July 10, 2005

• When I lived in Germany the cheapest way for me to do it was a special number I dialed before the regular number (I was living with a host family so I could pay them the extra $$ on the bill). It was kind of like the 10-10-321 and all those other random extension ads that were going around for awhile. I can't remember how I happened to come across the number though. Using your cell phone would probably be expensive as all get out (and I'd imagine him using a temporary one would be too). Calling cards will be useless because the amount of minutes on them is not the same for international calls and a 120 minute card can only be good sometimes for like 20 minutes of conversation or even less. Total waste. Your best bet may be to do some research into finding the cheapest landline rate you can get from your country to his or vice-versa, either using a pre-dial extension (yes I made that term up just now for your amusement) or a something specific with your long-distance plan.
• Am I to assume that Ghost Dad is female, or a gay male? Just for clarification...
• Cellphones? NO! Very expensive. Maybe not for him (some countries don't charge air time when you are called) but certainly for you. Calling to land-lines is always cheaper. But then he needs a landline, and that can take a while to get in Argentina, so I've been told. Using a dedicated carrier is cheaper than using your local Bell (I assume you're in the US, since you don't mention your location; this web-site is hosted in New Zealand BTW). I often use YAK for that. You just dial a prefix in front of the number and your call will be made for a much cheaper rate. They charge US$0.06 or US$0.09 cents per minute to Argentina. It just is added to you phone bill, no need to sign up or pay separate bills. The cheapest way (free) would be to ship him a VOIP phone line with a phone number in your city. But it requires on his side a fast internet connection (either DSL or cable). If he has access to a university network that might be a solution. But just using Skype would work as well in that case.
• A couple of months? How 'bout e-mail. If you have to talk, you're holding on too tight.
• Skype?
• Yep. Skype.
• Am I to assume that Ghost Dad is female, or a gay male? Gay here. A couple of months? How 'bout e-mail. If you have to talk, you're holding on too tight. We're emailing, but you know, it'd be nice to call too.
• Skype I will check into. Danke shoen.
• Skype is good... if you both have DSL-speed connections. I used it with a 56K modem, and it was kind of assy. But if you both have high-speed connections it's fantastic.
• (above comment was from the_bone)
• Even with a not-so-fast connection, AIM or iChat's voice chat is good. I used it with my wife when we were moving. Costs are usually low.
• Skypeout has worked pretty well for me. The sound quality isn't nearly as nice as when both people are using skype, but it doesn't expire like phone card minutes do. Though it looks like cost of calling a cell phone in Argentina is ~28 cents/minutes. A regular phone line is ~3 cents/minute. I think that sort of price differential between landline and cell might be the same for phone cards, etc.
• I'd use Vonage, for $.07 cents a minute. My father-in-law lives in Brazil, and we had not been able to find a reliable way to call him inexpensively & reliably, until we switched to VOIP. If you do use them, It is kind of a big switch, but at $27/month for unlimited US and Canada calling, it is saving me quite a bit of money even before the newly cheap and reliable Brazil calling is factored in.
• Sheesh, please ignore the sentence fragment in my previous message.
• Well, calling cards worked for me and my ex while we traded calls from Buenos Aires, but I would get used to doing emails. Admittedly, not as personal, but cheap, cheap, cheap. And it improves your writing skills to make each as personal and romantic as possible. The international calls can very easily get out of hand, so make a deal to chat once a week with optional emergency calls, otherwise it can get crazy. My ex was running up $300 monthly calling to her family. You don't need that.
• Ooh, I wouldn't trust my boyfriend alone down in Argentina, I can tell you.
• Skype-related curiosity: I've used ordinary instant messenger programs like yahoo messenger in the past for voice chat to faraway friends (and found the sound quality and everything adequate). Is there something about Skype that makes it a lot better?
• Mrs. Tool and I were forced into 14 months long distance (cross-country US) before we were engaged. We couldn't afford much long distance but wanted to talk every night, so we talked via MSN's IM client, which (back then, anyway) allowed you to talk for free. All you needed was a microphone and speakers.
• I would also agree with skype or voip like vonage. flngj -- i've never used it but everyone says skype is much better than older programs. It probably has everything to do with better compression.
• OH, and I would also check out international markets. They always have the best international calling cards.
• I live in the UK, and my family in the US uses PinCity to call me. They get a very cheap rate, and the service is generally very good--although maybe 1 out of 10 calls, there is a delay or an echo or something. It used to happen more often than it does now.
• Oh, definitely go Skype. I used to spend hundreds of dollars per month on intnl calls, and frankly, i thurts. Telephone cards are OK< but quality tends to suck at night, when usage increases. Besides, all you get are IDT cards (www.uniontelecard.com). In conclusion, go Skype.
• I agree with VOIP. If you guys are computer savvy, you could even go with setting up a Ventrilo server and using the Ventrilo communication client. It works well even over slow connections, but takes a little setting up and mics/ speakers. You can't beat it for price and (relative) ease of set-up. Plus you could get up to 8 people talking at the same time with the free license.
• VoIP R0XZ0RZ! Er, I mean, I like it. If you already have a VoIP phone (or software softphone) take a look at Broadvoice's Bring Your Own Device plan. Yeah, I use Broadvoice and the BYOD plan with a Grandstream Bugetone-101 phone and I like it. For the Unlimited World Plus plan (which includes Argentina) it is ~$25 a month. Also take a look at VoIP-info.org for just about everything you've ever wanted to know about VoIP and related issues.