PHL Chi-towner

Sorry to add another "how do I take care of this telecom issue" thread; searches have come up close-but-no-cigar when seeking comparable queries.

During an upcoming leisure trip to Japan I will be taking part in one or two business conference calls occurring back State-side. What recommendations do you have for 2-4 hours worth of calls to the US? Rental cell? Calling card? VOIP?

I'll have access to the hotel phone, wifi, and an iPhone.

Thanks for your help.

railroadtycoon

I think SKYPE is pretty cheap and I use it when needing to make calls stateside to a phone.

jib71

Either Skype or get a colleague to conference you in at your hotel.

joejones

I have tried using Skype for international conference calls with very poor results. It works fine for calling my parents, but for some reason it gets bad connections to conferencing services every time I try it (lag, stuttering, dropping out), and I find that intolerable for business communication with multiple counterparties.

Getting someone to conference you in seems like a better idea. Many conferencing services have local Tokyo or Japan-wide toll-free dial in numbers which you may not be aware of, so you might want to double-check that as well.

Taiwaned

Skype is not as reliable for QUALITY conference calls as I wish it was. It still is my number one choice for calling home etc.

Try WebEx (webex.com) Found them to be more stable than Skype for conference If you use the free trail (I think 3 times) it would be good enough for your one-off.

Steve M

Given that you've ruled out Skype, here are two suggestions:

1. Get an AT&T Prepaid Calling Card from Wal-Mart. It's priced in terms of $0.05/minute for US domestic calls, but can be used for int'l at higher rates. It costs something like $0.35/minute to call from Japan to the US. Charge it up with enough value to handle your expected usage prior to departure, and get the Japan local access numbers from the AT&T website.

2. Just call from your hotel room. It's been my experience that IDDD from hotels in Japan is NOT the ripoff that *any* long distance typically is from a hotel in the US. It might even be cheaper than the Wal-Mart card. Those of us based in the US are so conditioned to NEVER use the hotel guest room phone for long distance that it often doesn't even occur to us to check what the rates are in other countries.

Keep in mind that with both of the above, you may not be able to access toll-free numbers in the US, so make sure that you have a non-toll-free phone number for your conference bridge.

PHL Chi-towner

Thanks for the helpful feedback, all. I'm leaning toward a calling card with a VOIP backup. Will certainly check the hotel rates, too. Other suggestions, recommendations, and experiences still welcome.

joejones

My experience is that 800/877/888 numbers for conferencing services are billed as regular international toll calls if you dial from overseas (and there is a warning to this effect before you connect).

Takire

Onesuite VoIP service is prepaid so you can forget about it after the conference call. Pay $2.95 to get a US phone number (based on your area or the are you pick) then give the phone number to your business partners. If they are going to call you then you pay nothing more. If you are going to call them then you pay 2.5c per minute.

Use X-Lite 3.0 or PortGo softphone as both has conference features.

BTW, the $2.95 fee is a monthly fee for the VoIP service. It's up to you if you want to continue using it or not.