How can we reduce the cost of international phone calls below the high
phone company rates. I would like to find a "dial around" service
which bills directly thru our normal phone bill rather than going thru
a credit card. I tried two and had problems. Does anyone have
first-hand experience with a reliable dial around service?

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Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 17 Mar 2003 15:50 PST

In which country and/or province or state are you in? Also, what is
your local phone company?  Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by swisscheese-ga on 18 Mar 2003 02:00 PST

USA, Verizon.

Did you try 1016868 from PT-1?   www.1016868.com lists rates and info.
I've used it for international and the bill comes as a printout
attached to my regular local phone bill.  Price per minute differs
depending on what country you're calling.  My only problem with them
was that Customer Service (1 888 660 5377) is not available on
Sundays.

Cryptica - Thanks - it worked and their support was good. -- Swisscheese

There's another option to reduce the cost of international calls.
Since you obviously can communicate through the Internet, why not use
an Internet phone capable software or instant messengers with voice
capability such as Yahoo IM or AOL. The down side is the other party
must also be online.

feilong - Thanks but the parties are not on IM. Also I've found the
audio quality not so good. -- swisscheese