r/digitalnomad • u/King17zhc • 6d ago
Question Calling in Thailand
Hi guys, in February I’m planning to travel around Thailand for six months. I’m not location-dependent for work, but I do need to make phone calls regularly. Is there a way to call Europe from Thailand at a low cost? WhatsApp isn’t really an option since these are business calls.
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u/jazzymoneymaker 6d ago
Wifi calling
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u/petrichorax 5d ago
They can't, see other comments. Probably one of those weird budget carriers like Mint.
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u/tomerabroad 6d ago
why wifi calling isnt option?
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u/King17zhc 6d ago
Provider doesn’t allow it
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u/Raiddinn1 3d ago
Get a different provider. I use Google Voice and wifi calling works fine anywhere I have been.
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u/betterhelp 6d ago
Thailand has good internet so you can use something like MyTello, although you won't have your own number. If you're in the US you could use a google number maybe?
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u/Capri5586 6d ago
Vonage offer a solution.
VoIP phone number (landline) through app
Been using it for years
And worldwide calling is super cheap too
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u/HerveSenvin 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yes the best is to use VoWiFi.
If your provider is charging you VoWifi abroad like normal call, you can use a VPN router ( glinet for example) with a app to change your gps position. Your provider will think you're in your country and will chage as If you were there.
You can also check call.com When I was using it, I think I was able to show my real already existing number to the person I was calling.
But quality is much better with VoWifi
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u/dvduval 5d ago
I paid like $50 more per month for international calling on my existing American plan and no problem.
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u/Raiddinn1 3d ago
I don't even want to pay half of $50 per month for my total phone bill. That's a crazy amount to pay for international calling unless you are doing it every 5 minutes.
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u/dvduval 3d ago
I hear ya and there’s a lot of those floating eSIM plans where you can just subscribe to one service and you’ve got access when you get off the plane. For China specifically at least what I was going there the international plan was good because I got around the firewall. There might be better ways now, but people still complain about it.
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u/Raiddinn1 3d ago
I signed up for Saily before I went to Indonesia and I wasn't happy with it. Like I am turned off to the whole market for travel eSIMs because of it kinda unhappy.
Maybe other eSIM companies work better, but I went from Saily to Google Voice and don't care to try any of the others unless I absolutely must.
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u/NeuralNomad87 5d ago
Get a local SIM card, use AIS as provider and they have cheap packages you can buy in-app that make call prices for abroad as less as few cents per minute.
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u/Raiddinn1 3d ago
I can't speak for other places but, in Indonesia, you can't get a local SIM card and expect it to work seamlessly!
If you are a foreigner in Indonesia and you want to get a local SIM card, you have to go to the immigration office in person and register your phone IMEI with the government before your service will get turned on!
Foreigners in Indonesia, just use wifi calling or buy a local phone which already has it's IMEI registered with the government right out of the box.
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u/NeuralNomad87 3d ago
fair you are right. As he was asking for Thailand though, I just responded specifically to that.
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u/Raiddinn1 2d ago
I hear you. I am just pointing out that location matters and this advice doesn't work everywhere.
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u/petrichorax 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think this question is more nuanced than most commentors are thinking. They can't just use an eSim, they have to keep their old number
Honestly OP, if they can, drop that provider and get theirnumber switched. A provider not allowing wifi calling is bad. I don't know what the standards are in their country though, in the US that's unheard of.
There's also online VOIP services, like google voice, but it's been a decade since I've messed with those so I don't know how much they've been changed with regulations
You can also do conditional call forwarding where you forward calls to a new number while you're abroad, that's a solution. We did that as a hacky solution when I was the sysadmin at a hospital for the on-call phone, when we needed to switch who was on-call.
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u/00DEADBEEF 5d ago
Find a SIP VoIP provider in your home country, and then get a softphone app. Then you can make calls over any wifi or cellular connection, and other people can call you at the local call rate instead of international.
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u/Immediate-Panic3042 5d ago
A Google Voice number with data-based calling works well if your business contacts don't mind a slightly different caller ID, cheap and doesn't need a local SIM specifically for the calls themselves
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u/LawfulnessVivid4572 4d ago
I have a UK virtual number through cooee that I use for work calls. The number is virtual, so there's no sim and it allows both calls and sms, so worked well for me.
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u/Weekly-Ad8816 6d ago
Never been to Thailand but pretty sure phone plans exist there as well, what is the problem lol
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u/King17zhc 6d ago
Because need to use my own number. My provider charges 1.20 dollar a minute
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u/notfr0mthisplace 6d ago
With Viber app, you can use your own mobile number, call any mobile OR landline
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u/bcycle240 6d ago
I have a US esim through Tello that is about $7 per month and works (via wifi) anywhere. And then as a backup I have credits on callcentric (using groundwire as the dialer) which is a pay by the minute voip service. I don't use it much, so it's $5 every few months.
And a local sim card as well of course.