Calling the US from the French West Indies

We have updated our page Calling the US from the French West Indies to include some new information on both phone-based and VoIP-based services.

We have some issues with all the providers. Calling cards often round up to the nearest minute and may have connection fees and other charges which raise the real rate above the advertised rate.

If you use Skype, theswitchboard, Gizmo, or other VoIP telephony, you must have either a computer with a built-in microphone and speaker or a headset, and your called party must be online at the time of your call. Yes, that's the equivalent of being home, but the phone ringing is more likely to get an answer than a call in to a computer that is not being used or is off.

We have other issues with Skype, though. It is peer to peer, which means your computer is used by everyone's software to handle all calls. This is very handy for the company, as it means Skype does not need central servers, but it means your processor time and bandwidth are being used by others.

Skype also has the following statement in its privacy policy:

In order to provide You with VoIP Services or other services You have requested, Skype may sometimes, if necessary, share Your Personal and Traffic Data with Skype’s Affiliates (as defined in the End User License Agreement), carriers, partner service providers and/or agents, for example the PSTN-VoIP gateway provider, distributor of Skype Software and/or VoIP Service and/or the third party banking organization or other providers of payment services. Skype will always require these third parties to take appropriate organizational and technical measures to protect Your Personal Data and Traffic Data and to observe the relevant legislation. Please be informed that, notwithstanding the abovementioned, in the event of a designated competent authority requesting Skype or Skype’s local partner responsible towards such authority, to retain and provide Personal and/or Traffic Data, or to install wiretapping equipment in order to intercept communications, Skype and/or its local partner will provide all necessary assistance and information to fulfill this request.

I read this to mean Skype will share your personal data (data that identifies you) and that it will install wiretapping equipment to monitor call content if requested.

Contrast this policy with that of Gizmo.

Back to the communications, there are a couple of interesting services. Mobal offers a cell phone that will not work in the United States. It costs $49 and comes with no minutes. You get a phone number in the United Kingdom, and you pay nothing until you use the phone. The per-minute charges are high, but it may be cheaper to own this phone and not use it for eleven months, then have it for use in the French West Indies for a few weeks - and it does work in the Caribbean and Europe. You keep the same UK phone number no matter what country, and you do not need different SIM cards as you go from one country to another.

And Talkity offers a Web-based call-back service. A Web connection is required; go to their Web page, type in the telephone number where you are, the telephone number you wish to call, and click Connect. Your phone will ring; when you pick it up, Talkity will dial the number you entered for your called party. No headsets, no talking through the computer, in fact no high speed connection are required. Charges for a call between the United States and a 590 telephone number were 11 cents per minute when we checked today. This is higher than strictly computer-to computer VoIP telephony, but you get to use a real phone and you do not need a high-speed connection. A dial-up connection in your villa will work, just so you can make that initial connection to Talkity.

Louise and I prefer not to be at the beck and call of work during our vacations, but if you need the connectivity, there are a number of ways to achieve it. Check out the sites we review at Calling the US from the French West Indies to see which fits your style of travel and vacation, including handling missed calls (on both ends) and having voice mail.

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