up for a FREE account, just like you would with any FREE yahoo email, gmail account

4. Make sure to add your screen-name to her contact list and vice versa.

5. Make sure you already have MICROPHONE and SPEAKER hook-up already on the existing PC/Laptop/Notebook

6. Start making call to each other

NOTE: The Netgear system I'm showing here is a MUCH more fansier version of Skype, recommended for lazy folks (me ) who don't want to have PC turn on all the time, and still want to be able to Skype people Just keep this Netgear phone/skype setup plug in and you're good to go....

[LuckyDucky 0]

Unfortunately, my wife's family does not have internet (nor a working computer, for that matter, which probably explains the "no internet" thing.

So in the meantime, we go with Startec, which as a 5.5 cents / min rate to land lines and 9.9 cents / min rate to cell phones. The rates actually just decreased, so I have to call them to find out how to switch to the new rate. (This is just a regluar, old-fashioned long distance plan tied to your home phone.)

Startec also provides a 1-800 number that you can call from your cell. Then you get a message prompting for a phone number to call. So to your cell carrier, you're just making a "continental US" call, using your regular minutes, and you can call internationally and get Startec's rate billed to your home phone. I never used it to call my wife when she was in Vietnam, but she's used it to call her family now that she's here. Very convenient!