The beauty of International travel is that we can completely cut off from our work, social circles etc for a few days. Of course, by switching off our phones. However, there are always a few people we end up calling every day. And that turns out to be very expensive. International roaming plans are exorbitant and ISD calls, even from local sim cards, are not cheap. If you freely use your Indian SIM card while abroad, you will most likely end up with a bill more than your flight and stay cost abroad.
But if you have access to wifi, 3G or 4G Internet connection (through a local sim from the country you are traveling to), you can make data or wifi calls to India @ as low as 1 cent per minute (approx 60-65 paise) with a simple app called Hangouts Dialer. And I am talking about good quality call. Of course it will also depend on the Internet connection, but it works fine on most of them.
How to call India for cheap?
Installing and using Hangouts Dialer is pretty simple. Just like your normal dialer.
Head to Google PlayStore and download Hangouts Dialer. Open, confirm your phone number and you are good to go. On iOS, it’s a part of the main Hangouts app.
Step 2: Recharge.
Click on the plus icon on top right of the app and recharge with a minimum of 10 USD.
Step 3: Call.
Click on hangouts dialer and call by choosing a contact or dial the number directly from a keypad. Check all rates here. You will be surprised. Calls to USA are mostly free and dirt cheap to several other countries. These rates are fixed for calling to a particular country. It doesn’t matter which country you are calling from.
Hangouts Dialer vs Whatsapp Calling.
Whatsapp also provides excellent sound quality. But it lacks the option of calling phones (mobile or landlines) directly. The other person needs to have the app installed and should be in an area with good Internet connectivity. On the other hand, Hangouts Dialer lets you call phone numbers directly. So it doesn’t matter even if the other person is not connected to any data network.