nicrock

We move into our apartment this week and i'm wondering if anyone can advise on the best telephone network to go with that will give me the best rates for ringing the UK?

PaulandNic

We use GoTalk and pay 4c a min (I think) to the UK.

http://gotalk.com.au/

Rudi

If you have cable broadband then you could use a voip system. We have signed up with "engin". You buy a box thingy from Dick Smith for $69, attach it to your modem and normal phone (its a good idea to have cordless phones so you can have extensions around the house), then for $19.95 a month all our calls to local, national and certain international countries (including the uk) are free. If you stay with engin for 3 months you get the $69 you paid for the voice box thingy back.

So far it's been pretty good. The only downside is that if your internet connection goes down, so does your phone line. You get given a local number, so people can phone in in the same way you would on a normal phone.

Altenatively, we used to use "Go talk" for cheap calls to the UK - it's a bit like a phone card, but we had it connected in with our home phone, called a local access number and then it was 3.5c per minute I think to the UK. We just paid an up front amount every few months when our credit needed topping up.

Hope that helps a bit

Rudi

nicrock

Thanks, went onto your link and I presume it's the World Pack at $14.95 a month that get's 100 calls/3000 minutes free to the UK?

Sorry if this sounds abit stupid, but do I ring to connect my electricity and phone line first (got a contact number from the letting agent) then i'll be given a home phone number, then do I ring gotalk and tell them my address and home number and set up direct debit for the world pack?

This is the first time we've ever had our own place, lived with my parents before leaving the UK whilst we saved, feel very dumb and daunted by the whole thing!

Got the keys today, in this hotel until Monday so have to buy all our furniture and get everything connected and going this weekend so we can move in! HELP

PaulandNic

Like prev poster I just had a calling card to start, but you can get your home number linked to account and link a credit card too to top up.

I just throw $20 on it every now and then and lasts forever! ...

Rudi

That plan you mention is a voip plan so you would need additional equipment. It is not a standard phone line plan. You would still need to make local and national call somehow. That might mean having either an extra line in, therefore paying line rental and for the calls (this would be a very expensive way of doing things as you are paying twice effectively) or combining the VOIP plan you have found with another of their plans - taking your monthly charge to over $20.

I have done a lot of research on this recently and the Engin VOIP plan was the best one if you wanted to make international calls. But it depends if you want to go the VOIP route.

You need to look at the gotalk home phone plans if you just want a normal phone rather than VOIP.

Good luck with the move

Rudi

rangersman2

go to newsagents and ask for "optus anytime phone card" we have for had the same pin number for 2 and a half years and pay 1.5 cents a minute and you dont pay a connection fee and when you top-up you can do it over the phone. Paul

Jersey to Aus

Hey,

We are with optus and pay a $40 service charge a month and we pay 2c a minute for international calls but i think local calls are more than usual but not much more. This is convienient for me as we proberly make more international calls than Local CALLS!!!

furkew

I have been using Engin for the last 7 months and it is for us definitely the best option.

We pay 19.95 for the service per month, which is on top of 19.95 for the line rental from Telstra. You also need broadband internet, but thats pretty much everybody nowadays.

Last month we called for over 12 hours to Holland & the UK and including local calls, mobile calls (which are also cheaper than Telstra) our bill was under 30.00 in total. (under $50.00 in total including the Telstra line rental.)

We only find the line quality poor when somebody in the house is downloading something or if somebody is watching streaming videos etc. Otherwise fine.

The big advantage with Engin over phone cards etc is that family & friends back in the UK can call you for local rates as well.

Rudi

And even better.......if you have cable broadband you pay no line rental so it's only $19.95 a month total!! You only have to pay the telstra (or whoever) line rental if you are on ADSL.

Rudi