cheapest way to ring ireland from australia

j4vier

hi
looking to move there pretty soon for a few months

i had a look at the various mobile operators but I'm struggling to find who has the best deal

i was told to get skype out which allows to ring ireland landlines at 2c per min

however i must ring a local number for that first
ideally i would also like to have a data plan for using the internet on my phone

if anyone can point me in the right direction that would be great

thanks

Ozeire

Best thing to do is buy an international calling card and ring using that . You get the best rates and can call from any phone . Normally just dail a low cost or freephone number then use that to call the number in Ireland .

drunkmonkey

You can use 3 like home in Australia, so data, calls and texts will come out of your irish allowance as long as your on the 3 network there.

Ozeire

yeah true but still would be paying at least 34 Euro cent a min to call Ireland from Oz on your mobile .

Where as if you buy and use one of the internation calling cards you'd be paying 2 or 3 cent a min big difference .

red menace

If you have access to the internet Gmail will let you make calls for 2 cents a minute to a landline and 17 c a minute to mobiles
Also you can do free gmail to gmail calls as well

Number 5

j4vier wrote: »

hi
looking to move there pretty soon for a few months

i had a look at the various mobile operators but I'm struggling to find who has the best deal

i was told to get skype out which allows to ring ireland landlines at 2c per min

however i must ring a local number for that first
ideally i would also like to have a data plan for using the internet on my phone

if anyone can point me in the right direction that would be great

thanks

I use skype out all the time and don't have to dial a local number first.

candy chaos

I started using Skype to call landlines at home since I've been in Canada. My mam won't use the computer with the webcam and it was useful if I had to call the bank at home or someone who doesn't have skype set up. I'm moving to New Zealand next month and it I'll be using that for home calls while I'm there.

I got unlimited calls to Irish landlines for about 7 dollars a month. It's more or less the same from Australia to call Ireland. They have subscriptions for landline & cell phones too. You can get some that are worldwide calls or you can pick and choose countries. You can find the info on Skype.com and look for 'pay monthly.'

Anyway it suited me because it meant I could pay by the month, I didn't have to go to a payphone and also and I know it will be handy when I'm in NZ from next month.

I found the quality of calls on gmail was so crappy it was hardly worth using it except to do quick local calls here.

s.c

Ozeire wrote: »

Best thing to do is buy an international calling card and ring using that . You get the best rates and can call from any phone . Normally just dail a low cost or freephone number then use that to call the number in Ireland .

You'd want to be careful using these from mobiles. Sometimes you cant use the free/low cost number from mobiles and have to use a different number which can work out fairly expensive.

galait

If you have fixed broadband you should consider an account from blueface.ie

You then get an ATA and connect your regular cordless phone to it
http://cgi.ebay.ie/Cisco-Linksys-PAP2T-UK-unlocked-VoIP-Adapter-ATA-/250783181779?pt=UK_Computing_Networking_SM&hash=item3a63d7abd3

or get a
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Siemens-Gigaset-A580-Cordless-Phone/dp/B001IBGW7U/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1300786915&sr=1-1

which will handle your Irish Blueface Number as well as your Local Australian standard line.

My sister in Sydney has been using the first option for over 5 yrs with no issues , No PC's invlolved and calls both ways are charged as local,

Also my nephew is now in his 3rd different country using the second option and again his parents can contact him for the price of a local call and again no computers involved which in my opinion is the best part of the solution.

Mahatma coat

cheapest way
Get a Job in an office and use their Phones

candy chaos

Ha! You wouldn't be long in the job My company have international calling codes you have to get permission to - I'm sure I'd be caught rapid!!

Second that on the international calling cards, they're not great for calling Irish mobiles the credit just vanishes.

spunkymunky

Get a lyca mobile sim card. At the moments I think its 1/4c a minute to ring an Irish landline or 20c to mobile. I use it and it works fine!

j4vier

thank you all for the replies
seems several options are available

that lyca sim seems interesting