Voip Deals Blog

PhonePower has introduced an ‘International Plus’ plan which gives users 20 hours of free international calls to India and unlimited calling in the US and Canada. There are three payment options for this plan.

• 24 months term costs  $19.95/month.
• 12 months term costs $22.95/month
• And the month to month plan (no contract) costs $24.95/month

Compare this to Vonages Vonage’s Vonage World℠ plan which is very similarly priced at $25.99/month(month-to-month). The difference being Vonage’s plan doesn’t have a cap on the international calling time. But I believe PhonePower’s 20 hr/month India calling minutes is good enough.

But if you were to go with PhonePower’s 12 month or 24 months terms, your cost will be much cheaper.

Lingo voip offers a similar plan that includes unlimited US/Canada calling and unlimited India calling. The plan costs $23.95/mo  (month-to-month, no annual contract).

Compare other India Calling Plans including calling card options here.

PhonePower has added a new international calling plan which includes unlimited calls in the US & Canada plus 20 hours of international calls every month.

This positions PhonePower in direct competion with Vonage’s Vonage World℠ global plan. At the cost front, PhonePower offers three payments options compared to Vonage’s one monthly option. PhonePower’s monthly payment option costs $24.95/month (no contract) compared to Vonage’s $25.99/month(no contract).

There are two more options PhonePower offers that will bring down your per month cost.

The 12 month term option costs $22.95/month and the 24 month term options costs $19.95/month. These rates are very competitive and  the “20 hours of international call per month” should be enough even for regular callers who make calls to countries like India, China.

We believe this new PhonePower international plan will attract callers who make frequent India/China/Mexico calls and are looking for a Vonage alternative.

Localphone new customer get 10% extra credit on first orders in the month of November. This is for new customers only and expires on 30th November 2011.

Coupon code:  LPTEN

Localphone 20% Extra Credit

LocalPhone currently is offering the 20% extra credit, which gives new users 20% extra free credit when they top up for the first time. The code to quote at the checkout is LPTWENTY and this expires on 31st October.

Localphone Student Offer – 100% Extra Credit

They also have an ongoing student offer that I wanted to highlight here. Students get 100% extra credit when they sign up.

Localphone will give students 100% extra credit on their first top up, to a maximum of £10. They need to register with their academic email address on this page localphone.com/students and receive the voucher code in email. The code will expire after 30 days.

If a student adds £10 credit, they will get £10 free. This is the equivalent to:

United States 5000 minutes
Canada 4000 minutes
India 2000 minutes
Brazil 2000 minutes
Bangladesh 800 minutes
Pakistan 952 minutes
Nigeria 454 minutes
Germany 2857

Full list of rates can be found at localphone.com/prices

Some of the highlights of the Localphone plan

• All new customers receive a 5 minute free call to try us
• Minimum top up is just £1 (or $1).
• No monthly plans or hidden charges
• Rates are over 80% cheaper than our competitors, to more than 250 countries
• Customers can use Localphone from their mobile, landline or computer
• Cheap international SMS as well as calls

Localphone.com August voucher code LPAUG11 gives new customers 10% extra credit when they top up for the 1st time. This offer ends 31st August. This voucher/coupon is for new customers who sign up for the localphone service only.

Here is or experience with the LocalPhone service and a short Localphone review.

I reviewed the Localphone calling service in one of our previous blog posts. I have been using localphone regularly since then. It definitely is the a very robust and easy international calling service.

I have just one  issue with a small additional fee that they charge you, which you can absolutely avoid, if you are paying attention.

When you add a new international number in your address book  in the localphone interface and localphone  gives you a local number to dial which will connect you to the international number, there is a small check box below, which is checked by default. What it does when checked is, it sends you a text message to your cell phone with the local number they assigned you for the intl number you just added and that sms text  costs you 9¢.

I don’t have a problem with the cost or the sms. In fact, its fine if you would rather get the sms and its very easy for you to save the local number from the sms in your cell phone’s address book.

