Fone Forum

Localphone (www.localphone.com) has recently decreased its calling rates to India and they now stand at 1.95 pence/ min. I have tried this service in the past and it has a good voice quality and is quite reliable. You could use the service for direct mapping of your destination number to a local number or as a normal calling card.

However, they too seem to be affected by recent tax changes to Pakistan and rates for Pakistan stand at 10.3p /min.

Regards
Nik

Localphone has reduced its charges a bit for India and new charges are 1.9p/min. I also saw that they reduced Pakistan charges also to 7.9p/min. Not sure if you can get Pakistan cheaper anywhere, but it is cheap for India calling- although nothing as good as Mikael's SMS topup service ;)

I don't call India, but 7.9p / min. to call Pakistan is expensive.   ???

Although Mikael's service needs extra credits to call Pakistan, other 0870 services do not (in the week, Mon - Fri).  So Pakistan can be called for ~ 5.9p / min. if you have to pay for your 0870 calls (or free if you have inclusive 0870 calls from BT).   ;)

That  depends on your supplier. 5.87p a minute is the BT Peak Rate,if you are not using inclusive minutes. Many other suppliers charge more to call 0870 numbers.

Sky Talk charge a rip off 10p a minute peak, 8p a minute cheap, to call 0870 numbers,and Virgin Media charge 9.79p a minute at all times. ::)

None of this detracts from my point that Pakistan can be called for 2p less than LocalPhone's 7.9p / min.   :o

All that your comparative 0870 pricing figures do is to show the folly of not using BT for your NGN calls!   ;)

I completely agree with HiPD that there are services which are cheaper than Localphone. For that matter you can use a vodafone sim directly to call India/pakistan and many other countries @ 5p/min only (only landlines- mobiles are costlier @ 15p/min).

But the point here was that Localphone's services can be used through your mobile as well. The 0870 numbers are very expensive on mobile and most of the people prefer to make calls through their mobiles (if they are on move or don't have access to landlines). I was just pointing out one option available for calls through mobiles and fully agree there may be cheaper/ better options out there.

As far as I can see Nik, nobody has challenged the 1.9p rate to India being a good one.        :)
However, it may have helped if you had mentioned the PAYT 5p option sooner, as most of the debate has surrounded the 7.9p rate to Pakistan.  The 5p rate undercuts even the 0870 service options ( unless one has inclusive 0870 calls on BT that is. )        ;)

I was merely pointing out the 0870 rate varies depending on your supplier,you cant assume that everybody that reads posts on this site is a BT user.

If you had said 5.9p from a BT line i wouldnt have mentioned it. :)