Staying in Touch by Telephone

Whether your holiday is for two weeks or two months, you need to keep in touch with home, office and friends. You may need a telephone on holiday for making local arrangements, particularly if you are touring or backpacking. A telephone is also essential for safety. You can rest assured that, should the unforeseen happen, you can call for assistance.

The pace with which travel communications have moved forward recently is astounding. If you have not checked what’s new since your holiday a year ago, it may be worth doing so. Not only are there tri-band mobiles, unlocked mobiles with a local SIM card or the ubiquitous call boxes within internet cafés, there are now Skype phones, WiFi signal locators and WiFi capable phones to look into. International travel communications have never been so available, or so high tech!

Skype

Skype is a Voice Over Internet Provider, and the good news is that between Skype users it is free. For those who live, work or travel abroad, even international Skype to Skype calls are free. Logon to www.Skype.com, get the details and open a free account, and get your family and friends to do so too. The calls use the speakers and microphone in your computer to make the call, or you can use headphones. Calls are incredibly good quality and if the person you are calling is not available to answer when the computer rings, you can leave a message. This gets around the problem of being in different time zones. Skype is the ideal solution for holiday telephone calls.

This takes care of social calls, but what about people who are not on Skype? It seems a little pointless to still have to pay for a mobile phone. SkypeOut allows you to use Skype as a normal telephone, to call landlines and cell numbers. You will need to purchase Skype Credit which is available from Skype using the onscreen options. These calls to landlines and cell phones around the world start at less than 2 cents per minute. This Skype credit can be purchased using either a credit card or PayPal. It is best to set your account up with an initial sum and then have Auto Reload enabled for the same amount for when your holiday telephone runs low on credit.

To make a regular call to a normal phone number, either click on the number stored in your contacts list or go directly to the number key pad and enter the number you wish to call. For making overseas calls, pick the country you are calling from the list at the top of the number key pad (countries are shown by their national flags) and then type in the phone number required. Skype automatically dials the international entry code, as well as the country code, so you only have to insert the local area code and number, remembering to omit the first zero in an overseas country’s area code.

An important note to remember here is that with Skype you are unable to make 911 calls, so this software cannot fully take the place of your home or mobile phone.

Video Telephone Calls

Technology is such that, with voice over internet providers such as Skype, you can also see the person you are calling, and they can see you if you connect a cheap web cam to your computer. (You can of course decide not to show your face, depending on who you are talking with). Some new laptops even have a webcam already in the screen. All this is for free! There is no good excuse for not staying in touch by telephone when on holiday or travelling.

Skype Phones

If being tied to your laptop or notebook in order to make and receive calls is impractical, consider a Skype Phone. The size of a mobile phone, your holiday telephone calls can all be made from wherever there is an available WiFi signal. Simply dial out, if you have a SkypeOut account, or connect free with other Skype users to make Skype to Skype telephone calls.

Mobile Phones and Skype

Some mobiles and cell phones can now have the Skype software downloaded to them. This means that whenever you are within a WiFi area you can shift from paid calls to free Skype calls. You really can optimize your choices and have the best of both worlds.

WiFi Locations

WiFi locations for making holiday telephone calls from your laptop or mobile can usually be found in coffee shops such as Starbucks, restaurant chains such as MacDonald’s, internet cafés, hotels and motels or even outside office and university buildings. You can use Skype wherever you can find an accessible WiFi signal, although some private networks are blocked for security reasons.

WiFi Signal Locators

All flashpackers and techno travellers should not be seen without a WiFi signal locator dangling from their keyring. Just press the button and it will locate any and all WiFi signals so you can make your VoIP telephone calls from your holiday location cheaply and conveniently.

Finally, remember that technology never stands still. By staying on top of new developments, telephone calls whilst on holiday no longer have to cost the earth. Bon voyage!

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