International Calling Rates

[VOIPoTim]

We are working on finalizing new carriers for international calling and will be rolling out lower rates.

Most will be lowered across the board, but are there particular areas you guys call that you would like to see lowered?

[zcnkac]

India please.

[sr98user]

Same here. Will be interested in lower rates for India. Rates for India is pretty competitive though..

[Russell]

Same here. Will be interested in lower rates for India. Rates for India is pretty competitive though..

Researching: it appears VOIPo's India is about 8c a minute. Future-Nine's rate is under 2c a minute. I've used Future-Nine and VOIPo and have noticed no difference in quality. I very rarely call that country and it's no big deal to me - the few times I've made the call it's been to a business associate to ask them if they can get on Skype.

It'd also be nice to have India added to the 60 free minutes list - or if not, at least offer an international credit (say a buck or two) for countries not on the 60 free minutes list. That way I'd make these occasional calls to India via VOIPo and not Future-Nine knowing that I wont have a pending charge of 8c (like I currently do).

[Gene Steinberg]

Spain, France and the UK.

Particularly Spain, since our son lives there. :)

Peace,
Gene

[lost_]

Indonesia. I've been using Rebtel not only because their price is great, but the call quality is very good. My previous voip provider had a decent rate, but the international call quality was awful. Somehow the European-based services (Rebtel & Skype) have better call quality than the other various services I've tried. That said, I'd rather give my money to Voipo if the call quality is as good.

[lost_]

Forgot to mention, VOIPo really needs to fix outgoing call routes to accept more than 10 digits.

With Rebtel, I can assign any International number to a local number (NPA-NXX-xxxx). Different intl number gets different local number, and if called from an authenticated phone number, no PIN is needed. I could then assign a 3- or 4-digit VOIPo outgoing call route to that local number. I can also add that local number to my cellphone address book and direct dialing international becomes so easy: no PIN, no lengthy dial plan.

[myvoip07]

Definately India, and if possible can include india in the free 60 countries list.

[qzhaosj2]

We are working on finalizing new carriers for international calling and will be rolling out lower rates.

Most will be lowered across the board, but are there particular areas you guys call that you would like to see lowered?

Very glad to hear that. I call China a lot and hope to see lower rate. Any possibility to have unlimited calls (to individual country or multiple countries) as an add-on package to current plan?

[DaDead]

can you please include poland in the free countries list? vonage has it and my dad calls there a lot or at least make it a penny a min

[kjpus]

I call China a lot. I remember the rate used to be 1.5c a few months ago, and went up to 2c. I hope the new rate can be better so that I don't have to go somewhere else for better rates.

[93Corvette]

I would love to see the Philippines added to the list.... Man, the Filipino community is tight, the word spreads quick when their is a good deal out there....

[Wicho]

I would love if you can add Guatemala :)

[TimW]

forgot to mention, voipo really needs to fix outgoing call routes to accept more than 10 digits.


+1000000 ....

[sabzimandi]

Pakistan please and an improved quality request also. It sucks right now as compared to ViaTalk where I ported from.

It used to be under 5c a minute when I joined and now it is much much more.

Hope it happens.

Thanks.

[qzhaosj2]

I am still expecting the completion of "finalizing new carriers for international calling and will be rolling out lower rates."

[VOIPoTim]

We are starting to roll out the updated rates to some areas tonight. Our most popular destinations have already been updated.

India is the biggest drop going from $0.09 to $0.02 per minute. We are also now including India in the Free 60 Minutes Per Month calling plan on all residential accounts.

[VOIPoTim]

We are starting to roll out the updated rates to some areas tonight. Our most popular destinations have already been updated.

India is the biggest drop going from $0.09 to $0.02 per minute. We are also now including India in the Free 60 Minutes Per Month calling plan on all residential accounts.

The popular ones I mentioned are just now getting pushed out, so if you checked a few minutes ago when I posted, check now.

[Gene Steinberg]

The popular ones I mentioned are just now getting pushed out, so if you checked a few minutes ago when I posted, check now.

Neat, particularly the new rates for Spain. But you should also update the rates on the home page to match that.

How about 90 minutes of calls?

Peace,
Gene

[VOIPoTim]

Neat, particularly the new rates for Spain. But you should also update the rates on the home page to match that.

How about 90 minutes of calls?

Peace,
Gene

90 isn't really something we'd be able to do, sorry.

We're working on updating all the other rates & the different areas of site.

[Russell]

90 isn't really something we'd be able to do, sorry.

We're working on updating all the other rates & the different areas of site.
Instead of 60 minutes have you considered a use-it-or-lose-it credit each month for international calls? Average amount about what you're giving out for free to those who use the 60 minutes, so it doesn't cost you any more. Or, is that too much of an administrative headache? I have faint memories of a former company having such a monthly credit at some point in time.

