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If you have to call the United States while you are in the French West Indies, you have options in addition to pay telephones with either euro coins or prepaid cards.
If you have an AT&T Universal Card, you may dial
0 800 99 00 11
from any telephone which gives you a dial tone. Your call will be answered by an American AT&T telephone operator asking how to assist you. If you wish to make a call you must have a way to pay for it, hence the Universal Card, AT&T's telephone/ credit card. The Web site gives very specific step- by- step directions.
NOTE: We have received notice that things are changing with the AT&T Universal Card, but we have not gotten full details. As of May 31, 2005, "calling card numbers" are being deactivated, but the ability to use the credit card to pay for calls remains. How this will affect the overseas toll- free number has not been explained. This may be a result of the acquisition of AT&T by Cingular and the separation of the credit card function from the calling card function. If you use AT&T (and have used the link in the following paragraph), before your trip be sure to confirm the features you use overseas are still available. The AT&T Calling Card is an option instead of the Universal Card; there is no charge for the basic Calling Card; frequent callers can get fee- based cards with discounts on rates.
The AT&T Business Traveler Web page has a list of countries with directions on how to place calls to the United States. NOTE that the French West Indies are listed under "French Antilles" by island, rather than under their island names. The AT&T site also contains a great deal of additional information for travelers, whether on business or pleasure. Links include translation services, laptop help, a clickable map for country codes, a printable U.S. telephone keypad so that when you are in a country with no letters on the keys, you can dial "CALL ATT" or other numbers which have letters, instructions on how to dial other countries from the U.S., and much, much more. This is a very helpful site for persons calling overseas. Recommended.
The AT&T World Traveler page has links for printable wallet cards, access numbers you can download to your PDA, local time, and country and city codes, available for AT&T's USA Direct program. Calls cost 99 cents per minute from the covered countries, plus a connection fee of 89 cents (you can call several numbers without making a new connection).
If you are using MCI's Calling Card, the number in the French Antilles is
0-800-99-00-19
for access to MCI's automated instructions on how to proceed with your call. This number appears to be valid in all French dependencies, as well as on mainland France.
The International Calling page contains links to information on calling the US from abroad, with a list of toll- free numbers available to holders of MCI's Calling Card There are instuctions on calling with your card from and to the US, country codes, WorldPhone access numbers, and instructions on connecting your laptop and using WorldPhone.
NOTE: (Sheesh! Another note.) Verizon and MCI announced on March 29, 2005, that Verizon will acquire MCI. What this will do to the market is beyond our scope. Be sure you check all your numbers, cards, and wallets before you travel overseas expecting to use AT&T or MCI.
If a family member or you are planning on spending a substantial amount of time abroad, check with each company's Web site for international call plans. For a small monthly charge, international rates can be had for under US$1 per minute.
The Global One Calling Card allows access to telephones in Guadeloupe and Martinique through a toll- free number. Access numbers are available online. Global One charges a monthly fee, a connection fee (and a pay- phone fee if you use a pay- phone), plus the per- minute fee for the calls. Calls may be billed to your credit card, and there are frequent flyer miles on about a dozen non- US carriers.
Zaptel offers prepaid domestic and international calling cards. You can purcahse international cards for calling overseas from the US or for international cards to the US. Prices vary according to the location. Zaptel lists the French Antilles and Guadeloupe, but not Martinique, St. Barths, and St. Martin. The list distinguishes between landline and cell prices. We selected the French Antilles for a 30- minute calling card (to the US) and received a list of eleven cards from different vendors; prices varied, needless to say.
SpeedyPin Phone Cards also offers prepaid cards to and from any country. It, too, lists French Antilles and Guadeloupe, and it offered four cards for us to choose from. Prices varied as did the cost details -- one minute rounding, three minute rounding, connect fees or not, and weekly fees whether the card is used or not. Read the fine print.
United World Telecom has a different take. Many countries have a monopoly in charge of the telephone system, and prices are higher than calls placed in the US. So with UWT, you place a quick call to a US number from your host country, dial in the telephone number you are calling from, UWT calls you back at low US rates, you dial in the number you really want to talk to, and you get connected. If the rate to call your host country from the US is cheaper than the rate to call from your host country to the US, you pay less money for that return call. The telephone you use in your host country must receive incoming calls. If your local phone won't make long distance calls, you may still be ahead to use your cell phone to set up the call back to your local telephone. Note also that you are not limited to calls within the US. You may use UWT to call from Guadeloupe to St. Barth, to Paris, or to Nairobi.
If you have access to a computer with a headset, consider theswitchboard.ca. You must register ahead of time and the people you wish to call must also be registered. Through an internet connection, you may make free internet phone calls, leave voice messages, and do instant messaging and email notification. We have not tried theswitchboard; their site says that it works over modem connections, so it may be a workable option in the islands where modem connections are prevalent. It is unclear to us whether the called party must already be online for the connection to work; if so, a schedule will be required.
