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.