[sr98user]

What is the "Package Eligible" Column mean? Does it mean its included in the "free 60 minutes" package?

Thanks

[VOIPoTim]

What is the "Package Eligible" Column mean? Does it mean its included in the "free 60 minutes" package?

Thanks

Yes, the prefixes with that designation are included in the 60 free minutes.


It's 60 free months total per calendar month (to any combination of eligible destinations). Since it is calculated based on the calendar month so you'd have up to 60 free minutes remaining this month.

[sr98user]

I see in your "Free International credit" section it says, cell phone numbers are not included. But in the rate section it says "yes" for "Package Eligible". I assume rate section is more accurate.

[VOIPoTim]

I see in your "Free International credit" section it says, cell phone numbers are not included. But in the rate section it says "yes" for "Package Eligible". I assume rate section is more accurate.

For most countries they're not. As long as the rate table shows "yes", then it's included.

[ctaranto]

India is the biggest drop going from $0.09 to $0.02 per minute. We are also now including India in the Free 60 Minutes Per Month calling plan on all residential accounts.

Awesome news, Tim! You've swayed my wife into the "VOIPo rocks" category (I've been there for months). :)

-Craig

[qzhaosj2]

Do not just talk about international call rate, how about call quality? Anyone has problem with international calls (to China)?

I have been experiencing serious problem with international calls to China, not just one number, but all numbers (3-4 numbers) to China I call.

Very often, I hear from China side voice intermittent, but this is only a minor problem. The major problem is that when I call China, China side hears call from US side but when they pick up the phone they cannot hear anything from US side. I connected VOIPO customer and they did some routing change and things sometimes get a little better for a while and the problem comes back again!

I also get a lot of 1-minute charges due to all the failed calls!

This problem has been going on for months and cannot been solved! It is extremely frustrating! If this problem keeps going on, I want my money back!

[VOIPoTim]

Do not just talk about international call rate, how about call quality? Anyone has problem with international calls (to China)?

I have been experiencing serious problem with international calls to China, not just one number, but all numbers (3-4 numbers) to China I call.

Very often, I hear from China side voice intermittent, but this is only a minor problem. The major problem is that when I call China, China side hears call from US side but when they pick up the phone they cannot hear anything from US side. I connected VOIPO customer and they did some routing change and things sometimes get a little better for a while and the problem comes back again!

I also get a lot of 1-minute charges due to all the failed calls!

This problem has been going on for months and cannot been solved! It is extremely frustrating! If this problem keeps going on, I want my money back!

Please see the reply to your other post about this:

http://forums.voipo.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=2415



VOIPo focuses on the US market and less than 1/2 of 1% of our customers have ever made an international call, so international calling is not our strongest point and not really something we have a lot of experience with yet.

When a customer places an international call, VOIPo has to send the call to an international carrier to complete. So the calls are going over the internet overseas

International call quality on VoIP is usually good, but since it relies on the internet much more and there are thousands of international carriers involved, the quality will vary and there are more points of failure.

As outlined in our State of the Union, we are working on adding more international carriers and lowering international pricing. This will give us more flexibility in finding a carrier to complete a call you've had

We expect this lower international pricing will attract more customers that place international calls and it will become a larger part of our service. As more customers are making international calls and reporting issues, we'll be able to more easily identify problem routes where there are issues connecting certain destinations through certain carriers.

When we first launched, it took a while to get our US routing optimized to make sure call quality in the US was great. By using the info from customer reported issues, we were able to optimize those routes to remove problem areas and carriers from the mix. As our international volume increases, we'll be able to do that with international calling now as well.

When you have an international calling issue, it's important to report it so that we know. These are not issues we can simply correct on our end so it's not a matter of us finding a problem and fixing it. The solution is almost always going to be to work with the international carrier delivering the call or routing the call through a different provider to bypass them if there are continuous issues.

If you don't already have a ticket open with the destination numbers/times you had issues with, please report them to support@voipo.com and we'll be able to re-route your calls and go from there.

[MacAttack103]

Sorry to see that not all international rates dropped. I was hoping the rates to the Philippines would drop but so far they have not. May have to look for a differnt carrier to find lower rates. Even high cost Vonage offers lower rates to some countries including the Philippines. Perhaps your employees in charge of finding lower rates for customers need to find a different overseas carrier to do business with. Just a thought.

[VOIPoTim]

So far we've only updated our most popular areas. We'll be updating more over the next few weeks. As far as Philippines I'm not sure if that will go up or down since I don't have rates in front of me, but it's possible that it will still be adjusted when all the rates are updated.

[MacAttack103]

The reason I keep an eye on the Philippines rates is because we do have family over there. Sure do hope the rates could drop. I do love the service and responses I get from you and your fellow employess at Voipo. Some times it may seem that I don't in my post hear or in the DSLReports forums. I am a Voipo fan. I can truthfully say that I have yet to have any problems with my Voipo service.

