Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mmace1]

My family/friends are in the US, and I was wondering what services you use to call home/let home call you? I'm still in the US myself, so I haven't been able to test anything from S. Korea yet.

Best solution I've found for incoming calls from the US: Gizmo Project, which gives a free Nevada US number/free incoming calls on your computer. Or, using Grand Central to get a local number (local in my hometown, for instance) then having it forward those calls to my Gizmo account, so again, free incoming calls in S. Korea from the US.

For outbound calling to the US...best I've found is Yahoo! Voice, which is $.01/minute to the US, and $.02/minute to Korea landline, or $.059/minute to Korea cell.

As for having people in S. Korea call me using normal phones...hm...just get a cell phone?

I also haven't figured out how to...if someone calls my US #...getting a notification/forward (even by paying) to my hypothetical Korean cell phone. The only thing for that I can find is Skype...which for $60/year gives a US # with free incoming...and then you can forward it to any other number for $.021/minute + using your cell minutes, though not sure if that would work getting fwd to a Korea #, but I assume it could.

[xenok]

i have SkypeIn which gives me a local US number and i can forward it to my Korean cellphone. so you can be assured that this method works. additionally, in Korea the only the person making the call pays for the call, the receiver does not get charged so it might just add to only $0.021/min.

[mmace1]

Thanks, great to know it works. Wouldn't that be 7.3 cents/minute with Skype though? Since that's the SkypeOut rate for a Korean Cell (vs. 2.1 for a Korean landline).

Ah, and just found out Gizmo does call forwarding at their callout rate, which for S. Korean cells is 6.7 cents/minute.

I think Gizmo is the winner for me (thus far) for incoming calls, and Yahoo Voice for outgoing.

[dogshed]

yahoo voice is the cheapest last time I checked and easy to install.

Make sure you get the US version and use your US debit card.

[xenok]

i don't know what the exact rate is, i didn't bother to check, i just used the number you had in your earlier post.

there's another site, jajah.com that allows you to do VOIP using regular phones. i signed up for it and put a small deposit but the voice quality was poor so i stopped using it. but i've known others who had good experiences with it. jajah.com is nice because all you need is the phone numbers and a web browser and you can make international calls. you might want to check it out.

http://www.jajah.com

[ladr23]

we use voipbuster to call US. you just need to buy 10euros of credit and you get 120days free call to the US landlines or cellphones. canada is free too.

[eddie1983man]

I use a service called ACN. It works like this:

I had a friend set up the service for me as he works for the company. You get a local area number from the city you lived in back home. Me being near toronto i have a 705 area code. The phone is similar to VOIP but is slightly different, as long as you have an internet jack available you can use the phone. It cost something like $20 a month, but anyone from back home can call my phone anytime without paying long distance fees because i have a local canadian area code. I can also call anyone in the same area code for free. Unlimited long distance can be added for an additional $12 a month.

It great because anyone form back home can call me here in south korea free of charge, as if we were both in the same city.

[boatofcar]

Nevermind!

[nancy123]

I have the same thing as Eddie...mine is called Primus...it's a regular Canadian telephone number and I added on 400 minutes of international calls for an extra $10. It comes with a gateway apparatus that hooks the phone into your PC.
You can use your PC and talk at the same time with no problems. But, you'll need a voltage converter for the gateway.
I come from a smaller city that doesn't have Primus set up yet, so...everyone calls the 'Toronto' number to talk to me...it's still cheaper than calling Korea and the reception is fantastic.
I didn't have it when I arrived here. I ordered it online and had a relative send it over (you have to have a credit card and address in Canada).
I love hearing the phone ring

[kprrok]

I use Yahoo Messenger. It's 100% free once you've bought the headset. You all their PC and that's that. Great quality, no problems doing multiple tasks. The only thing is the conference call quality isn't very good.

KPRROK