Cognigen provides access to several different vendors. Use the menu on the left of their Web page to select the service you want and follow the links to get a list of long distance vendors and prices. There are some remarkable prices available from VOIP vendors which we have not tried; VOIP from the French Antilles? We do not know how well this works.
Ekit is another access service promising global calling cards at savings of "up to 70%." A distinctive offering at Ekit is the ability of people calling you to leave messages at no cost to them. Additional services include leaving your travel itinerary online (safely), government travel warnings, and online document storage.
Phone Shark provides calling cards online -- just print them and take them with you. Cards for calling from the French Antilles are few, but you get to compare connection fees, rounding increments, maintenance fees, and taxes.
Pin City provides international rates like the others, but in addition, Pin City allows you to register your cell phone for the lower rates. You still will pay whatever the cell rate is for a call, but you will get Pin City's lower rate for your international calls to the US. Check to see if this combination is less than your cell phone provider charges.
Mobal Rental offers to rent cellphones and satellite phones, but they have an interesting alternative -- a $49 cell phone with no monthly fee. This phone does not work in the United States (but their $99 phone does). It works in over 140 countries (the $99 phone works in the US and 160 countries). You buy the phone and get a UK telephone number which remains the same no matter where you travel. Then you pay nothing till you use it. Per-minute rates are high -- $1.50 for outgoing calls within the US, $1.75 for incoming calls; $1.95 for calls within Guadeloupe (includes St. Barth and St. Martin), $3.95 for calls from Guadeloupe to the UK, US, and Canada. And don't forget that people calling you pay for a call to your UK number. The place for potential savings is that there are no monthly fees to maintain the account; you provide your credit card number for billing, and they mail a statement in addition to deducting the charges on your credit card. Their phones are locked and cannot be used with SIM cards from other providers.
Gizmo is an Internet calling service which says it works fine with dial up connections. Calls to other Gizmo users are free using your computer on the Internet (Windows and Mac now; Linux Real Soon Now). The interesting thing is that you can get CallIn for $5 per month -- you get a number in the US or England (a limited number of area codes), and people can call that number and reach your computer phone; they pay their rate for a call to that area code. If you live in California or St. Barth and have frequent callers from Manhattan, get a 212 area code number. Another option is CallOut, which lets your computer call any landline or cell phone for 1.8 cents per minute within the US. A call to France is listed as 4.9 cents per minute, but we were unable to get a full list of countries to see if the Caribbean is listed.
WebPhone is another VoIP service vying for our attention. It is PC only, so we cannot try it. Sign up, download the PC application, pre-pay for some time, and make a call from your PC to any telephone. As with all computer 'telephones,' you need either a microphone/loudspeaker or a headset with mic/earpiece. Costs are 2 cents per minute within the US and more for calls from France. We cannot tell from the Web site if the French West Indies are considered France. The service has no fees other than call time; if you choose the Plus package for $5 per month, you can choose a US phone number in any area code so that friends or family can call you at a number local to them, which you can answer on your computer at the 2 cent-per-minute price. They also offer a calling card for those times when you are away from your computer.
Skype (rhymes with 'type') is a proprietary peer-to- peer networking phone service. Since it is peer-to- peer, it scales well as users join; however, since it is peer-to- peer, Skype uses your computer and internet connection to carry the traffic. You may recall KaZaA, the music-sharing program; Skype is by the same guys. Computer-based calls between Skype users are free, and there are fee-based adjuncts that let you call and receive calls from regular telephones (charges for these calls are about two cents a minute). If you do not mind having VOIP telephone calls made by other people routed through your computer and using your bandwidth, and if you do not mind having Skype's program accessing your fixed disk (there is no option to disable this use of your processor and your connection), Skype may be just the ticket for you.
Talkity is a VoIP service that is Web-based. Open your browser, type in the telephone number at your location and the telephone number you wish to call, then click the Connect button. Your telephone will ring; pick it up, and listen to the ringing for your called party. No headsets or other connection through your computer. On the day of our visit calls within the United States were 2 cents per minute, and calls between St. Barth and the US were 11 cents per minute. You must register ahead of time (you get 30 free minutes upon registration, and you must "deposit a credit balance ... by credit card." We have not used Talkity, so we are not sure how much is required. No software is required, only a connection to their Web site to enter the two numbers and to click connect.
Sorting through the thicket of rates, maintenance charges, connection charges, taxes, rounding increments, and the like is a daunting task. If your cell phone works in the French West Indies, you may find the convenience outweighs the lower cost of struggling to find a payphone and getting through to your access number. Remember also that getting online in some parts of the islands is more difficult than in the US and that the staff at cybercafes varies in technical abilities and in fluency in English.
Conversely, not having a connection to the US is just fine, too. It is a vacation, after all.
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