The Broadvoice $19.95 plan includes all the big countries in western Europe as well as China and Taiwan. The $24.95 plan adds the rest of western Europe and some other countries. See
Nobody's flat rate plan includes calls to mobile phones outside North America, since the carrier has to pay a surcharge that they pass along to you.
dear all, i need to call very often europe (west), USA and China: what VoIP company do you think should fit better for me? I'm looking for a flat rate, so at the end of month, i already know how much i'll be going to pay for thanks robert
If you're calling the UK or Germany often you might benefit from a UK or German number from
Note if you want a normal geographic UK number you must register from a UK IP address.
Ivor
Are these plans really a good deal for most folks when compared to the ala carte plans at 1 to 2 cents/minute? I guess I can't picture a situation where I'd be spending over 1,000 minutes on the phone per month when averaged over the whole year.
-wolfgang
Where do you make the most calls to, is it primarily within the US, or outside. I see you call W. Europe and China a lot, but my question is whether those areas comprise the majority of your calls?
Why don't you visit
Calls to North American mobiles are no different from calls to North American landlines. We don't use the caller overpays scheme that most of the rest of the world does.
Why don't you visit
Having mobile numbers in both the US and Switzerland, and observing that my US mobile rate package has a monthly bundle with more minutes than I ever use, I can report from experience the US charging scheme wins big. (Technically, we have our problems with at least three incompatible systems, but that's a separate issue from the rates.) We also have the option to port numbers back and forth between landline and mobile, which will never happen in caller-pays land.
The problem with caller pays is that there's no competitive price pressure on incoming rates, so they all stay way overpriced. My US monthly bundle gives me 1250 minutes for $30, which would be under 3 cpm if I used them all. At that price, I don't care about the occasional wrong number.
R's, John
In message of Tue, 10 May 2005, John R. Levine writes
And we don't have to pay for receiving unwanted calls on our mobiles.
I know which I would prefer.
DF
Given that most US mobile plans have more minutes included than you can ever use, the use of a few of them for the odd unwanted call is minimal and more than offset by the advantage to the caller of not paying through the nose.
I wish the US option was available here.
Ivor
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