Phone from abroad using your UK call rate.

[Borden]

The thread about dongles prompts me to suggest BT Smart talk as a solution.
We use BT at home for phone and broadband. Our call plan gives us a range of extras one of which is BT Smart Talk. This enables me to make calls from my mobile phone over a wifi link and the charge I incur is the same as if I'd made the call from my BT land line at home and the charge appears on my BT bill. In tech terms it's Voice over IP (VOIP).
It's really paid off this week as I'm in Turkey messing about on the boat prior to launching on Wednesday. Provided my mobile phone is connected to a wifi router i can make calls at the same tariff as if I was using my BT land line at home and the quality is excellent.
The BT Smart Talk app is available for Apple and Android but you'll need the appropriate BT call plan to use it.

 

[Dave100456]

I know what you mean about high call charges on your mobile when calling UK from Turkey. For those who don't have a BT account there's always "Skype" where mobile to UK landline or mobile is well under 2p/min.

 

[charles_reed]

I know what you mean about high call charges on your mobile when calling UK from Turkey. For those who don't have a BT account there's always "Skype" where mobile to UK landline or mobile is well under 2p/min.

Usually, with all VOIP, calls appalling quality and plenty of drop-outs.

Within the EC, providers are no longer allowed to charge more for roaming than in the home country. This only applies to voice-calls and SMS and not to Turkey, or mobile data.

I still find the best all-round mode of communication to be e-mail - to many potential errors in any form of voice comms.

 

[ferroboat]

When we got our Orange pay as you go mobile here in Spain we were offered a second pay as you go sim card for 2 Euros that allows you to make calls to land lines in the UK for 1 Cent per minute. You have to nominate what country you want to make calls to when buying it. We have also used to call mobiles at a very cheap rate. The same deal applies calling Spain from the UK.

http://moonshineofmersea.wordpress.com/

 

[tedgorton]

Careful with BT SmartTalk: I just signed up for it but it works as though you were in the UK (international calls are charged at the rate in your Calling Plan). So depending on your plan (it has to be a bigger plan than Basic Plan), it could be quite pricey to call anywhere other than the UK. Seems cheeky of them since Skype and other VOIP calls are free as air. But quality issues as Charles_Reed noted. I find that Skype breaks off a lot in Greece but use it anyway, with a grandchild in bloody California!

 

[maby]

Careful with BT SmartTalk: I just signed up for it but it works as though you were in the UK (international calls are charged at the rate in your Calling Plan). So depending on your plan (it has to be a bigger plan than Basic Plan), it could be quite pricey to call anywhere other than the UK. Seems cheeky of them since Skype and other VOIP calls are free as air. But quality issues as Charles_Reed noted. I find that Skype breaks off a lot in Greece but use it anyway, with a grandchild in bloody California!

Skype is only free if you are calling to another Skype user with all communication carried over the internet. If part of the call has to be routed out on the voice network, then you have to pay - usually less than the equivalent call entirely over the telephone network, but still a long way off free...

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Skype is only free if you are calling to another Skype user with all communication carried over the internet. If part of the call has to be routed out on the voice network, then you have to pay - usually less than the equivalent call entirely over the telephone network, but still a long way off free...

Skype do an excellent deal, though, where you can pay a small monthly sum (£3.60 for Hong Kong) and get free calls to land-lines in the country selected. Invaluable when you have substantial family in other countries!

 

[tedgorton]

Then of course there's Viber, totally free and works between any 2 smartphones provided they both have wifi or a really good 3G or 4G connection. a little fiddly to set up but we use it quite a lot (home in London, boat in Greece, kids in Paris, NY and California). does not yet work well on tablets.