A few days ago, Skype’s connection fee for placing calls to landline and mobile phones in non-global rate countries was increased by 100%. As if that is not enough, the cost of a Skype call to Malawi mobile per minute is $0.163 without VAT and $0.187 with VAT. Early last year, when I started using Skype’s PC-to-phone service, I used to pay only $0.099/minute. Aren’t the prices for these services supposed to be going down?
I really like Skype for their free PC-to-PC calls but when it comes to PC-to-phone calls, they are becoming too expensive. As a result, I am continuously searching for cheaper PC-to-phone services. My preferred service, the one that I have been recommending for sometime, is Comfi. For PC-to-phone calls to Malawi mobiles, I pay only $0.097/minute for their service but the call quality is excellent. The only hassle is that you must know how to install and set up the Xlite softphone. For folks in the diaspora who frequently phone their loved ones in their home countries (especially in Africa) using Skype, Comfi can help to reduce their phone bills by more than 40%.
In addition to Comfi, I recently stumbled on ActionVoip. Unlike Comfi, they provide their own softphone which is easy to install and configure. So far, I pay only $0.086/minute for their service but sometimes the call quality is not good. But you can see that I save more than 45% compared to Skype.
If you are already using Skype, you can create Comfi and ActionVoip accounts, install and set up their respective softphones, and use them concurrently with Skype on the same PC. In my case, I have the three of them on my PC. My default service is Comfi. When Comfi misbehaves, I switch to ActionVoip. Skype is always the last resort.
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14 users commented in " Two PC-to-phone VoIP services that are cheaper than Skype "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackGood advise. The best alternative I find is PC to PC via skype which is totally free and offers the advantage of webcam when you can see who you are talking to. It may not work with everyone as one needs a computer with bb connection at the other end. The next alternative is the PC to phone, but the reception is never as good as phone to phone.
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PC to PC calls using skype is the thing…free . Nice post
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i personally find skype’s prices now to be a bit extortionate, like you do. There are many cheaper competitors out there, such as voipcheap.com. However, for PC-PC phone calls the quality is usually good enough and I’m still happy to use skype for this.
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I am looking for a cheaper source over web to make calls to the overseas.I find this article and the comments informative to choose an economical platform to make calls
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Skype was and still is the best alternative for pc to pc calls. Beside the fact that are free the sound quality is excelent, and the extra fetures are very in handy. To be honest i never used or eaven search for a service pc-phone, because i really thought of this but now that you mentioned i will try to see how Confi is working. Thanks for the advices.
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Thanks for this information Clement, I was finding it very expensive to make calls to Zimbabwe. Plus most people do not use skype yet because of the Internet connections.
I will definately try those alternatives to skype. I was using phone cards sometimes, but they don’t usually give you much talk minutes.
Thanks again,
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Clement Nyirenda says:
September 19th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
No mention. We just have to share every piece of information that we get.
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Gerri says:
September 20th, 2009 at 6:16 am
I will be giving it a try as well because calling Zimbabwe from this part of the world is not cheap. Thanks Clement.
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Will have to give those other services a try… especially Comfi. Thanks for the article.
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Thanks for sharing with us this information. I agree with you that Skype is to expensive, I am very curious to try Comfi
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Thanks for this information Clement, actually skype is both: Very expensive and very difficult to connect to Africa from Middle East.In Dubai it is even barred officially and so will try these alternatives.Thanks.
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Great suggestions. I am a big fan of skype but I am always looking to save a couple of bucks.
The advantage of skype is that it is available with Fring on all mobile phones. It’s easy to make long distance calls without using mobile air time. You just use the built in wi-fi.
–bobby
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I personally think Skype is the first choice to make free PC-to-PC calls yet their recent price hike for PC to landlines and mobile numbers is very unfortunate. I hope they will reconsider their decision. Anyway Gizmo and Nonoh or Fring are also worth a try. It just takes time for us to switch from something we’re getting used to for so long. Thanks for sharing.
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Our family has noticed that Skype has been getting more and more expensive since we make international calls our first alternative was Skype back in the day as it was the cheapest solution…. but you are right.. it is strange that the prices have gone up over time and not down… Well I guess its time to find a better alternative than Skype! Surprisingly Vonage is actually looking really good right now to us.
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