See immediately what readers had to say
View 12 comments

Do you want to make international calls at the lowest rates possible? If you didn't know, there are many Internet services that allow you to make low-cost phone calls to any mobile or landline phone on the planet using only your computer, your mobile phone or even a traditional telephone set. In this MasterNewMedia guide you will find all of the best services that can help you make free or almost-free, low-cost international phone calls to anywhere in the world.

Photo credit: Photo-Dave

To make cheap international phone calls via the Internet, one can utilize one among the many Internet-based VoIP calling services out there.

All of these services allow you to place VoIP phone calls via one or more of your preferred communication devices:

1. Via Computer: Instant messaging tools enhanced with VoIP capabilities like Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, Live Messenger and others, allow you to make cheap international phone calls among other users (e.g. Skype users can call other Skype users for free), but also let you call landline or mobile phones for very low rates.
2. Via mobile phone: Recent mobile phones that support fast networking technologies like 3G or HSDPA can seamlessly make international VoIP phone calls. You only need to download and install the mobile application of your preferred service to get started.
3. Via VoiP-enabled telephone: Several manufacturers produce telephones or external phone adapters that support the VoIP protocol. You can make VoIP calls just like you would make any other standard phone call. The only difference is that your phone must be connected to the Internet either via Wi-Fi or via a standard Ethernet cable.

Once restrained only to computer-computer communications, the VoIP protocol has come of age during recent years and now you can make VoIP phone calls also from your landline phone, your Internet-connected mobile and any other device that is able to connect to the web at much lower call rates than with traditional telephones.

Let's see an example of how you can save money to make an international phone call by using Skype, one of the services that has greatly fostered the adoption of VoIP technology all over the world.

1. The first step is register online with Skype and buy some pre-paid phone credit. You can do this by using your credit card or an online payment service like PayPal.
2. With that phone credit you can now dial, directly from your computer, any telephone number, landline or mobile out there on the planet while paying much lower rates than those charged by your traditional telecom provider.

What many people do not know yet, is that services like Skype, can be accessed not only from desktop PC or laptop but also from many mobile phones that are Internet-enabled as well as from traditional telephones when matched to one of these low-cost international calling services.
In essence, you can make cheap international phone calls by using any of the services reviewed in this guide, some of which allow you to call (and some even to receive) from your computer, while others allow you to make phone calls directly from your mobile phone or traditional landline.

To make it easier for you to evaluate the best service to make cheap international phone calls, in this guide you will find a comprehensive mindmap, a comparative table and a set of reviews to help you make the right choice.

Here the criteria I have used for my comparison:

• Receive phone calls, not just make phone calls.
• Send / receive SMS text messages
• Voicemail service
• Availability of a mobile phone version
• Operating system supported

Here's a roundup of the best tools to make low-cost international calls available out there.

N.B.: The present roundup of tools to make cheap international phone calls is still incomplete. You may want to bookmark this page (simply hit CTRL+D on your Windows keyboard or CMD+D on your Mac keyboard) as I will be adding more services in the coming weeks.

As a side note, I would always recommend to use a headset if you want superior phone call quality. Even if to make VoIP phone calls a headset is not compulsory, having an external mic and headphones can greatly help to reduce echo and ambient noise.

How To Make Cheap International Phone Calls - Comparison Table

How To Make Cheap International Phone Calls