Does it cost anything to call uk mobile from Malta using skype or viber ?

tokaten

Hi. Having never used skype or viber i am unsure if any costs are involved. I would be calling from malta over wifi on a three mobile htc one x plus, to an iphone in the uk on a 3g connection. Are there any costs involved ? Would the uk based iphone have to be on wifi or would it work on 3g? Any advice, tips, pitfalls would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Frozen_up_north

Skype to Skype calls are free, except if the mobile phone user has to pay for their data use. I have used Skype on a mobile phone for a number of years and it's generally very good. Bear in mind the following:

1. 3G in the UK is very variable in connection speed, I use Three and in places it's really fast but at the weekend we were in a seaside town and the speed dropped to virtually nothing during the evening. I guess there were a lot of visitors using the internet.

2. Not all data plans support the use of VOIP (voice over IP) as they see it as competition for their voice calls, also Skype (video calls in particular) eat up the data allowance, check both these points with the UK user.

3. The iPhone Skype App appears to "go to sleep" after a while, so it's probably better to arrange a scheduled call at a particular time, if you can pick a time of good 3G speed where the UK user is located, so much the better.

4. 3G can be used for Skype, however as in point 2 above, not all plans support VOIP, so it might be necessary for the UK user to connect via WiFi, depending on their 3G package.

If the UK user can find an old Three Skypephone S2 and put a Three pay as you go SIM card in it, they will find it works without needing to top up the SIM card, in addition the calls are routed via the Three voice network (as opposed to being a data call) and consequently tend to be more reliable if a litte lower in quality. I have an old S2 with a recently obtained SIM card and it works fine, the Skype application doesn't "go to sleep" and the phone battery lasts 3 or 4 days on standby. Unfortunately, more recent phones from Three only offer Skype via a data connection, which incurs a charge.

tokaten

Thanks for that. Very helpful. Have you or anyone had any experience with viber ? Would that work the same ?

grumbler

Both will cost you if you use mobile data.
Neither costs you if you use free WiFi.
Both work abroad via WiFi the same way as they do in UK via WiFi.
Unless you are going to use mobile data (local sim or roaming) you don't need anyone's experience. Just try both or either on WiFi in UK.
As simple as that.