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New long-distance options could save you $$$

Listen up. Your options for making international phone calls at a reasonable cost are increasing almost daily.

A new service called TalkPlus launched in May, allows international calls for a few cents per minute. About 600 people are signing on every day, finding out about the service mainly through word of mouth, said Jeff Black, chairman, founder and chief strategy officer of TalkPlus.

The service has limited usefulness for deployed troops. You must have a land line phone or mobile phone that can accept incoming calls. A satellite phone will not work. The cost is about 5.3 cents per minute, and assuming inbound calls to the mobile phone are free, there would be no other charges.

If you’re looking for options to keep in touch easily and cheaply, check it out.

Rates vary by country. A call from the U.S. to a land-line phone in South Korea costs 1.7 cents per minute; to a mobile phone, 5.9 cents per minute.

There are two types of services. At TalkPlus Global, you enter your phone number and the number of the person you would like to call. TalkPlus calls you first, then the person you’re calling, and connects you. It’s a prepaid service, so there are no contracts, monthly fees or hidden charges.

You can check out the per-minute rates before you make the call. To get started, sign up for an account, put $5 on it, and you’re set.

Another option through TalkPlus is a subscription service called Country Connect that gives you access to international phone numbers. This service will not work in Iraq or Afghanistan, as they are not among the 30 countries in the program.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you’re stationed in Japan and your mother is in Iowa. Your mother could get a phone number in Japan, for $12 a month, that rings at the phone in her house in Iowa. When you call that number from Japan, it’s a local call, and you pay only the cost of the local or in-country call.

Your mother pays the TalkPlus Country Connect subscription rate of 2.7 cents per minute — plus the $12 a month. The monthly charge for Country Connect varies.

You can try it free for 10 minutes.

“My dad was in the Air Force for 30 years, and I lived at nine bases,” Black said. “It was hard to stay in touch with friends because my phone number was constantly changing. You can keep these numbers.”

News on other phoning options

•Vonage has a promotion for the military community, with two free months of unlimited local and long-distance calling (valued at $49.98), and a free router to enable the phone calls (valued at $49.99), when you sign up for its unlimited local and long-distance calling plan.

Go to http://www.vonage.com/armedservices for more information and to sign up. After the two free months, the unlimited plan costs $24.99 a month, but there are less expensive plans with fewer minutes. There’s no contract, so you’re not locked in for any length of time.

You can buy a Vonage “V-phone” for $39.99 and take it with you wherever you move or deploy. You also take a phone number assigned to the phone. Plug the phone into your computer, and it’s a local call.

If you’re deploying from Georgia to Iraq, when you make the phone calls from Iraq to your family in Georgia using your Georgia phone number, it’s a local call. It works the same way when friends and family back home call you.

You can also use the free router, which allows you to use any standard phone through the Internet. You can unplug the device and take it anywhere in the world. It’s important to compare options, because in this case, using the router system with your phone will cost more than using the V-phone.

Vonage also has a deal just for Military Times readers. E-mail your name and phone number to vonage-raffle@vonage.com to sign up to win one of four V-phones and six months of free unlimited local and long-distance calling service. Winners will be drawn June 29.

•AT&T just announced it is donating about 15,000 prepaid phone cards to the nonprofit group Cell Phones For Soldiers this year and another 15,000 next year. The group, founded by two teenagers, recycles donated cell phones and uses the money to buy phone cards for troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. Go to http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com or call toll-free (800) 426-1031 for more information.

The group provides the AT&T Military Exchange Prepaid phone cards that are designed to work and provide the cheapest rate at AT&T call centers in Iraq and Afghanistan, ranging from 19 cents to 22 cents per minute.

It takes a little effort to figure out what costs and features fit you best, but at least you have options.

Got that? You’re good to go.