But I would have liked it if the checkbox wasn’t checked by default and I was given a choice to check it if I wanted the SMS. Or even a pop up like, “Would you like the number sent to your mobile for a small fee?”.

So just pay a little attention when you are adding a new international number and uncheck the checkbox, if you don’t want to receive the SMS which will cost you 9¢. Or leave it checked if you want the SMS.

I just tested the India calling service offered by Localphone.com and liked it very much. Localphone.com offers cheap calls to many countries including India for very competitive rates.

To make it easy for you to try the service, it offers five minutes of free calling to a number of your choice to a country that is serviced by them. To try the service you will need to create an account with them by filling out a small form or you can link your facebook account for ease. You don’t need to provide any credit card details yet to try the free 5 minutes .

Once you sign up, it will ask you the number you want to call. Once you provide the international number you would be calling, and the number from where you will be making the call from, it will give you a local number which when called will connect you to the international number. This is the only step that you may not like, but if you are used to dialing long pin numbers to make international calls, then this little inconvenience won’t bother you.

Remember you just need to do this step only once for each international number. Once you set up an international number in Localphone.com and get a corresponding local number, you can use the same local number for your future calls.

I went through the same process to create a local number for the India number I was going to call. As I dialed the local number I was greeted by a recorded message that  it was a free 5 minutes call that I m trying and once the 5 minutes of calling is over the call will disconnect. As the message ended, it promptly connected me to the India number. There was no delay. The call quality was crystal clear and I had nothing to complain. The call ended after 5 minutes was over.

Overall I was happy with the India calling service. I would definitely recommend it to others.

Once the free call is over you will need to add some money to your account to make more calls. Localphone.com does not charge you any maintenance fee, connection fee etc. The rate to India was 1.7¢/minute which is pretty competitive.

If you are looking to find a good and cheap calling service to India, you may want to give Localphone.com a try. You may also want to refer to our comparison of different India Calling Plans.

Voucher code: Sign up at Localphone to make a 5 minute free call. Then, use the voucher code LP2011JUN15 at checkout to gain an extra 15% free credit.  Voucher expires on 30th June 2011.

Just a fyi, if you use PhonePower voip home phone service, their rate to India is also 1.7¢/minute after the 1st 60 mins of free India calling every month.

Vopium, a voip based international calling service, lets you make cheap international call from your cell phones without changing providers. When use the vopium service to make calls, you pay regular local rates to the cellular company and the internationa rate to vopium.

Vopium offers country specific calling plans. Its India calling plan offers 750 minutes of calls at $10.16, which makes the calling rate 1.4 ¢/minute, which is a great rate.

But there is a catch. This is a monthly plan, which means you sign up for this monthly service plan and each month you will be billed $10.16 which entitles you 750 minutes every month. The plan is meant for callers with substantial calling need. You will need to use all the 750 minutes in a month, unused minutes don’t rollover to the next month.

If you have lesser calling need, Vopium offers a pay-as-you-go calling plan. For calling India using the pay-as-you-go plan will cost 4¢/minute.

There are other India calling plans, like Pingo, India LD which are cheaper than Vopium, if you have limited calling needs to India.

But if you have substantial calling needs (750 minutes or more each month) Vopium will be cheaper.

Vopium also offers country specific plans for Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries.

The Lingo Smart Talk Plan offers unlimited calling in USA, Canada and also includes unlimited calls to 35 countries including India.

The plan costs $9.95/month for the first 3 months and $21.95/month afterwards. All start up fees like , set up fee, shipping fee and equipment(Voip Adapter) fee are being waived as a promotional offer. You can try in risk free for 30 days and requires a 1 year contract.

We have tested Lingo for its call quality in USA and Canada and to India and find it satisfactory.

You can get more details about the Lingo Smart talk plan and also the Lingo Hello America plan (which is an unlimited calling plan in US/Canada with no international calling) in our Lingo Review page.