Call US landline from Caribbean over wifi from IPod touch? [ Edited ]

[alf4089]

I will be out of the country and I need to know if I can use Skype to call home using the WiFi on an iPod touch. I see many things saying I can call any country from the US, but I'm not clear on whether I can call to the US from other countries. Can you help?

[sauna]

This should be the simplest type of question to answer, yet noone has responded. One conclusion to be drawn is that it is not in the best interest of Skype for you to know the answer to your question.  Otherwise, someone - anyone - might have said, either yes you can, or no you can't, and then explained why.  Certainly, by now, someone would have tried to make the call you describe, or any call from overseas to the US.

    I can't, after an hour of searching, find out what a rate (if even possible?) would be for calling a landline in the US from anywhere overseas or even just out-of-the-country using a cellphone or a tablet (which today, is effectively like a laptop).   For example, a so called US call might be shown as 2.3 cents. One can presumably get a rate for a call to Germany but it appears to presume I'm calling from the US.  But I can't find a rate from Germany to the US. The rate table would show 2.3 cents if I put in that my call destination is the US.  Am I to presume that it costs 2.3 cents to call from the US to the US, and that it also costs 2.3 cents to call from Germany to the US? In fact, the rate table would show that it costs 2.3 cents to call the US from anywhere in the world.  I would love it if that were true.  So far, the actual costs  seem to be a secret.  Perhaps it can't be done?

    Would I have to log onto Skype in Germany, on a German website to get different information?  I have no idea.

    For now, I'm not going to buy any credits for anywhere because, in today's business environment, ignorance is bliss not for the ignorant, but only for those that take financial advantage of others ignorance.

[g4pilut]

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sauna wrote:

Am I to presume that it costs 2.3 cents to call from the US to the US, and that it also costs 2.3 cents to call from Germany to the US?

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Yes, you could presume that and be correct.  When calling via Skype, it matters only where you're calling to.  It doesn't matter where you're calling from.

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sauna wrote:

 I would love it if that were true.  So far, the actual costs  seem to be a secret.  Perhaps it can't be done?

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Well, it's definitely true.   I've used Skype from all over the world and calling back to the States has always cost the same 2.3¢, or nothing if you have the right subscription.

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sauna wrote:

Would I have to log onto Skype in Germany, on a German website to get different information?  I have no idea.

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Yes, you would have to login to Skype in Germany, but not on a website.  To use Skype's functions, make calls, etc., you always have to use the Skype program  or app on whatever device where you have Skype installed.

And as long as you have a decent Internet connection, and Skype isn't blocked by the local government as it is in a very few countries, it works the same and costs the same no matter where on the globe you're located.

[sauna]

After another hour of scrolling through multiple pages of questions on the support site, I'm going to try and answer my own question (helped by some frequent contributors on the site).

It appears that, no matter where you call from, the going per-minute rate is the rate you pay for the country of Destination of your call.  Therefore, 2.3 cents is what you will pay not only to call the US from, for example, Germany, but also to call a number in the US from the US.  I tried to confirm this by going to Google Germany and using the german-language Skype website.   Sure enough, the rate for a call to the US was 2.3 cents.

    To call Germany from the US, however, it appears, on the surface that it's exactly the same - 2.3 cents.  Unfortunately, calls to Germany and probably to most places overseas distinguish between whether you are calling a cellphone or a landline.  Calls to landlines appear to be 2.3 cents but calls to a German cellphone are 25.3 cents, and are also distinguished by the overseas coverage provider.  In the case of Germany, it's either Others (I don't know which others), T-Mobile, or Vodafone.  They all cost the identical amount.  Because mobile phone use in Europe oupaced that in the US ages ago, I don't know the ratio of landlines to cellphones there.  Chances are though, you'll be paying 25.3 cents for most calls to Germany.

   Calls inside the US, however, do not seem to distinguish between whether they go to a landline or a cellphone.  They are apparently the same price (2.3 cents), whether dialed from within or from overseas.

     To the extent that calls from overseas, using a cellphone or tablet, are working properly, I could not confirm. Probably not too many support network contributors who are successful making calls are responding to questions.  Only when problems occur are questions posted.  All of the above imaginary calls are made using Wifi - not cellphone provider data or voice services.  Using the latter, all bets are off regarding cost.

[wd9ewk]

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    To call Germany from the US, however, it appears, on the surface that it's exactly the same - 2.3 cents.  Unfortunately, calls to Germany and probably to most places overseas distinguish between whether you are calling a cellphone or a landline.  Calls to landlines appear to be 2.3 cents but calls to a German cellphone are 25.3 cents, and are also distinguished by the overseas coverage provider.  In the case of Germany, it's either Others (I don't know which others), T-Mobile, or Vodafone.  They all cost the identical amount.  Because mobile phone use in Europe oupaced that in the US ages ago, I don't know the ratio of landlines to cellphones there.  Chances are though, you'll be paying 25.3 cents for most calls to Germany.

   Calls inside the US, however, do not seem to distinguish between whether they go to a landline or a cellphone.  They are apparently the same price (2.3 cents), whether dialed from within or from overseas.

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You are correct.  In the USA, there is no distinction between calling a landline phone or a mobile phone - and Skype's pay-as-you-go rates (2.3 US cents/minute, or 6 US cents/minute for Alaska, plus connect fees) reflect that.  In some US states during the late 1980s and into the 1990s (my home state, Arizona, was one of them), there were "calling-party-pays" mobile numbers, similar to how many countries handle mobile phones.  One of the first times an area code was established just for mobile phones (917 in New York City), the US telecom regulator (FCC) struck that down, saying there should be no distinction between types of phones.  Now the 917 area code is used for landline and mobile phones across New York City.  Calling-party-pays mobile numbers are (I think) no more in the US. 

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     To the extent that calls from overseas, using a cellphone or tablet, are working properly, I could not confirm. Probably not too many support network contributors who are successful making calls are responding to questions.  Only when problems occur are questions posted.  All of the above imaginary calls are made using Wifi - not cellphone provider data or voice services.  Using the latter, all bets are off regarding cost.

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I have used Skype installed on mobile phones (Nokia's N8, N85, and N900; iPhone 4) and other devices (iPod Touch), along with the Windows program on an Acer netbook, on trips outside the States (Canada, Mexico, Australia).  I have had no problems making calls via Skype using WiFi.  In Australia, I used the Skype app on my N8 to make a couple of phone calls back to the States over the mobile carrier's data network (Telstra) to let family know I made it safely, but mostly used the Skype iPod app when I needed to make calls. 

When I didn't have access to a WiFi network in a hotel or restaurant or wherever I happened to be, I have a WiFi hotspot app on my N8 and N900 phones.  I used the N8 hotspot app a bunch when I was in Australia, so I could use Skype on my iPod to make calls.  The iPod/iPhone/iPad Skype app is much better than the Symbian version on my N8.

Hope that helps....