bantockboy

Hello,

Is their a good service for making low cost calls from Portugal to the UK? I'm really looking for something internet based but will allow me to phone ordinary landlines and mobiles in the UK, at minimal cost.

Vaughan

peterfc

Skype

Peter

nogard

Skype.

zoff

Its not really VOIP but WhatsApp for PC, Mac, iOS, Android etc. or FaceTime between Apple devices. Both have the added benefit of being mobile and capable of still or video images.

Red Eric

I use Voipcheap.

I can't remember why I don't use Skype for phoning now but I know there's a good reason. It might be that Voipcheap allows me to initiate a phone-to-phone call (so I can listen and speak through the landline handset rather than the computer) and Skype doesn't?

The rates are good and you get free calls to a lot of destinations for a period after topping up credit.

BillBullock

To make a Skype call, the receiver needs to: (a) Have Skype on his computer or smartphone (b) Have his computer switched on. So it is not always the best way to make a call unless the receiver has a smartphone in his possession.

We also use VOIP for overseas calls and I can recommend VoipStunt | Free international calls worldwide! which we have used for years.

planky

I've used VOIPcheap for years but recently found several glitches on the pc version that the tech team there seem utterly indifferent to sorting.

uk_grenada

True VOIP is technically complex, there are about 150 parameters that can be set. The easy solution is to use a provider that provisions [manages] the smartphone apps and physical gateways/devices for you. The providers who are most switched on are the ones supplying small/micro companies.

I have used voipfone for years, they only charge for calls, and they are tiny amounts. You call using a smartphone app or a normal home phone using a cisco voip gateway box - that they provide and manage - and globally all your call pop out into pstn [the trad phone world] at their gateways in uk us etc etc. So here in the caribbean i call my local takeaway, my data goes to the uk, pops into pstn in the uk, transatlantic call made apparently from the uk, but it costs a lot less....

If you go to the uk, take the gateway [tiny], plug it in and you are to the world in the same pkace - same when abroad - its all just data over the www emerging in the gateway nearest to the person you called...

uk_grenada

NB voipfone give you a virtual phone switch, if you want 3 numbers on your switch its easy to do and then you can call each other using extension nos and do the myriad of other things you can do on a commercial switch - contact centre - auto diverts on a clock or calendar - cli spoofing - no problem... All for a pound per extn per month - if you want several...

uk_grenada

And yes - all the smartphone voice/video tools like facetime and messenger use flavours of voip, but some are bastardised to make them incompatible with true voip, skype being the worst offender, to make sure nobody can enter their little fiefdom with a 3rd party app. What they all rely upon are codecs, ways to compress streans of audio/video. Voipfone is agnostic, they suggest the best, some of the best for mobiles cost a pound or 2, but they evolve over time becoming lighter and more versatile - morphing as they sense the bandwidth available to them there and then.

morro

Freecall.com
Voip, I have used it for years, excellent. You need internet and can call landline to landline or to mobile.
Very cheap.

BillBullock

VoipStunt | Free international calls worldwide! is also very cheap and has been around for many years.