Fone Forum

I came across this site - http://www.azabutel.com/ (http://www.azabutel.com/).
According to them -

Make free international calls to 21 countries with Azabu Tel. Just dial our access number in Tokyo, and then call overseas. It's fast, it's easy, and best of all it's free.

Is it really free?
Azabu Tel provides international long distance calling for free to 21 countries, however you are responsible for the cost of the call from your phone to our gateway. This means if you make a 30 minute call to Canada, you are going to be charged by your phone provider for a 30 minute call to our access number.

Our access number is located in Tokyo, Japan. If you have questions about what it will cost to call our Tokyo number, please check with your phone provider first.  

It seems that there is no time limit on the call.
Hope this is useful to someone.

Thanks for posting about this, Getcopy. Information about any international callthroughs are always most welcome on this forum. :)

This looks like an interesting new thread, not least because Japan is a cheap country to call from the UK.  Thank you getcopy.        :)

However, the OP would benefit from some guidance regarding calling instructions.

After dialling 0081 3 4580 0235, you wait for the prompt, and then dial 010.
After that, you can call the follow on destination number, by using the full international code, including the country code.

Anyone making a test call of this service is invited to report back on how they find it below.

Although this information has been on the forum for some 8 months now, I have just discovered some more about this service which is worth sharing with members.        :o

Firstly, my post immediately above is now incorrect about needing to dial 010 at the prompt: you don't !        :o
( This may be a recent change in the service. )        ;)

Secondly, another change is that you DON'T now dial the number you wish to reach in full international format, unlike just about any other callthrough I have used before !        :o

The procedure now is to dial the following in this order:-

Their access number 0081 3 4580 0235;

When it answers, dial 2 for instructions in English;

THEN dial your country code, without 2 leading zeros, followed by your number.        ;)

For example, to dial the new Irish callthrough ( which seems to connect during Irish peak times ! ) input 353 700 xxxxxx.        ;D

HTH.

I have just tested this service this morning, and it seems to connect to the Irish 700 service during off-peak times too. :)

Thanks for this information correction Graham.       :)

Seeing that it was your good self who first told me that it stopped working at 6 p.m. in the evening, how appropriate that you should correct your own earlier advice !        :o   ;D

..is this the reason why this company went bust ??  ::) ::)

Their website is off...

dlR

I'm not sure why this thread has been revived after two and a half years however, it is my understanding that a lot of these types of services - the ones which operate on geographical telephone numbers, stop being economically viable when the telecoms regulatory authority forces down termination fees to a point where they no longer cover the outgoing leg of the call.

There are a couple of call-through services currently operating on Tokyo numbers though I forget the details right now.