best phone service for making LD calls to the states

My mother is traveling to Zambia at the moment, and we tried out Skype again before she left (hadn't used it for a few years).  She was able to use an iPhone app so that she could connect to Skype with her phone and not be tied to the computer.  I could probably have done the same thing if I had an iPhone.  (It will be one of my moving presents to myself, I think.)

The new generation of iPod Touch's can use Skype like that too (but not the 1st gen, as the 1st gens don't have a mic built in) have the first gen, unfortunately, but I also have a Nokia N810 portable wifi tablet that works with Skype, too.

Dh & I use 18866.com it only cost 2p a min no monthly costs & you can call US cell phones for that price as well. I think the most we have had to pay is £12 but you have to have a home phone line to use 18866.com.

We have a BT landline, and it only costs half a p per minute to call the states.  We love it.

Hi Paul_1966

have you used http://www.zerop.co.uk/  from a mobile?  Is it all the same, and you just get billed on the mobile phone bill?

Do you know if the mobile company wont charge anything extra for this...?  or zerop?

it says calls are 0p (zero P) to the USA, just a 4p connection fee?
Really?  Is that it?  Really?  How come?
What's the catch?

Hiya I've mentioned it a couple of times before in similar threads -

http://www.swiftcall-residential.co.uk/english/asp/unlimited_about.asp

It's £19.99 and includes lots of calling to many countries all for free within that monthly fee. All USA, landlines and mobiles are free to call. If you use the UK 0800 access number from a BT landline, then you pay no charges at all to call your family (within that £19.99 'Access' charge as I like to think of it!) It also includes all your UK landline calls for free as well, anytime of the day or night. You can register your UK mobile to it as well, if your mobile plan includes say 500,600, 750, 1000 or more minutes, you can access a geographical landline number (a london 0207 number) number which will be part of those minutes, so you can make that call to the US to tell uncle john to remember to
fix the slingbox !
This 'plan' is useful if you have to make lots of little local and national calls, as well as all the family natter for as long as you like calls. The time restricition is 75 minutes- after which you automatically get cut off with a message. Simply re-dial and continue.

Very very good line quality, you occasionally might get a busy tone to access the 0800 number but a few re-dials and you get access.

9/10 for me - would be 10, if they reduced the plan say to £14.99 per month!

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Sky's fine print gotcha is that the first 60 minutes of a call is not charged, but if you go over 60 minutes you get charged (something like 4 or 5p/minute).  However, if you hang up and call back the timer is reset, and to Sky's credit they suggest you do exactly that in their literature.  So as long as you don't make an international call longer than an hour, you only pay the £5/month.

A lot of providers have the 1-hour call limit before charges kick in.  BT's VoIP services are the same.   Probably not applicable to most home users, but if you're running behind a PBX you can often set a C.O. line call duration limit.  Actually, with all the different calling plans and services people use now for different types of calls, it's almost worth installing a home PBX with LCR (least cost routing) just so you don't have to remember all the different access codes, which one to use for which call and at what time of day, etc.

have you used http://www.zerop.co.uk/  from a mobile?  Is it all the same, and you just get billed on the mobile phone bill?

Do you know if the mobile company wont charge anything extra for this...?  or zerop?

I've only used it from a mobile phone a couple of times, but the rates are the same - Just 4p. connection per call to the U.S.   You call a regular U.K. geographic number (0161) for access from a cellphone, so you'll pay your mobile provider whatever your rate happens to be (or have it deducted from your "minutes allowance" on inclusive plans).  But from a landline it's just the flat 4p. per call.

All the ZeroP calls whether originating from your home line or mobile phone are just billed monthly to your credit card.

it says calls are 0p (zero P) to the USA, just a 4p connection fee?
Really?  Is that it?  Really?  How come? What's the catch?

Yep, that's it.  4p. per call to the U.S., untimed, no extra fees whatsoever.   It sounds as though the company is using some wideband VoIP links to offer the rates, and sending calls by all sorts of routings around Europe to provide that price.   

well I've tried using ZeroP but no luck so far other than using up my mobile minutes
I signed up on their website and got email confirmation and everything, but I call the number and I get 'nothing', not a sound or indication of an answer just blank silence...
maybe it takes time to kick in and setup, I will try again tomorrow.
In the meantime, I signed up for another month of unlimited US/Canada from skype since it works well on my mobile and since I need the voicemail for my online number a bit longer...
I'll report back if I can make zerop work sometime soon   thanks!

well I've tried using ZeroP but no luck so far other than using up my mobile minutes
I signed up on their website and got email confirmation and everything, but I call the number and I get 'nothing', not a sound or indication of an answer just blank silence...

Hmmm......       I just tried the 0808 and 0161 numbers and I'm getting the same thing, so maybe there's a temporary problem with them.  I just called the U.S. with 1301 on my BT PSTN line though, and it was fine.   

Did you register a PSTN number as well?   If so, give that a try with 1301.

I'm leaning heavily on getting Vonage when I'm moved over permanently, but can someone explain the fee structure?

£5.99/mo for service plus £2.99/mo for a US number plus £5.99 for US calling for a total of £14.97/mo?

Also, does anyone know if UK Vonage can port a US number, like if I wanted to port over my current US number so my family didn't need to learn a new number for me?

My only reason for  switching to Vonage is so that I can have a real phone and be able to do stuff around the house while I talk to my very chatty relatives.  I'd keep Skype for Skype-to-Skype calls to my friends.

It looks like their V-Plan US would fit the bill (UK landline, US landline/mobile), which is £6.99.  Then you'd add the £2.99 for a US number, for a total of £9.98.

(I've never had Vonage, so I may be misinterpreting their call plans.)

It looks like their V-Plan US would fit the bill (UK landline, US landline/mobile), which is £6.99.  Then you'd add the £2.99 for a US number, for a total of £9.98.

(I've never had Vonage, so I may be misinterpreting their call plans.)

  Yeah, it looked a little confusing when I was trying to figure it out!

We have a magicjack it works great and people can call us from USA for just the cost of a US long distance call, which is normally just using up the minutes on a cell phone. For 19.95USD it can't be beaten. We've used it for a couple of years.

We use Skype with a subscription... It's the best, because you can call landlines and cellphones in the US for something stupid like £3/month. I have a great cordless phone that goes with my computer. But I also have 3-mobile which I pay £15/month for, and I have skype built into it. Skype calls cost nothing! It's amazing.

The only thing is, if you set up an online number (you can set up a local number through skype for your friends and family to call you for free, it's just an extra few £/month), it doesn't work with the mobile phone, only through the computer... I'm going to contact skype about that to see if something can be done. But for now, it's not really a big inconvenience!

We use a cool 'special number' 08447990181 it costs us 2p a minute and considering that I don't frequently call back to the US it works out really cheaply for us. Plus we pay no BT fees other than our line rental because it runs through our AOLTalk service.

It's an inexpensive way of calling without having to have any additional services or equipment.