Phoning home from the USA??

[Desk-pilot]

I'm about to go to the USA for a few months flying training and was wondering what to do about phoning home. I plan to use the web for videoconferencing as much as possible and currently have an Orange mobile phone which I can change to a Tri-band model for virtually nothing. This will allow me to make and receive calls in the USA but at a high price (£1.10 a minute apparently!!!)

Does anyone know if it's better to get a mobile phone while out there? I presume as I'm only going to be there for 3 months I will only be able to get a pay as you go, but at least that would enable me to keep in touch with colleagues as well as have a phone for use in emergencies.

Any suggestions from those who have already solved this issue are greatly appreciated. There is a phone where I am staying (landline) so obviously I will use that where possible. I'd still like the comfort factor however of a mobile phone, particularly for emergencies.

Many thanks,

Desk-pilot

[onehunga]

I got an AT&T calling card. Costs stuff all per min to call anywhere in the world. Local calls and calls within the US are next to nothing when converted to sterling. Used my orange tri band to receive text messages and to indicate when a new voice message was received. Would then use the calling card to retrieve the voice messages rather than calling back to the UK on the mobile. I didn't do this but you could always update your answer phone message to let people know where you are and that there may be a delayed response.

I found a UK freephone number for AT&T off the internet (in NCL) and it was all setup within an hour. They send you everything you need to know about charging scales etc. There are NO hidden costs, monthly fees or set call limits that you need to hit at all. Big advantage I could see was that there is no limit either since it all gets direct debited to switch or credit card each month so no worries about getting half way through a call and being cut off!!

Compared them to Onetel as well who I use for toll calls from UK to overseas at home but their charge card was a bit more expensive.

Good luck.

Edit:- being nice so here is a link I found:-
AT&T

Phone number is [phone].

[PA-28 CLOUD SURFER]

bigzoo

I have been in the states for three months now and i am convinced the cheapest rate is off the internet at a site called www.bigzoo.com. 2.4c per minute. $20 gets you over 500 minutes of talk time in the UK. Worth a look.

[quackers]

I was in Florida earlier this year for three months. I found the
pre-paid cards very expensive. My wife contacted a company in the UK called alphatelecom (www.alphatelecom.com), registered on the internet with them and found their rates to be about 4p
per minute - saved a fair amount over the period.

[Desk-pilot]

Great responses

Guys,

Great help thank-you - Pprune to the rescue again and it saved me a lot of legwork at a busy time. Will definately check out the AT&T solution against the others. Am still tempted by a USA mobile phone though - presumably that would be fairly well priced for making local calls when I'm out there?

Regards,

Jonathan

[onehunga]

Only 1 more thing to add to one of the other posters. Just be careful when calling supposed freephone numbers from a mobile. My provider "Orange" appear to have a department that thrives on locating each and every calling card or cheap telecom provider here in the UK. After I enter the 0800 number I invariably get a message warning me that it is a local call rate plus of course whatever the other telco is going to charge! So much for the spirit of free competition!!

Not sure if they will be that smart in the US but worth digging around before chatting on the phone for hours and finding out later that they were charging your normal call rates all along.

[vdive]

Try IDT Long Distance. You can order your card online while in Florida (and they don't request a social security number, as many other mobile/fixnet providers).
Worked for me 2 years ago and the rates are excellent.

http://www.idt.net

[Too Few Stripes]

More often than not Walgreens have their $10 phone cards on a buy one get one free offer (at least they do in Orlando any time I'm there). Also if you get the 2nd 'free' one added to the first as a top up you'll get an extra 10%, so that's $21 dollars worth (10% only added to the topup). Each $10 gives about 80 mins to the uk using a freephone number to connect - thats a pretty good deal. If you buy the dearer cards from Walgreens (20 or 50) then each dollar gives you more minutes so worth considering if these are on offer instead.

HTH,

TFS