How to cut down on your international phone bills

How to cut down on your international phone bills

By L.E. Nugroho

BANDUNG (JP): All companies doing business in Indonesia come
to the realization that international telephone calls cost
bundles. Using foreign telephone companies and the Internet will
cut the cost of communicating. At least until governments catch
on.

Because U.S. long-distance telephone rates are substantially
cheaper than their Asian counterparts, a handful of American
long-distance companies are now offering their services to
clients in Asian countries. These companies, known as callback
providers, allow a client anywhere in the world to dial up a
computer in the U.S. which, within 15 to 30 seconds, calls
customers back and connects them to destinations via U.S. lines.
The savings are substantial because cutthroat competition among
U.S. telephone companies keeps long-distance rates far
lower than in Asia's less-competitive markets.

For users in Asia, the savings are realized for calls to
Europe or America. In exchange for the savings, though, callback
clients must wait up to half a minute for U.S. computers to dial
back and connect them to their destinations.

Although there are some 200 callback providers worldwide, most
are in the U.S. and the top five account for 60 percent of the
market. Among the callback service providers which are currently
active in Asia are Kallback, MTC, USA Global Link, MTX Global
Communications, and ITC Telecom. Some of these companies have
been offering their services in Jakarta.

You can poke around to find out whereabouts of their
representative offices in Jakarta. They might use a different
company's name (their local marketing partners).

Most of Asia's major telecommunication companies have chosen
to fight callback operators by lobbying their governments to
declare the services illegal. It's almost impossible to block
these services. The only effective way to stop U.S. callback
companies would be to block all calls from the U.S.. The only
thing that will prevent these callback services from becoming
really big is if Asian telecom companies quickly lower their
rates.

Experts predict callback industry sales worldwide will exceed
US$400 million in 1995 and grow to $1 billion by 2000. If an
Indonesian company has a branch office, let say in the U.S. or
Europe, it can use a do-it-yourself callback device manufactured
by KKALL Inc. of Rye Brook, New York. The device is called
Boomering and must be connected to a U.S. phone line. Callers
from Asia will then have access to U.S. phone lines. All they
have to do is call their Boomering number in the U.S. and hang
up. Boomering will call them back within seconds to connect them.

Before signing on with a callback company, ask the following
questions:

* Is the company a member of the Telecommunications Resellers
Association? It should be, because this U.S.-based organization
representing the callback industry has a strict code of conduct.

* Ask how callback services will be provided. Sign up only
with a company that has agents and qualified technical staff in
country who will help solve problems should they arise.

* Check a sample bill to see how billing is done. Only sign up
with a company that provides detailed bills that are
systematically issued. How will payments be made? Are customers
billed or are calls charged to a credit card? And in what
currency?

* Be wary of associated costs. What increments will you be
billed for, whole minutes or 30-second minimums and every 6
seconds thereafter? Does the company charge for busy or
unanswered calls? Is there a loaded up-front charge, the first
minute being more expensive than subsequent minutes? Is there a
set-up charge for handling the call?

* Ask for customer references. Never sign up with a company
before you've talked to existing clients.

Internet

The Internet is doing all kinds of business behind the backs
of the phone companies. If you're already paying for direct
access to the Internet, then your interoffice fax traffic --
whether it's local, national, or international -- can now be
completely free. All you need is a converter at each sending and
receiving location.

PassaFax is a new $950 book-sized converter that connects
standard facsimile devices to an Ethernet LAN and allows you to
send faxes over the Internet and over internal corporate networks
running TCP/IP. During a transmission, two PassaFax units create
a direct connection between remote sites for immediate
confirmation of fax retrieval. Multiple fax machines can share
one PassaFax unit.

As for voice transmissions, a Windows-based software called
VocalTec Internet Phone (suggested retail price $49.95,
http://www.vocaltec.com) uses a vastly different approach, but
the monetary end result is the same.

In the U.S., this software is bundled free with the purchase
of Motorola's Power Class modem (28,800 bps). Another software
company called Ventana Media is also selling the Internet Phone
software (s.r.p. $54.99).

Netspeak Corporation sells software called WebPhone. MacIntosh
users can use Netphone. When coupled with your PC's duplex sound
card and modem with voice capability, it allows for real-time,
full-duplex conversations with other Internet Phone users around
the globe. Since you're paying only for an Internet access
account and a local call to your Internet access provider, the
costs are therefore cheaper than international direct call over
the phone line.

The above schemes are fantastic ways to skirt the system now,
but they may force extensive government regulation of the
Internet in the future. So get in as many Internet faxes and
phone calls as you can before you're charged for every byte that
you send into cyberspace. American Carriers Telecommunications
Association has already filed a complaint to the Federal
Communication Commission and has proposed to block the use of
voice communications through Internet connections.