VoIP has experienced wide growth primarily due to lower costs for long distance calls. While most unlimited plans are for calls to the US and Canada, a significant savings on international calls is possible with VoIP as well. This article will discuss some of the options available to VoIP users who do a lot of international calling.

International calling has been a strong suit for VoIP since it was introduced. Since the early days of VoIP, users have been able to place free or almost free PC-to-PC calls using VoIP. PC-to-PC calls require both users to be running compatible softphones, and international callers were more likely to download and install these in order to save money. In fact, many international callers could not afford to make country-to-country calls before VoIP.

Some VoIP providers still offer free or reduced rate PC-to-PC calls. So you can still take advantage of this when calling other VoIP users that use the same provider and softphone that you use. If this is important to you, check the VoIP Comparison Chart to make sure that a provider offers a softphone as an option, as this will be necessary to take advantage of this.

With the increased growth in the number of VoIP subscribers using ATAs, most VoIP providers now offer international phone-to-phone calling at very low per-minute rates. Use the links to provider sites in the VoIP Comparison Chart to see some of the available rates. Most provider sites include a list of countries along with the per-minute rates for calls to those countries. This will give you a good overview of the types of savings that are available. You can take advantage of these rates using the basic service plan available from most providers.

Many providers have also introduced plans with limited or unlimited international calling. The limited plans allow a set number of minutes for international calls, while the unlimited plans allow any amount of monthly calling to foreign countries. Most of these plans are for business accounts, but some providers offer plans to residential customers as well. The main limitation of these plans is that calls may only be placed to certain countries. You should check the list of countries included in the unlimited international plan that you are considering to make sure it includes countries that you wish to call.

Another exciting aspect of international calling with VoIP is that of having an international virtual telephone number. VoIP offers the ability to assign any available area code to a VoIP telephone number This is called a virtual phone number - the area code can be different from the physical location of the user. This can be extended to international phone numbers by assigning a country code as well as area code that exists in a foreign country. This number will then be available, as a local call, to anyone who calls you from that country and area code.

International calling is one area that VoIP can be used to save money. If you are considering VoIP, and international calling is important to you, you will be pleasantly surprised at the available rates. In addition, you may be able to choose a plan that allows unlimited long distance calls to a country that you call quite often - the resulting savings will be significant.

This article "VoIP International - Long Distance Calling " is Copyright 2006 Compare-VoIP.net and may not be reproduced.

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