phoning UK

[julian]

I´m sure this has been covered several times, but what the most economical way of phoning to the UK, and for customers in the UK to be able to phone us here in Spain, either by mobile, fixed line, or via internet.
my brother will be coming to live here soon but will be keeping his UK customers so I need to set up the best communication system for him, many thanx.

[dxf]

Hi
Depends where you live - how is your internet connection? Skype and its variants are probably the cheapest way. I also have a tesco's internet phone with a (chosen area) Romford phone number.
Dave

[gerryh]

Hi Julian
Have a look at http://www.mobivox.com

Cheers
Gerry

[julian]

thanx guys,
I will set it all up from scratch, from a house in centre of estepona, so I can have good adsl from telefonica, or anyone else, what we really need is a way the uk customers can call a uk number and we receive the call here in Spain without costing either the UK customer, nor us, a fortune !!, and vice versa, so we can call the uk customers, at any time for the cheapest rate possible.
thanx

[dxf]

hi

try tesco internet phone - mine has a romford area number that people can dial or I can dial out from
Dave

[McT]

I tried using VOIP when I first came out here and I was very disappointed with the quality - perhaps because I used a UK provider and therefore the number of IP hops required before reaching the PSTN was excessive. Maybe a Spanish VOIP provider would have given better results.

Anyway, as part of the VOIP set-up I arranged for a UK geographic number. I still have this (which costs me £2 per month) and I have set up a divert on it to my Spanish landline. Callers in the UK pay for a local call and it costs me about 1p per minute for the diverted leg of the call.

For outgoing calls to the UK (or anywhere else outside Spain) I set up the call on a web page and pay for both legs of the call - from my virtual UK number back to Spain and from the virtual number to the destination. Each leg costs 1p per minute and all of it is via proper phone lines rather than the Internet. I can choose what CLI is presented to the called party; either the virtual number, my Spanish landline or a mobile.

I use Voipfone, but there are many other companies who can provide the same service - perhaps even more cheaply.

McT

[julian]

thanx again... the tesco phone looks interesting, but it states that "some countries and broadband providers will block its use" does it work ok here???

[alisonb]

I use a company called TTNC to provide a UK geographic number (they also provide 0800 and 0871s etc). The cost for diversion to a Spanish landline is 3.5p per minute. It's 12p per minute to a Spanish mobile. It's £25 per year for the number. I would have thought it would be much cheaper using the computer as receiver rather than a normal phone. It would be worth taking a look at their website though, as they provide a lot of info about call routing

[crazyred]

You can get a Skypein telephone number I think for about £30 per year with a UK number so that your customers only pay a local/national call rate. Have a look at their website skype dot com. I use it for Skype to Skype and for calling UK numbers but, haven't needed to get a Skypein number yet.

[dxf]

Hi Julian

Yes the tesco's phone works very well here. I actually bought a USB phone in Tesco's and it came with all the blirb, and ten pounds in free calls as well!

But try their website. I like the phone and it is not expensive; you may get some cheaper, but in the course of a year, just how much will you actually save?

Dave

[julian]

thanx everyone, the tesco phone looks to be a good system,

[rymanskid]

Not sure if they cover your area but Spantel are good I get my ADSL line for 42€ a month but all my calls outside Spain except mobiles are free , which is great a Mrs has phone stuck to her ear !

[Mowser]

I use SKYPE for contacting friends with a computer. For non-computer owners I use Voipcheap (from my computer). It costs €10 for 3 months. During these months calls are free. Once the 3 months are up, you are charged 1 cent per minute with no connection charge. When your €10 credit is nearly done, top up another €10 for 3 more free months. You can also send text messages more or less worldwide for free - as long as you text from your computer.

[fearfulfred]

I seem to be getting 6 months at a time when upping my voipcheap by 10 euros..at the moment am up to a year's free time as the OH has been away half the year either in Iceland or India..
Still I can call a cell number in India for about 4 pence a minute. Used to be when OH was away I would have humongous phone bills and now I don't even think about it. Was actually free to most places including Iceland.

Fred

[herwotdus]

being new not sure if its been covered before.

we have the waited for three years telefonica system only installed because one of our spanish friends had occasion to meet with a director of telefonica through business, sorry i digress.

we use for uk calling a euro phone card [blue in colour]costs 6 euros you dial either a freephone number and get 300 minutes or a local call number and get 6oo minutes,

it lasts for 42 days

they are widely available here in costa blanca,

hope its of some help