alternative to skype international calls

We weren't blown away by ChatTime in our tests but we can see where this can offer an inexpensive calling solution that many overseas-callers will find valuable.Skype is one of the most popular VoIP services currently on the market. It doesn't provide the quality audio experience you get when going through traditional telephony, but its pricing plan and ease of use offer good selling points for the product. We also liked how the application showed you the local time of the destination you were calling before you finished placing the call, and the always-shown credit balance helps you know exactly how well you are doing in your call budget.įor these reasons, ChatTime seems to offer a good budget-minded alternative to international Skyping.

Plus, you can use this service without Wi-Fi access, since it uses your normal minutes instead of the Internet. The handset integration was quite well done, and felt a lot more native to the iPhone than Skype calls. Not too shabby, that, especially considering that the local airtime for the AT&T PAYG account used for testing concurrently charged $0.70 for the same call. A 7-minute call to a Switzerland landline charged out at $0.13. If you're looking for inexpensive overseas solutions, there's a lot to be said for ChatTime. Another tester said the dropouts were noticeable but so long as the conversation was continuous, you could pick up the context. So I think I heard her go from 5 to 7 without hearing 6'. One of our testers commented, 'I noticed during the counting that sometimes the numbers would cut out.

Most importantly, we experienced audio dropouts during our tests (mostly consisting of trying to count rhythmically, as the connecting party repeated the numbers synchronously.) Lags were quite significant ranging from about 1 (landline) to 2.5 (cell connection) seconds.

We found the audio quality to be marginal at worst and acceptable at best. TUAW tested out the app, calling overseas to the UK and to Switzerland. You can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu.

Alternative to skype international calls