It seems that everyone likes to think that we have seen the end of long distance pricing. With Skype offering all you can eat plans for $15 a year and other providers bundling LD with local service for $30 or less per month, who thinks of LD costs? In the US, the whole country is part of most wireless plans local calling areas.
It is easy for many of us to forget that a lot of folks still have to worry about calling to the rest of the world. Calling to the places that aren’t part of your flat rate plan. And we have to consider that PC to PC-based networks aren’t for everyone, especially if we’re talking about calling places that aren’t well equipped for broadband.
In any case, did you know that Skype-out isn’t anywhere close to offering the best rates for many locations? For example, having had a kid studying overseas, I learned that the price offered by Telehop (10-10-100) for calls to Israel are less than a third of Skype’s rates – 5 cents Canadian on Telehop versus 15 cents US on Skype. For the Philippines, Telehop charges 15 cents (CDN) versus 22 cents (US) for Skype.
Other dial-around companies offer similar savings. And since dial-around companies place the charges on your local phone bill, they do not require payment by credit card. As such, those individuals that need to save the most, the people who can’t qualify for credit cards, have better alternatives than making calls through a computer. As an added benefit, most dial-around companies have no monthly system access fees.
Yak (10-10-925) has been fighting a regulatory battle to keep these low cost options intact for consumers. Yak claims that the phone companies are making too much money for their billing and collection services – a fundamental enabler of this competitive alternative. The ILECs have tried to delay the proceding, perhaps because they want to keep the competitors’ costs as high as possible for as long as they can.
To all who are making calls this weekend – call early, call often and try out a number of different carriers, if your calls aren’t getting through. Just dial the access code before the long distance number in one steady string [eg. 10-10-100 – 1 + … or 10-10-100 – 011 + …].
Who knows, you just might save a few dollars on top. Take the money you save and buy a coffee for someone cold on the streets this winter.
Happy holidays.