Calling to Thailand...by Ballad

This review is about the different ways to call back to Thailand, mainly about calling through the internet (PC to Phone). There’re many softwares providing the function to call back to Thailand but of course, you have to pay some money.

1. VoIPDISCOUNT (http://www.voipdiscount.com)
As I searching for those softwares, the cheapest one at this moment is VoIPDISCOUNT (http://www.voipdiscount.com)

As you can see, the rate is free but before you pay, you can use as a trial for 40 minutes. You can also register as a new account but not so many times you can register because I believe that they can check something like IP address, registry, whatever and not allow you to register from that computer anymore. The registration can be done only from the program which you can download from this age, http://www.voipdiscount.com/en/download.html.

After the installation, when you run the program at the first time, it will ask you to register as a new user or logon as an existing user.

After you logon, the interface of the program looks like this.

If you want to make a call, go to dial tab. For calling to Thailand, press 0066 (00 means make an international call, as I understand, and 66 is Thailand code). For example, if you want to make a call to telephone number 01-234567, drop the first 0 out so it should be 006611234567 and press the green button and enjoy your chatting!

In order to make a call to Thailand unlimited, you have to pay 10 euros + 16% tax = 11.6 euros. Your credit will be available for 120 days and you can use that credit make a call to anywhere in the world! (because calling to Thailand is free so your credit won’t decrease). Buying a credit can be done by many ways, for example, VISA, AMEX, MasterCard, PayPal, or even normal bank transfer. There is also paying by VISA Electron available but it doesn’t work (as I have tried before).

You can start buying credit from this page http://www.voipdiscount.com/en/buycredits.html. Logon with your account and it will has a pop-up window.

Choose “Buy Credit” and follow the instruction. I think it is quite common like purchasing something or paying through VISA card in e-commerce website. For bank transfer, after you click that you would like to buy a credit by bank transfer, they’ll show you reference number. You have to inform them this number while you’re transferring the money in order to let them know that who’s transferring and it might take up to 7 days in processing.

After try using this program, the sound when calling to landline is excellent and not delayed. For calling to mobile, the sound is sometimes not clear and delayed. It’s maybe depended on the network status at that time and also the mobile network in Thailand too.


2. Internetcalls (http://www.internetcalls.com)
There are many others VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) programs provided from different company. Another interesting one is from Internetcalls, (http://www.internetcalls.com). The feature of the program is the same as VoIPDISCOUNT but the rate is a little bit different. It has the same rate for calling to landline in Thailand but it cost 2 cent per minute for calling to mobile phone. The quality is, can say that, the same as VoIPDISCOUNT because I noticed that they are from the same company.


3. VoIPBuster (http://www.voipbuster.com)
This is another VoIP program from http://www.voipbuster.com. It looks similar to two previous programs but gives higher rate. Free for calling to landline but 6 cent per minute for calling to mobile. I haven’t try this one so I cannot tell about the quality


4. CallThai (http://www.callthai.net)
This is only Thai program which I’ve tried. It seems that it uses SIP technology. The rate for calling to Bangkok landline is 1 cent (USD) per minute and for other provinces and mobile is 5 cent per minute. It charges 15 cent on the first minute and round up every 3 minutes, for example, if you call 4 minutes it will cost like 6 minutes+15 cent. About the quality, normally it’s not delay but the sound is usually not very clear. For more information, visit http://www.callthai.net. They’re also sell the calling card to use with mobile too but I haven’t tried it also.


5. Skype (http://www.skype.com)
A widely used program, http://www.skype.com, can also make a call to phone too but you have to buy credits for calling. Someone who has tried this program said that it’s a little bit delay but the voice is ok. The rate for calling to Bangkok is 5 cent per minute and for other provinces and mobile is around 9 cent per minute.


6. Calling card
I don’t know much information about this option but there’re many companies selling calling card with different rate. These are some examples,
http://www.sawasdeetalk.com
http://www.thaitel.com
http://www.callthai.net
and many foreign companies selling the cards too. For more information, search from the internet.


7. TeleAle (http://www.teleale.com)
This is a rather nice way to make a call too. You can directly call from your phone by pressing the number 99533 before the country code following by area code without 0 and then telephone number, for example, 995336611234567. For calling to Thailand, the rate is 6 cent + local call rate. You don’t have to register for anything and no monthly fee. For more information, visit http://www.teleale.com


Editor’s Choice: VoIPDISCOUNT because of its very cheap rate (10 euros and you can make unlimited call) and acceptable quality but it has to make a call from computer.