International Calls
From Alhannah
There are a number of ways to make personal international calls. Some are significantly more expensive than others.
You can buy Hala cards from QTel to make international calls from QTel phones. This tends to be quite pricey, on par with standard overseas rates in the States.
There are also a number of voice over IP (VoIP) options, which use the internet to transmit your phone calls.
If you're planning to be in Qatar for a significant period of time, one option is Vonage. The basic Vonage plans cost $15/month for 500 minutes, or $25/month for unlimited calls to the US and Canada. A Vonage phone hooks up to a broadband network connection. If you have DSL at home, that will work, but not with the USB DSL modem supplied by Q-Tel; you'll need a home router. Details can be found in DSL. A Vonage phone comes with a US phone number, so in addition to being able to call the States cheaply, you can also have friends and family phone you inexpensively. This is not true for the other options listed on this page. Once a Vonage phone is hooked up, it is the simplest option; it acts just like a normal landline phone. Recently there has been a degredation of quality of service for Vonage on home DSL lines; at some times of day, connections can be quite bad, or one way. It is not currently a good solution for reliable voice communication on a home DSL line, but works reasonably well for phoning family and friends from time to time.
Another option is Skype. Skype is billed as "voice chat" software, and acts much like an instant messaging client. You can see when other people are online, and open up a voice chat with them. If both parties are using the Skype software, this service is free. However, Skype also has a non-free service through which you can use the software to make calls to regular telephones. This is a service for which you have to prepay, but rates are very reasonable--calls to the States cost around $0.02/minute. You may also purchase a USA telephone number for $30-35 per year which allows anyone to call a US number to reach you in Qatar. With this service you gain the ability to forward calls from Skype to your QTel mobile phone or your house phone if you are not able to access your computer. This also provides a voicemail service as part of the package. Skype also allows for video calls if both computers have a camera. Skype has software releases for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
In a similar vein is Dialpad. Similar to Skype, Dialpad offers software which lets you call phones for a reasonable per-minute rate. The software only runs on Windows. It is not currently a good solution for reliable voice communication on a home DSL line, but works reasonably well for phoning from the office.
Finally, many instant messaging programs offer the capability to talk to other people using the same IM software. AIM/iChat, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo IM, among others, offer this capability. These services are free, but both parties have to be using the same IM network -- someone on Messenger can't chat with someone on AIM, or vice versa. (Some instant messaging programs, like Trillian, do allow you to log into multiple IM networks, but you'll still need a seperate account on each system) Several IM packages also offer the ability to add a video picture to the chat, so you can see family and friends when you talk to them.
General advice: For all the computer-based options, a pair of headphones can improve your experience dramatically. Additionally, a head-mounted microphone can help make conversations much clearer.
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