Digital nomads, telecommuters, location independent professionals (LIPs), flashpackers….here are some excellent cost-saving phone plans for you.
We’ve heard it before: the world is getting smaller. Communicating across oceans and time zones is as simple as a keystroke. But those of us who work for companies and clients across borders still find the search for the right international phone plan a hassle, with services that are often lacking or prohibitively expensive.
Whether it’s being tethered to a laptop, hidden costs or spotty service, international phone plans often don’t meet our needs. And the range of options is mind-numbing.
But don’t fret: we’ve put together a list of some great plans with flexibility, quality of service and price in mind.
Skype
With more than 338 million users, this favorite of travelers and telecommuters is the world’s best-known Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) carrier. In addition to its free services, which include video, voice and text chatting, you can purchase credit or subscription packages for calls to landlines and mobiles worldwide.
Furthermore, Skype software can be installed on a number of Wi-Fi enabled devices, allowing users to go mobile. And for those in Wi-Fi deficient regions, you can use call forwarding to send calls directly to your local cell phone.
Skype’s features are really open when considering third-party add-ons. For workaholics, there are several productivity-boosting plug-ins for the software, including call recording, fax capabilities and desktop sharing.
There are drawbacks to the service, though. Some people complain clarity in sound and video fall short with frequent lags and dropouts. Skype’s service works best where broadband is fast and reliable.
And those in countries where the service hasn’t made significant inroads with the dominant telephony companies may find that additional fees apply for some of the service’s more robust features, such as call forwarding.
Jajah
To the uninitiated, Jajah may appear to be just another Skype competitor. But this California-based company aims to combine the best of two worlds: the premium voice quality of a standard phone and the cost-cutting features of VoIP. The result is infinitely more mobile communication for international telecommuters on the go.
There is no headset, no download and no broadband connection with Jajah. After setting up your account through their web interface, Jajah assigns a local number for each of your international contacts.
Save those numbers to your phone and dial it from any landline or mobile, and the call is placed like any other local number.
While a great option for those who prefer to do their business on the run, Jajah is limited in its features and local numbers are only available in a handful of cities – mainly in Europe and North America. Still, it’s one to watch as it expands its coverage.
Jaxtr
For those who rely on online networking for business opportunities, Jaxtr is a pretty cool alternative to Jajah. The company expanded on the idea of providing local numbers for your contacts by also providing an embeddable widget for web pages.
Friends, family and potential clients can enter their phone number in the widget and Jaxtr will connect both parties through their normal phones.
Vonage
If you want to sever the tether between phone and computer, Vonage is a great option. With a Vonage router, you can continue using your existing phone to make and receive cheap local and international calls carried over broadband.
It offers all the bells and whistles you would expect from a traditional landline, but at a much lower cost.
ooma
Along the same lines, ooma is a newer service with similar features, but without some of the bad vibes associated with Vonage after its messy legal tango with traditional telephone operators. Its service is cheaper, but the jury is still out on the quality.
Vonage and ooma both suffer from one severe drawback: geography. Vonage serves the U.S., Canada and the U.K. and ooma is U.S.-based, meaning international telecommuters based in those countries will get the most out of these services.
Other Options
If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with affordable and robust international service, or if you know a great VoIP service not mentioned here, let your fellow telecommuters and expats know about it in the comments section below.
About the Author
Related Posts
5 Comments... join the discussion!
-
-
Excellent! We are a digital nomadic family 3 years into an open ended world tour, so these issues are important to us. My daughter even takes her piano lessons across continents using skype webcams! I have heard of most of these but we almost always use Skype and must say about 95% we have good connections, often feeling like we next door, instead of continents away. Of course that bad 5% can be absolutely maddening if you really need to make a call. If internet is very slow, which it can be any where on free wifi, Skype will not work so well or at all. We use Skype for local calls and long distance. Skype is not suppose to work well on satellite but we used it our first year and it worked really well. I also had a sister who was only on dial up modem & we could talk computer to computer with dial up on one continent and satellite on the other! Webcams would drop after a few seconds, but voice worked fine. We would get a quick "live" peek and then could yabber for hours.
↵ -
great article! this info is very important for people living abroad. i too have heard of skype but sometimes connection can be a hassle. i get complaints from the other end that i sound far away so i have to be shouting sometimes when calling the U.S. (I live in South America now). I def. will give these other services a try.
↵ -
if your mobile phone comes with a data plan, you can use that data plan to use VoIP or chat clients to stay in touch. Sure beats paying the telephone company for astronomical global roaming voice plans.
↵ -
Matt: One needs to be careful with that, though. If you're talking about using your mobile's data plan in another country, it's just another kind of roaming. Many companies charge extra for using data plans abroad, and you start racking up bills nearly as bad as if you used the normal phone option. Though I don't have any experience with this, I've heard the iPhone on AT&T is one such culprit, and many have been hit with huge bills when checking their email from their phones while traveling, thinking they wouldn't get charged. Best thing to do when traveling abroad with a mobile? Turn off everything except WiFi if you have it.
↵
