Save money when dialing abroad: These apps can bring down call cost by 98%

Instead of spending Rs 8 a minute calling someone in the US or the UK from your mobile phone, what if you can make the same call for just 14 paise a minute? While you save 98 per cent on your mobile bills, there’s no compromise on call quality – it feels just like a call made from your mobile to another phone abroad. Such savings are possible if you use an app that lets you make calls using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP or IP telephony).

VoIP operators say that increasingly many individuals are opting for this service to make calls abroad. “VoIP services are becoming popular among working youngsters, freelancers, digital nomads, professionals like doctors, lawyers, astrologers (with non-resident Indian clients), and families with relatives abroad,” says Gaurav Sharma, founder and CEO, JustCall.io.

IT professional Nitin Garg uses VoIP to keep in touch with his sisters in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK). “My family talks to my sisters mostly when they are commuting from work. During such travels, a WhatsApp call is unreliable as they don’t have a stable internet connection. On weekdays, we mostly talk through VoIP and on weekends we do a video call,” says Garg.

Nitin Garg, IT Professional

There are social networking apps like WhatsApp, Viber and Line that allow you to call another user using the same service and talk for free. But these apps have their limitations. The call quality may not be as clear as a phone to phone call. Such apps also require both – the caller and the receiver – to have a reliable internet connection. But in VoIP you can call on the mobile or land line number of the other person.

Cheaper and reliable: VoIP rates vary depending on the country. They can be as cheap as just 14 paise a minute if you are calling a phone in the US, and Rs 9.3 a minute for a call to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). For some countries, the rates could be even higher.

When you dial a call from a VoIP app, it uses the internet to initiate the call from your mobile. Once it reaches the destination country, it connects with the mobile or land line operator’s network. There’s a cost to connect with the operator called termination charges. “The cost is determined either by the operator or the telecom regulator. While in the US, the termination cost is low, it’s much higher in countries such as the UAE or Nepal. Consequently, calling these countries through VoIP is expensive. But it will still work out to be cheaper than calling from mobile or land line phones,” says Tarun PK, founder of Telecomtalk.info.

Get the best deal: Many popular apps also let you make VoIP calls. Popular chatting apps such as Viber and Line allow you to call up phones overseas once you buy credits from Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Compared to other services that only offer VoIP, calling rates of popular chat apps are slightly higher.

Apps such as Ringo and Voipfibre, which are focussed only on calls, offer better rates. Ringo is among the few companies based in India that focuses on retail individuals and lets an individual buy credit using multiple payment methods. Most apps are based overseas and the user needs a credit card to buy credits.

Source: Mobile and VoIP operators

Then there are services such as Skype and Rebtel which can work out to be the cheapest. Both these service providers let users pay a small monthly fee for unlimited calls to a specific country or a bouquet of countries. In Rebtel, for example, a person can pay $10 (around Rs 660) a month and call mobiles or land lines in 57 countries, including Australia, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, the US and the UK. Skype offers a similar plan for Rs 1,092.

One important thing to note when using VoIP apps is that calling a land line abroad is cheaper than calling a mobile phone. When opting for an unlimited plan, check if the service provider allows you to call on both mobile phones and land line.

There are also operators such as JustCall that allow you to take a local number in a country abroad. So, if you have clients or relatives in one country, you can take a local number and all the calls are redirected to your India number through VoIP. For $15 (around Rs 990) a month, you can get a local phone number abroad, call tracking, call recording, ability to send and receive text messages, voicemail and so on. 

Regulations are the dampener: VoIP services have much more potential but India has strict telecom regulations. If regulations allow VoIP providers to issue local numbers (called as virtual numbers), that could bring down costs when a person is travelling abroad. And calls to the local number can be forwarded to any number (local or international) at a much cheaper cost. 

India also doesn’t allow trunk calls on VoIP. If this were allowed, you wouldn’t need to rely on the internet for VoIP calls. The service provider could dial the number you want to call abroad and simultaneously call on your phone and patch the two calls. “If these two changes are made, it will not only make travelling abroad and staying connected easier, but will completely revolutionise many industries,” says Tarun PK.