Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum

Hi!

Just wanted to know which is the cheapest way to make international calls from Dubai.

We were spoilt for choice in London, not only with international phonecards but also systems like telediscount, where you call through a specific number for the country for pennies. Is there anything similar? Or any good international cards? Where do you get them?I need to call to Latin America and Europe.

Need to find a cheaper option, as at the moment calling from a hotel is quite expensive (no surprise there!)

Thanks

Julieta

Julieta,

Unfortunately there are no such calling cards here. Until recently, the telecommunications sector was a monopoly.

Your best options would be via IMs or VOIPs. Try Skype if you've got web connections/internet cafe. Do bear in mind that in most parts of Dubai, access to the Skype webiste is barred. But should you already have it installed and have credits left over, then it wouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, if you're only here for a while perhaps just passing through, seeing that you're residing in a hotel, your options are even more limited.

Maybe Latin America and Europe can wait?

Enjoy Dubai! Cheers!

Thanks for your reply, although it did not include any good news for me!

Unfortunately, I am not here for a while, but for a long (yet undefined) time, so will have to save up for those phone calls!

I am still in a hotel because we are waiting for our furniture to arrive from London. Well, my only consolation is that when we'll have our own telephone line it will be cheaper tham here!

Cheers,

J!

Julieta,

Did you find a cheap way to make phone calls to South America?. I haven't moved to Abu Dhabi yet, but once there I will be calling to Colombia very often.
Thanks...

Dear Indi,

My advice, start saving NOW, as there is NOT a cheap way to call anywhere! Sorry to be the porter of such bad news, but welcome to the UAE, the land of monopoly and barred internet sites!

If you're technically savy, do a search, lots of info on here on how to overcome the “hurdles” you are facing.

If not many internet cafes will allow you to call, for Argentina the going rate is AED 0,50/min but can be negotiated if you become a regular customer. I would assume other places in south/central America would be at similar rates.

Enjoy.

Fayz,

Thanks for the enlightment! I am not that technically savvy, but to be honest, haven't really tried much yet. Will give it a go at Internet Cafes, can you recommend any around Emirates hills?

Cheers

hmmm, I'm not very familiar with that area but you are relatively close to Media City/DIC, if you head down in that direction with your laptop you can skype away at one of the WIFI spots with no troubles.

Good luck

I think you can download Skype from http://pages.ebay.com/skype/
But Etisalcrap plan on blocking VoIP using traffic monitoring software, so I am not sure how long this will last. Don't get your hopes up about the new company, Du, either. I believe that this is short for Duopoly, which is a joke because they are both owned by the same person.

If you are making calls to a particular country, it may be worth opening a local VoIP phone account. You then login to your account from here and get local call rates for your country.
Most of these sites are not blocked yet because Ecrap have not worked this out yet. Just do a search for "VoIP phone".

Thanks for the tip, benwj! Hope it works (or rather that I work out how the hell to do it!)

try http://www.voipstunt.com

it works great, I've been using it for a while. It's free for most European countries.

ciao

hey

I'm still a bit new to all this - but did you say that the Skype website is blocked in Dubai? How come you can access it if you already have a skype account?? I'm a bit confused (nothing new there!!)

Thanks

the_zooter wrote:hey

I'm still a bit new to all this - but did you say that the Skype website is blocked in Dubai? How come you can access it if you already have a skype account?? I'm a bit confused (nothing new there!!)

Thanks

Its alright, it's a funny old world here! If you already have Skype on your system you can access the service, but all the VoIP sites here have been blocked by the monopoly government telecoms provider as it loses them money. Outside Media and Internet Cities, we operate from behind a proxy server and you cannot get onto the web site for Skype to upgrade or use any of their other services.

You'll soon sort it out when you get here!



Knight

How skeptical of you Knight!
Don't you mean that skype is merely "inconsistant with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates"?
Zooter, You may see this quote quite often when surfing the net over here. Generally, anything that is remotely related to p<3n, gambling or Jewism is blocked, but worst of all, if the web site is taking revenue from the locally owned telecom provider.
They don't realise, that if their prices were competitive with the rest of the world, people would not need to use skype etc.
As I said previously, they are trying hard to find a way to block VoIP (skype/msn messenger etc) traffic, so we can only hope that this is not successful.
Thanks for the tip walla. PC to Phone for nothing, Unbelievable!

Thanks guys - I'm slowly learning!! When I finally get there, hopefully it will be less of a shock!!
But are they really going to block access to MSN messenger?? My life will be over lol
And what is all this about finding a hotspot in DIC? So if I drive round there with my laptop and find a wifi hotspot, I can surf the internet where nothing is censored??

Thanks again guys

the_zooter wrote:Thanks guys - I'm slowly learning!! When I finally get there, hopefully it will be less of a shock!!
But are they really going to block access to MSN messenger?? My life will be over lol
And what is all this about finding a hotspot in DIC? So if I drive round there with my laptop and find a wifi hotspot, I can surf the internet where nothing is censored??

Thanks again guys

Thankfully MSN Messenger has been able to avoid any tampering so far as it's far too big a network and purely text based. Likewise Yahoo Messenger is no problem. It's purely the voice channels they are blocking and only the sites that offer them.

There may well be some hotspots in DIC/DMC but you are probably going to be treading on someone elses wireless network. Check out some of the posts in the Technology forum that deal with proxy bypass and webtunnels, whatever they are!



Knight

Just go down to Marina Walk, buy a coffee , switch laptop on, and surf away all day/night.

And......... no proxy

Sounds like a plan! Hoping to live in the Marina area anyway.
So if I take my laptop down the Marina Walk, grab a coffee and sit opposite another English guy surfing and slurping coffee, is it likely to be you Arnie?

the_zooter wrote:Sounds like a plan! Hoping to live in the Marina area anyway.
So if I take my laptop down the Marina Walk, grab a coffee and sit opposite another English guy surfing and slurping coffee, is it likely to be you Arnie?

Not too likely seeing as Arnie lives most of the time in the UK....

Fair enough - by the sounds of it - he spends most of his precious time on Dubaiforums!!

Arnie is clearly a capitalist socialite 'who lunches'!

"Double GandT's all round?"



Knight

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PAY LESS & TALK MORE!!!

yeah whatever.

my phone bill back to the uk over a 5 month period or so was 1000 pounds, or 7000 AED. i was alyways calling a uk mobile and always using standard wasel top ups.

if you need to, its the only way! just try not to need to!