Just to update to the previous post, Briing has now also updated its Pakistan cheap call prices, to 7p/min. According to independent call comparison site CheaperInternationalCalls.net this now makes the cheapest rate to Pakistan Landlines 2p/min from Telesavers, and the cheapest rate to Pakistan Mobiles 3p/min from italk247.
For the full Pakistan call comparison list, go to: CheaperInternationalCalls.net
Many international call service providers have updated their rates over the last week for calling Pakistan. Unfortunately it seems that the prices have gone up for most providers – many providers are now charging 4p per minute to landlines and mobiles.
There are a few exceptions; briing has stayed the same at 3p/min to both landlines and mobiles, and now according to an independent call comparison website, telesavers (who are apparently notorious for not quoting VAT in their call rates) are offering 2p/min rates to Pakistan landlines – we recommend checking with your phone bill before believing this rate completely though.
There are a number of websites on the net that offer comparison services for finding the cheapest international call rates available from a BT landline phone to various international destinations.
Doing a search on Google brings up a number of websites; the main ones being:
However these four in my experience generally contain out-of-date information, the page designs are crowded, and it’s often difficult to get what you’re looking for quickly.
I found a new one today called International Call Checker, which apparently reviews and monitors over 10,000 rates to all available international destinations every day. The page design is neat, clean, and it’s easy to find which country you’re looking for, either using the country selector, or browsing the list of the best rates for each country.
Best of all, there’s a little box in the right-hand corner that tells you the BT rates for each country page – if you’re calling Pakistan Mobile, you can save 51p/min by using the top access number on the list!
Update: Via gumtree, I found a new one that’s a lot better than all of the above, cheaperinternationalcalls.net
Just noticed a new service from briing.com called ‘Mobile Instant’ that gives you cheap international calls directly from your T-mobile phone (PAYG and contract) – pretty neat service. A few of the rates on offer are below:
France landline: 3p/min (07755 220 908)
Germany landline: 5p/min (07755 330 908)
India (mobile + landline): 6p/min (07755 440 908)
Poland landline: 3p/min (07755 220 908)
There’s also a bunch of new, cheaper rates for Briing’s cheap international numbers for landlines.
Mobile roaming costs have always been a contentious issue in the mobile phone world. The EU last year moved to cut charges that mobile phone companies charged their customers for roaming in Europe to a maximum of €0.49 to make calls, and €0.24 to receive calls. This will decrease each year until it reaches €0.43 for making calls and €0.19 for receiving in the summer of 2009.
However this is still a sorry state of affairs for customers who travel a lot – either for pleasure or business. A short YouTube video explains an American perspective of the lengths you need to go to save money when you’re abroad. A UK mobile user on the Nokia forum explains the lengths people need to go to in order to get reasonable rates when in Barcelona – never mind the call charges; this user’s operator charges £7.50 per megabyte(!) for mobile data, which the EU apparently has no plans for regulating. Some operators are showing signs of cutting data charges, but with no compelling reason to do so, it seems unlikely that this will change in the near future.
Whilst saving money on your roaming mobile call charges is slowly getting easier, especially now you can compare roaming SIMs online when travelling from the UK, it seems that cutting costs on mobile data usage is still a difficult process that involves buying a SIM card abroad, which can be extremely difficult if you don’t understand the local language. For example Yoigo SIM cards apparently only charge €1.30 per day for unlimited 3G in Spain – but of course you have to speak Spanish in order to be able to compare this with other SIMs available on the Spanish market.
Availabity is as follows, but you now have to send an email to get your access number: Read the rest of this entry »
