Australian Calling Rates

I can no longer depend on free nationwide long distance from my cell phone to call my g/f as she now lives in Australia. One plan is to use Skype with its "Skype Out" feature, the other is to use calling cards. Here are the results of a quick calling card investigation I did to find the best rates to Australia.

First, note that when calling Australia via a calling card the recipients phone line type is factored into the calling rate. Calling an Australian land line tends to be much cheaper than calling an Australian mobile (cellular) phone line. The type of telecom technology used for the originating phone call (e.g. the phone that places the call) has no impact.

Second, if the calling card is not specifically an international calling card it will most likely have a listed number of minutes. These minutes are usually for domestic nationwide long distance and NOT for international calls. You must check with the calling card company (as I did for the three examples below) to get exact rates to the region of the world you want to call. The domestic cards will then tell you the ratio of minutes charged to actual minutes talked. For example, calling Australia with one AT&T domestic phone card is charged at a 6:1 ratio. That is, for every one minute of talk time, six minutes are actually deducted from your bank of minutes.

Third, some calling cards round up to the minute others round to the second. Obviously the latter is preferred but watch out for connection fees, cards that round to the second often charge you a buck or two every time a phone call is successfully connected.

Three phone cards I investigated re: Australian rates

1. $14.99 - 150 domestic long distance AT&T ($0.09 a minute)
   From: Best Buy
   Rate 1: 6:1 minutes ratio for USA to Australian cell phone ($0.60 a minute)
   Rate 2: 3:1 minutes ratio for USA to Australian land line ($0.30 a minute)
   
2. $21.95 - 600 domestic long distance AT&T ($0.04 a minute)
   From: Sam's Club
   Rate 1: 12:1 minutes ratio for USA to Australian cell phone ($0.44 a minute)
   Rate 2: 4:1 minutes ratio for USA to Australian land line ($0.15 a minute)
   
3. $19.98 - Sprint International Calling Card
   From: Sam's Club
   Rate 1: $0.11 a minute for USA to Australian cell phone
   Rate 2: I'm not sure what the rate difference is to call an Australian land line.

I have been quite happy with the Sprint calling card. The line quality is good and there is no connection fee. By the way, the Australian country code is 61.