Better quality int'l calls?

meester

Trying to call Indonesian mobile, the rates on callchecker are from 5p per minute, but dreadful, delay, muffled, you can't hear what's being said.

I thought it was perhaps the phone in Indonesia, but I tried BT, and it's crystal clear, unfortunately BT charge £1/minute, or 43p/minute with their international saving plan, which is still too much

Any thoughts on getting a clear connection? Is Skype better?

meester

Skype I have just tried, calls drop after about 2 minutes, so lots of connection charges and it just caused my laptop to BSOD (the only one I have ever had on this computer).

Not impressed, even though the calls are very clear, the calls dropping are unacceptable.

benjus

Skype is OK but overhyped... it works well enough between Skype users but it's nothing extraordinary, and using Skype to call normal phones or to receive calls is more expensive than other providers.

If you're happy to try another VoIP provider, maybe you could try one of the Betamax brands. I use Nonoh (www.nonoh.net) and find the quality generally good and the prices excellent. A quick comparison of different Betamax brands shows that another Betamax brand (www.smsdiscount.com) is cheaper for Indonesia mobiles (2p/min). I haven't tried this one myself, although I would expect all Betamax brands to be about the same in terms of quality.

There are several different ways to use services such as Nonoh and SMSDiscount - you can use a VoIP client installed on your PC, a callback service that connects your phone to the recipient's phone, or an access number you dial from your phone. I generally find that the VoIP client or the callback service give best results.

barclaysguy

talktalk, 10pm. All my calls sound fine.

meester

thanks, will give betamax a go. All the 'callchecker' access numbers give the impression that they are run by the same company, just lots of different rates for maximum confusion. skype is not all that impressive.