Last post under this subject we talked about physical (snail) mail and some strategies to handle it.  This time I want to talk with you about phones.  The world of telephones, especially Internet telephony, or VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is changing so fast that many don’t even have a concept of what’s actually available out there today.

The simple bottom line is, you can live in the Philippines as if you were still living in the US with a properly set up phone system.  And, if you are handling your US phones the way I was, before I moved, you can save a bundle just by moving you voice services into the 21st century, in the Philippines or in the US.

If you are still paying a legacy phone company for a land line monthly subscription charge, you really need to ask yourself, why?  You do not need a land line.  The only reason most people are doing it is because Americans have for years, and people seem to expect it, etc., etc.  I’ve been living without a land line now for nearly two years and I have yet to miss it.  Looking back I recall how many land line calls I got that were solicitations and ‘dreck’ that I didn’t want in the first place.  There is no method I know of that will let you keep your current US land line number and have it ring in the Philippines … but you don’t need to.

Suppose your current US number is very, very important to you?  OK, you can move to the Philippines and keep that number in the US if you really want to.  Just order voice mail and call forwarding for it … assuming you don’t have them already … and get your calls and messages by one of the methods I’m going to suggest below.  Change your billing address to the US presence snail mail address I covered in the last post of this series … and there is no need for a paper bill, ever, pay the bill with your US banks online bill paying service.  Presto.  Done deal.

To receive calls in the Philippines as if you were in the US there are two simple and related ways I am going to suggest. They both essentially work the same, just small differences in price and equipment.

Vonage:

Before you move you have the option of switching to Vonage (actually there are competitors to Vonage for VOIP service you might want to check out, but I’m using them as a known-to-work example).  For something like #25 USD per month Vonage will give you a ‘real’ US phone number.  You can pick one in your local area or, as many of my friends have done, pick one in the local area of a friend or relative whom you expect to be making a lot of calls to you.  To them, your phone number is just like any phone number.  They need no computer, no Internet connection, they need only to know how to dial a standard phone number and talk.

At the other end of the Vonage service you have to have a little box that is plugged into a broadband Internet connection.  Standard phones you already own then plug into the box (technically this device is a IP router), or, if you8 chose the right box, wireless US phones will also connect.  A person calls, the phone rings, you answer.  To call out to the US, you pick up the phone, get dial tone and place a call.  A three-year-old can handle it.

I have several friends here in the Philippines with Vonage and we use it all the time to call from one Philippine location to another … the fact that the call ,logically routes from the Philippines to the US public phone system and then back to the Philippines doesn’t matter.  It costs nothing (aside from the monthly subscription) and the call quality is typically better by far than if we made the call over the standard Philippine telephone network.

Aside from the modest monthly cost, I know of no reason not to say everyone should get Vonage before they move.  I know of no problems at all that I have ever had nor any of my friends who use it … it just works.

Notice I have said several times that you need to avail of Vonage before you make the move.  That’s because Vonage will not ship you the router you need to use the service outside the US.  So you should have it before the move and carry it with you.  You can, though, use any of a number of US to Philippine shopping services to get the Vonage box sent here if you want to sign up, with your US address, after you have already made the move.  But I have two even better ideas…

Skype:

Skype is a world-wide VOIP, messaging and specialized messaging service that essentially ‘does it all’.  It’s the service I currently use.  You can dial my number, 1-719-966-4295 and if I am at my computer, I’ll pick up.  Skype can be used to call computer-to-computer anywhere in the world, totally free.  You just download a free agent program to your machine and anyone else who has Skype can call … or you can call them.  But your bank, for example isn’t going to call you from their computer.  So, you buy a "Skype In" number for $60 a year and anyone can call and talk as long as they want.  They pay whatever it costs them to call that standard phone number, you pay nothing. 

At your end, it is totally free if you receive or place calls on your computer.  For as little as $50 or so, you can buy a box (Amazon is one source, there are literally hundreds of others) which plug in to any Internet connection and let a regular phone connect over Skype, exactly as the Vonage router described above does.  My Skype has been working fine for months no … I have absolutely no complaints and the voice quality is at least as good as when I used to make expensive ‘conventional’ land line calls.

An extremely "kewl" thing about Skype is, you can select inbound numbers in any of 21 countries: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong S.A.R.(China), Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US.  So if you have friends or relative outside the US whom you want to stay in close touch with, you can order a "Skype In" number that is local to them.

Most people buy a combination plan from Skype.  the most extensive is $12.95 a month, roughly half of Vonage’s plan and allows virtually unlimited calls to 34 different countries.  You can’t get a much stronger calling plan than that.

Yahoo Messenger:

I wouldn’t feel I was giving you a complete picture without mentioning an old standby that for some reason no longer gets much respect.  Yahoo Messenger, a free application you can download to your computer will give you text, video and voice messaging to any other Yahoo user in the world.  For a small subscription fee, Yahoo will also give you a ‘real’ call in number like Skype or Vonage, and Yahoo offers various outbound calling plans as well.

Normally computer to computer, there are Yahoo router boxes you can buy from dozens of online sources that work as the Skype and Vonage routers do, so you can receive or place calls from your home here in the Philippines on a standard phone.

The last point I feel is important about Yahoo is .. Yahoo voice will work quite adequately over a dial up Internet connection.  Yes the voice will be more compressed and choppy than on a full speed connection, but you may be somewhere that you can not get a broad band Internet connection.  Most people, for some reason, think voice requires high bandwidth, but I have used Yahoo Messenger for many hours to and from the Philippines via dial up (in the old days, dial up at both ends) and it works.  Could be the solution that gets you around a problem, so give it a look.

OK, there’s at least three ways to live in the Philippines telephonically as if you were still in the US
and every one of them will save you money over what most people are paying in the US.  can’t argue too much with that,.now can you?

Next installment we’ll look at the actual methods available to get things moved here to the Philippines.  If you have questions or comments, feel free to let me know … I want to make this information as useful as possible.

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