Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chemdah]

Hello,
Just got to Korea, and have a question regarding the most affordable way to call the Philippines frequently, as my girlfriend lives there.

Unfortunately, Skype is both not easily accessible where she lives, and the rates are much more expensive to call the Philippines than to call the USA.

Are phone cards the only option? I'm skeptical about the phone quality with phone cards (echoes, etc..) and am wondering if there are any Korean phone companies that have great long distance plans....

Any suggetions would help at this point.

Thanks....

[dogshed]

[chemdah]

That is an interesting idea. She could maybe download a US version of Skype or Messenger and we could speak that way.... however she does not have a computer or online access readily available, and we would have to make "chat dates" using an internet cafe, which for some reason, she says is hard to get to from where she lives...

I will explore all options at this point....

[chemdah]

She suggested one of these high-tech internet access mobile phones....anybody have experience using these?

I would assume that once you have one, you could use skype of Instant Messaging, etc... but what I am skeptical about is the monthly fees to get Internet access...I looked into getting one in the US, and it turned out my phone company wanted to charge an additional $40 a month just to have internet access, in addition to the monthly cell phone fees and that is after I buy the expensive phone as well.

I'm not sure how it works in the Philippines....would appreciate any insight on this...

[betchay]

I call to the Philippines using Yahoo Messenger's Phone-out service. It costs about $0.13/minute. It's really expensive to call to the Philippines.

Regarding internet access on mobile phones, it costs about 20 pesos per hour (Smart) or 15 centavos per kb (Globe). Cheapest handset i know is 6,500 pesos. Service is a little bit slow and not sure if skype will work on it.

Where does your girlfriend live? One hour at the internet cafe is only 20 pesos. There are also internet cafes that offer international calling for 5 pesos per minute.

[I-am-me]

The P card is pretty good now. Most calling cards to the phil give you about 70 minutes for 10,000w If you like to text, try downloading Chikka txt.

http://www.chikka.com/index.html

[chemdah]

[Where does your girlfriend live? One hour at the internet cafe is only 20 pesos. ]

She lives in digos city, Davao Del Sur. The nearest internet cafe is about a 30 minute walk, and being that i work all day, she would have to walk alone at night - not the best idea.

[If you like to text, try downloading Chikka txt. http://www.chikka.com/index.html ]

Great find! I think i'm putting this all together piece by piece... the latest other discovery is a company www.pinoynumber.com that sells Philippine phone numbers that make it a local call for the Pinoy to use when calling us here in Korea. I am about to call these guys up and see exactly how it works. From what I understand, since it is a local Philippines number, only the party in Phil can call the number for it to be cheap. But the nice thing is that it rings here in Korea on your regular cell and you can still save lots of money.

I think if I combine that option with the free text messaging w/ chikka, it may be a good way to do this right.

Thanks for the help.... if there are any other ideas, I'm open for more...

[chemdah]

While reading the FAQ on the Pinoynumber.com site (which allows you to buy a free Philippines number which forwards its calls to you in Korea), this is what I noticed:

"What is the cost to the caller?

The cost to the caller will depend on their local carrier charges, caller will not incur long distance charges . A cell phone call in the Philippines to a PinoyNumber will cost between P5.50 to P7.50 ($0.11 to $0.15) per minute."

This means that it would be about $9 - $10 to speak for an hour, which is really not that different than what "I-am-me" stated was the going price of a P-Card. Plus w/ Pinoynumber.com there is a monthly fee of about $12.

I did not realize that cell users in the Philippines do NOT have the unlimited free calls on evenings and weekends like our phone plans in the States..... it still is expensive to use if lets say you decide you want to talk several nights a week for 30 to 60 minutes...its a big pinch out of one's budget.