J.E.T., Phone Home
If the internet is to be believed, there are something like 2.5 billion phones in the world. Chances are, you’ll want to call at least a few of them while you’re a JET.
If the phone you want to call is in Japan, no problem: just dial area code and phone number, get connected and wait patiently for your perfectly reasonable phone bill to come.
It’s when the phone resides abroad that you get into trouble. Calling anywhere else in the world from Japan can be an experience that ranges from mildly tricky to hugely expensive. It took me a while after I first arrived in Japan to figure out all the ways to call home. It took me even longer to figure out how to work the answering machine, but that’s a different story.
What I learned (about calling internationally, not about working the answering machine) is that there are quite a few options, and with just a little research you can find the one that works best for you.
Direct dial
Direct dialing a foreign number is the international calling method that takes the least amount of work up front. You pay for that convenience, though, as direct dialing is also expensive. For instance, a 10-minute call to continental America could cost upwards of 600 yen (about $5 U.S.).
If you like paying a lot for things, or find yourself in a position where you have to make a directly dialed international call, there are a couple of tips you should keep in mind.
First, unless your phone has been previously configured, you have to punch in a few extra numbers to make a direct dial international call. The first numbers you dial let you choose which carrier you’d like to make the call with (all seem to charge about the same rate, though). Some common carriers (and their codes) include KDDI (001), Japan Telecom (0061) and NTT (0041). Once you have entered your carrier code, you have to punch in 010, just for the hell of it, I think. Then you have to dial the proper country code. Then, at last, you can dial the area code and number. So, if you want to use KDDI to call grandma living in New York, “just” dial 001-010-1-212-123-4567.
Second, like in many other countries, rates are often cheaper on nights, weekends and holidays, allowing you to talk just a little longer for the same price.
Prepaid phone cards
If you still want the ease of making international calls from your regular home phone but don’t want to pay the high direct dial fees, one option is to get a prepaid international phone card. Cards are available at pretty much any convenience store you come across, in international airports and online.
Using the card does require you buy a card first, but since you probably pass four dozen conbinis on your way to work, that shouldn’t be too hard. Once you have the card, making an international call with it is about as complicated as direct dialing. Just call the number on the back of the card and follow the instructions you hear.
You can save a pretty good amount over direct dialing with a calling card. Using KDDI’s Super World Card, for instance, will save you between 11 and 38 percent. That same call to New York grandma could cost as little as 370 yen ($3.20).
Callback services
Callback services offer the ability to call internationally using your home phone at rates that are even cheaper than calling cards. When you sign up for a callback service, you are given a specific number to dial to make international calls. Call that number, hang up, wait for your phone to ring (callback, get it?) and then enter the number you want to dial per the instructions you are given.
I’m not really sure of the specifics of how a callback service works, but I do know it works for cheap. My wife and I have used Talkback, a callback service based in England, since we’ve been in Japan. We’ve been reasonably happy with the service from Talkback, although sometimes it takes a while to get a call back. We’ve also been pretty happy with the rates. If you want to call New York grandma for another 10 minutes using Talkback (you must be her favorite grandchild by now), you’d spend about 140 yen (about $1.20 U.S.)
VoIP
I can’t believe I’ve gone 13 paragraphs without mentioning the word “computer” once. Luckily, VoIP will help me rectify that situation.
VoIP, or voice over internet protocol, is a new-ish technology that allows you to make phone calls using an internet connection. Since you aren’t using a telecom to make your call, you don’t get charged telecom rates and can thus make ridiculously cheap international calls. On the downside, you also aren’t using the decades of telecom infrastructure, so you may experience the occasional dropped call or slow connection using VoIP (although things are getting better pretty fast).
To start making VoIP calls, first you have to install a VoIP application on your computer. Then, as long as you have a system with microphone and speakers, you can start making computer-to-computer calls (i.e. calling computers with similar VoIP applications on them) for free. If you want to use your computer to call regular landlines or cell phones, you’ll need to buy “call out” credits. With those credits in your account, you can dial pretty much anyone in the world and feel like a fool talking to them on your computer. If you want to feel less foolish (and improve the quality of the call), you can invest in a headset to use with your computer or an adapter that lets you use your regular phone on VoIP networks.
The most popular VoIP application is probably Skype. Lots of people use Skype, so you’ll be in good company if you go that route. If you want to be different, though, there are tons of other VoIP providers to choose from. I’m a big fan of the Gizmo Project, and especially its integration with PhoneGaim, an instant messaging client and VoIP application all rolled into one.
VoIP is hands down the cheapest way to call internationally. One more 10-minute call to New York grandma will set you back about 25 yen ($0.21 U.S.) with Skype and a piddly 12 yen ($0.10 U.S.) with Gizmo.
Summary (with tables and footnotes!)
Now, because I was a science major in college, here is a table comparing rates for all the services discussed above, and some footnotes explaining how I came up with the numbers in the tables. Hopefully this will help you keep in touch and keep some extra money in your pocket.
Rates for five international calling methods
| Method | To U.S. (yen/min.)1 | To U.K. (yen/min.)1 | To Canada (yen/min.)1 | To New Zealand (yen/min.)1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct dial2 | 50 | 140 | 160/100 | 260/140 |
| Phone card3 | 42 | 99 | 58 | 99 |
| Callback4 | 14 | 12 | 14 | 14 |
| Skype5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Gizmo6 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
Notes
1. When necessary, rates were converted to yen from U.S. dollars or U.K. pounds using XE.com’s currency converter on 1 March 2006. I just chose some random places that people I know call.
2. Direct dial rates calculated using KDDI’s economy rates, available weekdays after 7 p.m. and all day weekends. Rates from other direct dial providers are similar.
3. Phone card rates are calculated using KDDI’s Super World Card rates. Specifically, the price of a 7000 yen card was divided by the “maximum conversation time” listed for the card.
4. Callback rates taken from Talkback.
5. Skype rates calculated from Skype’s SkypeOut rate page.
6. Gizmo rates calculated from Gizmo’s Call Out rate page.