"Free Calls" Who Is Paying?

st999

Not that I'm complaining but I got an Echo Show 5 for free and set it up using my gmail address which is linked to my Android phone.

Now if I ask Alexa to phone my wife, or anyone else on my contact list by name not number, "she" does and my payg balance does not decrease.

So who is paying for the phone calls?

chocoholic123

It is through wifi.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202136150

As an aside you can set up free wifi calls on most smart phones too, google your phone model, network name and "wifi calling" and it should be able to use wifi to make the call not your minutes when you have a connection. Failing that WhatsApp also allows you to call contacts using wifi. Handy if you have no signal but do have wifi if you are out and about.

mobileron

Its similar to skype,calls are made using VOIP,so there should be no charges.

Neil_Jones

To complete the answer, "free" calls made in a traditional fashion (0800 numbers and the like) down the phone line are only free to those making the call. Those receiving the call would pay for it.

Chino

Neil_Jones wrote: »

To complete the answer, "free" calls made in a traditional fashion (0800 numbers and the like) down the phone line are only free to those making the call. Those receiving the call would pay for it.

If you read the link posted by chocoholic123 in post #2 you would see that this can't be the case:

"Alexa Calling is a service you can use to make calls to your Alexa-to-Alexa contacts, and most mobile and landline numbers (in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Mexico) at no additional cost."

There is no mention of costs being imposed on the recipient of a call.

stragglebod

Chino wrote: »

If you read the link posted by chocoholic123 in post #2 you would see that this can't be the case:

"Alexa Calling is a service you can use to make calls to your Alexa-to-Alexa contacts, and most mobile and landline numbers (in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Mexico) at no additional cost."

There is no mention of costs being imposed on the recipient of a call.

You really ought to read posts properly before replying to them. Neil is correct.

Neil_Jones

Chino wrote: »

If you read the link posted by chocoholic123 in post #2 you would see that this can't be the case:

"Alexa Calling is a service you can use to make calls to your Alexa-to-Alexa contacts, and most mobile and landline numbers (in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Mexico) at no additional cost."

There is no mention of costs being imposed on the recipient of a call.

Alexa calling is wi-fi calling. That is free-to-free calls (though where the mobile providers provide this it is charged at your regular rate)

I discussed "traditional" calling, as in picking up a "normal" phone (mobile or landline) and calling 0800 001066 or whatever. Those are chargeable to the company, in this case Hastings. They'd be free from landlines and mobiles for me but not Hastings.

WilliamHunt

Its features are quite similar to the Skype

mobileron

No charges at all,skype been doing it for years,u can also add skype to the box.

Nick_C

The thing I don't understand is Skype and WhatsApp are free if the person you are calling also uses Skype or WhatsApp.

But apparently you can use Alexa to call any landline number in the UK or US? How does that work? Is Amazon picking up the cost of the final local call (which you don't have if calling whatsapp to whatsapp).

Should I get the Alexa app for my android phone to make free calls to the US?

Frozen_up_north

The free Ringo mobile phone app gives genuinely free calls to some countries... It calls via an 03xxx UK non geographic number via "call out", we use it to call friends in Spain on their land line. Obviously someone pays, but I have no credit with Ringo and pay a monthly amount for unlimited UK mins on my SIM only mobile contract. As far as I am concerned it's free for us!


Rates from the UK via "call out" are 0p/min to Spain, Norway, Sweden, USA and Canada. Not sure about any other free ones. https://www.ringo.co/index.html