Worldwide phone services
Stay in touch with your friends and family while living and working abroad
Quick recommendations
I can comfortably recomend the services listed to the right for their various international phone services. Scroll down to quickly compare them.
Expanding options
Your international calling options are expanding and the rates are falling. You can make cheap phone calls to and from many countries worldwide. If you are living abroad, working abroad, or in a study abroad program, you can call home without worries.
International mobile/cellular phone services
Global roaming- Do you rent a cell phone for your international travel? Or use SIM cards or phone cards for each country? That can change now. You can get cheap global roaming rates worldwide using a regular mobile phone with one additional SIM card. Take a look over at Telna Mobile, or start with this article.
USA Based - Get cheap international rates for mobile phones by using a dial-around service. Once again, I recommend Telna, because consistent quality plus very low rates.
International callback
Have you ever called someone and asked the person to call you back in order to get a cheaper rate? Many people living abroad use this method.
International callback services work the sameway. They help you place calls that take advantage of the cheaper rates available in the USA. UWT Callback has been around for years, and they provides a cheap, reliable callback service that works.
VOIP/Broadband phone services
VOIP/broadband phone services route calls through the Internet. They offer clear connections, extremely cheap rates, and many powerful features.
VOIP/broadband phone services are easy to use. All you need is an adaptor and a regular phone (or a special phone with the adapter built in). There is no need to have a computer running to use the service, but a high speed Internet connection is required.
A USA-based VOIP/broadband provider will give you a local phone number in the USA (you choose the area code) that will ring you anywhere in the world. Other features include voicemail and much more. For more details see this comparison.
Toll free numbers
Create a toll free number based in the USA (or another country) and have it forwarded to any phone or mobile phone number in the world. The dedicated services listed to the right can have you set up quickly at a very low cost (you will be surprised).
(Note: VOIP/broadband phone services also offer toll free number support among their many features.)