International calling for... FooCall
FooCall. Say it slowly, in two parts… Fook. All. Now say that together? Fook All. FooCall. That’s right! International calling for next to nothing.
I’ve used a lot of international calling services, particularly from my mobile phone. For a long time I made use of an array of services that enabled me to call locally and then use an existing balance to call internationally. When I was having to phone venture capitalists and board members in the States regularly, the costs used to mount up at 24p a minute from British Telecom. Calling internationally from a mobile was simply ridiculous. It still is, even with the ‘international’ option on the account, you’re still billed silly rates. I can call America from my mobile at 5p per minute, because I pay Vodafone a few quid a month extra.
I remember thinking ‘ahh, that’s better’. Because instead of £1.50 (or something crazy), 5p sounds good.
Until you realise that it’s costing Vodafone almost nothing. Yes they need to maintain the mobile cell, but if I can call any landline in the UK for ‘free’ (unlimited, fair use), why can’t I call America for a few pence a minute? You know? 2p, something like that?
Well, the answer is that it’s still a good way to garner cash from us all — and we can’t believe it’s not costing £1.50 a minute, so we pay.
And besides that, it’s convenient, right? Pick up your mobile and dial…
No.
It’s almost a fifth cheaper if you use FooCall. It’s even cheaper if you pay a few pounds a month.
Quite apart from the fact that anyone who’s named their company in that manner deserves my business, I’m delighted that they’ve made an iPhone application to make the experience super simple. I’d like to see them deploy on other platforms too.
Let’s have a look at the application:
This is the main screen. It’s really easy to use. Once you’ve created a free account — that process takes 20 seconds — you can start calling. Literally dial the number you want.
FooCall then calculates a local access point — i.e. an 020 number that counts toward your inclusive minutes. It places the call to the local access number and automatically dials your destination for you.
This all happens in about a second. Within moments you’re connected. Done.
Now let’s talk about rates. By default, it’s 1.2p/minute to the United States from the UK. That’s a pretty good rate in itself. But if you’re calling regularly, you might like to take note of the FooCall FooPlan. It’s £2.75/month and reduces that rate down to 0.8p/minute.
Of course, that’s a popular route. Let’s pick out some random ones from their list:
UK to New Zealand? 1.4p/min
UK to Bahamas? 3p/min
If you’d like to confirm your reservation at The Sanctuary at Parrot Cay on the Turks & Caicos Islands? 13.7p/min.
You can even call Antarctica. That’s 100.7p per minute — but drops to 67.2p if you’re on the FooPlan.
FooCall isn’t just about the iPhone though — you can use their web-based service very easily. Just login, click ‘call’, select or type in your desired number and boom… this screen appears:
Pretty nifty, eh? That’s a unique number for you that puts you straight through to your destination without any messing around.
I particularly like that if I add a contact on the iPhone app, it’s synchronised straight through to the web version of FooCall too.
This is one of those services that, even if you don’t call abroad regularly, you should definitely have sitting on your iPhone — so that when you *do*, it’s easily accessible. Download the FooCall iPhone app from this link — and when you setup your account, you’ll be credited with 50p’s worth of credit to get you started (enough for a 41 minute call to the States!)
Nice work, FooCall!
