Cheapest Way to do International Calling (Intl -> US)

[s0me0nesmind1]

Hello folks.

I'm looking to have an extended international stay vacation pretty soon. However, I plan to work remotely some of those days in order to help the team out with work. I'm trying to find the best way to make/take phone calls while I'm in South America. A lot of these will be 1-800 numbers to conference calls, however it is possible to get a direct call.

What also might be helpful: Somehow having my current phone dial to my cell phone so that there is no confusion over a new number. Sorry for newbie-ness here, I clearly haven't done this type of stuff before.

International 3G/4G would also be a bonus, depending on how expensive that is.

Note: I currently have Verizon as my cell-phone provider if that helps.


How I'm currently seeing it: Skype.... what from there... I haven't a clue.

 

[DaWhim]

google voice, you can't beat free

 

[Noo]

Any apple device can call any apple device for free. Just saying.

 

[Printer Bandit]

FaceTime Audio

 

[SSSnail]

How about Skype to Skype?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

How about Skype to Skype?

I work in a huge corporate office with clients all-over... I need a standard dial telephone # that anyone can reach at anytime.

 

[SSSnail]

You'd think with a huge corporate office with clients all over, you shouldn't have to worry about something silly as a phone call.

 

[John Connor]

MagicJack?

 

[TwiceOver]

Just from experience, most 800 numbers aren't going to work from international and even if they do, you would be charged the international rate.

You need a VPN and a SIP phone into your work network. We do this here for our users in Denmark and China. They connect via VPN and then their SIP phone is connected and they make calls as if they were in the office (USA).

Just my opinion.

 

[jaedaliu]

I work in a huge corporate office with clients all-over... I need a standard dial telephone # that anyone can reach at anytime.

You'd think with a huge corporate office with clients all over, you shouldn't have to worry about something silly as a phone call.

What SSSNail said. Talk to your travel department/IT and have them unlock your work cell phone for international usage. Your number will stay the same, and it's their job to worry about paying for it.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

You'd think with a huge corporate office with clients all over, you shouldn't have to worry about something silly as a phone call.

bwahaha. I work in the fun world of consulting. They don't pay for shit....


Work cell phone... hahahaha.

 

[jaedaliu]

bwahaha. I work in the fun world of consulting. They don't pay for shit....


Work cell phone... hahahaha.

Get a new job. You're doing work on your vacation, and they won't provide the infrastructure to let you do that work.

But, if you want to keep working there, port your cell phone number to google voice. I'm not sure how well your cell phone provider will like that. Sprint let me activate google voice without actually porting. Now my gmail gets a pop up when I get a phone call, and I can answer calls through my web browser.

 

[Phoenix86]

What SSSNail said. Talk to your travel department/IT and have them unlock your work cell phone for international usage. Your number will stay the same, and it's their job to worry about paying for it.

Sorry, that's accounting. Int'l fees are extremely expensive.

Skype is pretty much a business standard. My previous job interviewed over Skype.

Let me put it this way, hundreds of dollars/mo/phone for intl usage, or put in your out of office message/voice mail that you are available via skype for free.

Which system do you think bean counters are going to select (IT will likely approve either from a tech PoV, I do)?

 

[Phoenix86]

Get a new job. You're doing work on your vacation, and they won't provide the infrastructure to let you do that work.

But, if you want to keep working there, port your cell phone number to google voice. I'm not sure how well your cell phone provider will like that. Sprint let me activate google voice without actually porting. Now my gmail gets a pop up when I get a phone call, and I can answer calls through my web browser.

It's exceedingly unreasonable to require an employee to provide their own cellular data int'l., but if that's what they require, pass the bill on to them. Fuck it.

Google voice is a good option as well.

 

[DesiPower]

Vonage/ooma?

 

[Ns1]

facetime, free.

alternatively isn't intl part of tmobile's plans now?

 

[AznAnarchy99]

google voice, you can't beat free

Yup. That's all I used when calling home while abroad. Only hard part is finding a good wi-fi connection.

 

[smackababy]

Skype or Google Voice are the best options to my knowledge. Otherwise, all carriers have an international plan you can add on to your line (although, it is still stupid expensive, but still a lot cheaper than no plan).


And, as far as porting your number, IIRC, Google Voice has the option to forward calls from your number to the Google Voice number.

For what it's worth, if any company required me to work on my vacation and refused to pay for any kind of international calling; they'd not charge me vacation days, pay for the international calling, accept I am not working during my vacation, or fire me.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

T-Mobile has free international roaming and no contracts. You can do that.

 

[Svnla]

Subsribe to this thread because I will be out of the US on a long trip soon.

 

[spaceman]

check the nynex yellow pages for a phone guy