Phonexpat.com ?

[B1athome]

Hi,

Has anyone signed up with phonexpat.com, they are offering amazing rates for telephone calls in comparison to France Telecom. Before we go and sign up I am interested to hear if any one has used them and if they have found any problems in doing so ?

Debbie

[vrooje]

I've never used it -- I'm a little confused as to how it works. Do they change your phone service from France Telecom over to theirs? Or do you connect something to your phone and then use that?

It looks intriguing even if the website looks like it used Babelfish to translate it into English...

[B1athome]

Hi Brooke,

I am not sure either, the site is translated into English(?) but the T's & C's are all in French. It looks like they are operating the same as Tele2/Toucan/ etc in the UK whereby you can have your calls directed through another supplier whilst still paying France Telecom for your land line. The per minute cost is considerably less than France Telecom so I can see there could be an amazing saving - but - what is the catch ??

Debbie

[Jill]

I have received the info about it and basically there is a connection charge of .12cents per call whether it is France or International, and mobiles are charged with a .22cents connection [not sure if that is France and International]. Thereafter the call charges are as they show.

I think it could be worth it if you make lots of calls over a certain duration. Probably the best thing to do is sit down with your current 'phone bill and work it out, factoring in the .12cent/.22cent initial charge [if you can be bothered!]. Don't forget it's per second billing.

My Dad has just signed up for it but is yet to receive his first bill. I'm waiting to see how he gets on first before making my own committment! Having said that you can stop at any time.

Probably worth a go for a month anyway

[reddevil]

Have you tried the new voice over internet provider, skype? Apparently the quality of their internet calls is comparable to land phones, and much cheaper than phone to phone calls?

[debk]

Skype rocks!

[Alan Knighting]

VoIP has been around for some time now. Products such as Skype can save money but they have their limitations in use and are not feature rich. See their Website for details.

http://www.skype.com/products/

In the USA at least VoIP has recently come a long way with products such as Lingo, Vonage and Packet8. They free the user from the PC using normal analogue telephone units, even a cordless base with numerous remote handsets. You get a real phone number and they really are feature rich. But, and this is a big but, are they available in Europe?

http://www.lingo.com/

http://www.vonage.com/

http://www.packet8.net/

Does anyone have more info on what is available for use in Europe?

Alan

[Wendy]

Hello everyone - this is my first posting. The newsletter is great - I look forward to receiving it.

We have just received our first bill from Phonexpat and have compared it to our France Telecom bills. The calls to UK landlines are considerably cheaper whatever the time of day even taking into account the connection charge, the calls to UK mobiles are slightly cheaper and the calls to French numbers are also considerably cheaper. We received 240 minutes to UK landlines free when we signed up and they are offering a deal whereby you receive 240 minutes free if you introduce another user (and the new user also receives the free minutes!). We concluded that it was worth it for a month but we will probably continue until a better deal comes up. If anyone wants to join, please could you contact me so we can both benefit from 240 minutes free...

Wendy
www.lebignon.com

[cheryl]

We use telerabais which gives calls to the UK for the price of a local call (plus a connection fee).
It's billed on the France Telecom bill and theres no contract ot minimum term - just use it as and when you want.
Their website is (I think!) www.telerabais.com
Cheryl

[vrooje]

I believe the BonjourParis forums have a thread on Vonage which details whether it's available in Europe. I've posted on that thread and I'll repeat what I posted about it here!

When I signed up for Vonage, they sent me a router as well as their VOIP box. I heard somewhere that they've now got boxes that act as both routers and VOIP boxes...

Either way, if you have an ethernet connection going to your computer (i.e., broadband in the form of cablemodem or DSL), what Vonage does is send you a little device that you connect directly to the modem given to you by your internet provider. Then, your computer plugs into that box, as does your phone. It doesn't matter whether you have a PC or a Mac, nor does it matter what operating system you use. The phone connects to the internet before the computer does (in a sense), so the phone doesn't care if the computer is there at all.

There are some drawbacks to Vonage:
- When the power goes out, your phone goes out too.
- 911 dialing is technically possible but a little weird (I had to do it once and it wasn't quite the same), and if you're in a country not officially supported by Vonage I don't think it would work at all.
- If your internet connection goes down, you can't call anyone and complain because your phone will be out too!
- The box Vonage sends you will essentially become your only phone jack. If you want to have a phone in the bedroom and one in the kitchen, you either have to have very long phone cords, or get sneaky with the wiring of your telephone jacks.

That being said, I love Vonage. I signed up for it when it was $15/month more expensive than it is now, and if they raised the prices for unlimited back to $40/month, I would pay it happily. No one I talk to knows they're talking over the internet -- the quality is excellent.

You can set it up to forward to another number when there's a power outage or internet service interruption (though I don't know how that would work for e.g, a French number). We use a cordless phone so the location of the base is not a problem.

I talk to people in California a lot, so I have a CA area code set up as well as a local one for where I live right now (CT). I also have a fax line for only $5 extra per month!

I had actually never thought of bringing our phone box with us when we visit our house in France (which we rent as a gite so we don't stay there more than once or twice a year), but that's a great idea!

One drawback though, you may need to have a shipping address and credit card based in a country that they officially support in order to start new service. Once you have it, though, you can take it anywhere there's a broadband connection.

Someone later confirmed that if you live in a country that doesn't officially support Vonage, you have to order it from a supported country first. So, if you have relatives living in the States and they can order it for you and ship it to you once they receive it, you're set. I know Vonage is in Canada now, too, and it looks like vonage.co.uk is up and running. But I don't think they support anywhere else (yet).

Cheers!

[mdecent]

It might be worth looking at a european based company called Gossiptel.

They seem to offer everything one might need, including bundle packages allowing unlimited calling options, plus the usual benefit of calling other VoIP users for free.

I use it here in Southern Spain and it is great quality and value.


gossiptel.com

[BobToovey]

Hi all

I am a regular user of Skype and have found that the calls can be a bit shaky at times. However, considering I can call my friends and family FOR FREE I shan't complain!

Skye does have other features such as calling normal phones (land lines and mobiles) - Skype In and calling out to normal phones - Skype Out.

Mostly I find the service good and useful!

Their calling out rates can be found here - http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/



Bob