[Russell]

India is the biggest drop going from $0.09 to $0.02 per minute. We are also now including India in the Free 60 Minutes Per Month calling plan on all residential accounts.

Tim, can you check the India section? The rates are the same for all the land lines and cell companies (2c). Also, all appear to be package eligible except for ONE provider. Just want to confirm that is intentional. Not that I plan any calls to that provider, but I drilled down when I saw your announcement and am curious.

[VOIPoTim]

Tim, can you check the India section? The rates are the same for all the land lines and cell companies (2c). Also, all appear to be package eligible except for ONE provider. Just want to confirm that is intentional. Not that I plan any calls to that provider, but I drilled down when I saw your announcement and am curious.

Yeah, India is now $0.02 across the board...even the wireless.

That lone carrier should be included...the prefix must not be flagged on site. We'll get that fixed Monday in site.

[Brian]

So I was looking this morning to try and find out how much it would cost for a call to St. John, in the US Virgin Islands, and despite looking for over 5 mins, could not find out if this is an included (free) call, or if there was a cost/minute. Perhaps an "enter the number you're calling" to find the rate, would be helpful?

BTW, I never did find out if the call's free - if I don't get an answer on here, I'll ask support later today.

Edit - Ah, here it is - listed as USVI - $0.05/min.:)

[usa2k]

Try here perhaps?
http://www.comparevoipproviderrates.com/

A pizza place http://www.comparevoipproviderrates.com/index.php?called=13407665336&image16.x=35&image16.y=18

[Brian]

Thanks USA...definitely does the job, although I would think Tim might prefer to maintain something on his servers to ensure rate accuracy?

[ctaranto]

Thanks USA...definitely does the job, although I would think Tim might prefer to maintain something on his servers to ensure rate accuracy?

The comparevoipproviderrates site isn't accurate. They list India-Ahmedabad as $0.0835 for VOIPo, while Tim announced a few weeks back that it's $0.02/min to all of India.

[MacAttack103]

So it is 3 weeks later and no price drop to the Philippines. I am not understanding the high cost for calls to this country. Especially with other companies offering the rates of 12 cents to 15 cents per minute. 22 cents per minute does seem kind of high to me. Does voipo sell calling cards? As this may be a cheaper route to go.

[voipoh]

Try here perhaps?
http://www.comparevoipproviderrates.com/

A pizza place http://www.comparevoipproviderrates.com/index.php?called=13407665336&image16.x=35&image16.y=18
You are NOT serious! Totally deliberately inaccurate. Nitzan's "Fictional Rate Service"? There was a 20 page discussion on DSLreports dot com about that.

[chex]

Hi: I use several different calling cards to call internationally, one of the cheapest ones is german-based 'webcalldirect.com' Their rates to Phils is not cheap, 9/11 cents/min for landline/mobile. Your just not gonna get any cheaper than that:

http://webcalldirect.com/en/calling-rates.html#letp

I find the quality of these guys suffers a bit for the price. I also use Onesuite.com,and net2phone.com, who have much better call quality, but are more expensive.

-- stefan


So it is 3 weeks later and no price drop to the Philippines. I am not understanding the high cost for calls to this country. Especially with other companies offering the rates of 12 cents to 15 cents per minute. 22 cents per minute does seem kind of high to me. Does voipo sell calling cards? As this may be a cheaper route to go.

[MacAttack103]

Well here we are another month has passed and it is still 22 cent a minute to call the Philippines. This is one of the highest rates of all voip carriers. I have seen some carriers charging a lot less. From 9 to 15 cents per minute. I am sorry that voipo can not find a better or more reasonable over seas carrier to help them lower cost. I have been looking at different calling card services very seriously. If I were to make one 30 to 60 minute call per month I could save $ 2.10 to $ 4.20 per month on service. This could be $ 25 to $ 50 per year.

[Russell]

Well here we are another month has passed and it is still 22 cent a minute to call the Philippines. This is one of the highest rates of all voip carriers. I have seen some carriers charging a lot less. From 9 to 15 cents per minute. I am sorry that voipo can not find a better or more reasonable over seas carrier to help them lower cost. I have been looking at different calling card services very seriously. If I were to make one 30 to 60 minute call per month I could save $ 2.10 to $ 4.20 per month on service. This could be $ 25 to $ 50 per year.

If you call abroad on a regular basis, which you appear to do, why don't you find yourself some method for those calls which meets your needs. VOIPo has never claimed that niche and I'm not sure how productive your complaining on a regular basis is going to be. Over the past couple of weeks I made several calls to travelling family in Costa Rica - and never once did I whine about VOIPo rates. I looked at VOIPo rates, compared them to a different carrier with whom I have an account and used that carrier. I have a child who is going to be in Venezuela for 10 months starting in the fall - when she goes there, I'll once again do the comparison and not post here every couple of weeks about how I can save money elsewhere and why doesn't VOIPo lower their rates :-). No one is forcing you to use VOIPo for international calls.

[VOIPoTim]

We'll be tweaking international rates later this week and also rolling out an optional addon for international calling that will provide 20 hours per month (practically unlimited) of calling to all the destinations currently included in the free 60 minutes.

Stay tuned.

[Russell]

We'll be tweaking international rates later this week and also rolling out an optional addon for international calling that will provide 20 hours per month (practically unlimited) of calling to all the destinations currently included in the free 60 minutes.

Stay tuned.

Hoping that there'll be no change in the free 60 minutes with the new optional add on - not that I've used it much :-(.

Actually, the only change I'd like to see (instead of the 60 minutes) would be a use-it-or-lose-it dollar credit for international calling valid for any country - something which would be revenue neutral to VOIPo. I believe SunRocket at one time gave you a $3/month credit for international calling - if you didn't make any calls that month you lost it, if you made calls you were charged according to their rate schedule but the first $3 was free. That's the model I'm referring to - of course not the specific amount of three dollars.

[sr98user]

We'll be tweaking international rates later this week and also rolling out an optional addon for international calling that will provide 20 hours per month (practically unlimited) of calling to all the destinations currently included in the free 60 minutes.

Stay tuned.

Tim, Any updates on the addon plan?

Also, I assume this 20 hours will not be included in the 3000 minute soft cap. Do you include calls to toll free numbers in the 3000 minute soft cap?

[VOIPoTim]

Tim, Any updates on the addon plan?

Also, I assume this 20 hours will not be included in the 3000 minute soft cap. Do you include calls to toll free numbers in the 3000 minute soft cap?

Wrapping a few more things up with it.

The softcap is not a hard limit. It's basically just used as a flag for us to manually review the account to see how they are using it and determine if it's within normal residential patterns.

[VOIPoTim]

Tim, Any updates on the addon plan?

Also, I assume this 20 hours will not be included in the 3000 minute soft cap. Do you include calls to toll free numbers in the 3000 minute soft cap?

The addon is now available in the control panel under Billing - Promotions.

When added to an account, it will allow for 1200 minutes (20 hours) of international calling each month before charges kick in. The destinations are the same as the 60 minute offer.

$7.95/Mo or $75/Yr

The limits are based on the calendar month, but it's not prorated. So if you add it today, it won't affect any of your past calls, but you'd still have the full 1200 minutes to use from today through end of month and then it would reset on the 1st.

It's available now and we'll be announcing it soon.

[Gene Steinberg]

The addon is now available in the control panel under Billing - Promotions.

When added to an account, it will allow for 1200 minutes (20 hours) of international calling each month before charges kick in. The destinations are the same as the 60 minute offer.

$7.95/Mo or $75/Yr

The limits are based on the calendar month, but it's not prorated. So if you add it today, it won't affect any of your past calls, but you'd still have the full 1200 minutes to use from today through end of month and then it would reset on the 1st.

Clarify, Tim. You mean you get an extra 1200 minutes of international calling for $7.95, and after that, you pay per minute fees?

[VOIPoTim]

Clarify, Tim. You mean you get an extra 1200 minutes of international calling for $7.95, and after that, you pay per minute fees?

It's an addon that upgrades the 60 free minutes that are currently included to 1200. So it's 1200 total instead of 60.

[usa2k]

For those that want this add-on I see its at this link:
https://secure.voipo.com/billing/promotions

This link for destinations is very detailed http://www.voipo.com/intrates.php
Versus the link on the main website http://www.voipo.com/info/free-int-destinations.html
that works like a pop-up.

[usa2k]

The addon is now available in the control panel under Billing - Promotions.

When added to an account, it will allow for 1200 minutes (20 hours) of international calling each month before charges kick in. The destinations are the same as the 60 minute offer.

$7.95/Mo or $75/Yr

The limits are based on the calendar month, but it's not prorated. So if you add it today, it won't affect any of your past calls, but you'd still have the full 1200 minutes to use from today through end of month and then it would reset on the 1st.

It's available now and we'll be announcing it soon.
So you dropped your promotion?

I was checking that it was still valid before posting about it on DSLR.
My Promotions area of vPanel is empty.

[sun]

They still have $75 per year promotion for international add-on. Send an email to support.

[cab13guy]

We are working on finalizing new carriers for international calling and will be rolling out lower rates.

Most will be lowered across the board, but are there particular areas you guys call that you would like to see lowered?

.... Any chance of getting Poland added to the 60 min free calling?

[sojuman053]

South Korea Cellular;)