Best way to call overseas?

[Imhotep]

I'm in the US and (like to) frequently call friends in Indonesia and Somalia. Skype used to be an inexpensive service but it seems they have raised their prices. Can anyone recommend a service?

[GreenePony]

Sorry, nothing new- we use Skype for our international calls. My husband telecommutes and it found that the most reliable, most affordable option (some of his coworkers are in Israel, Australia, and Canada while we are in the US). My parents have Vonage and were not impressed by their service.

[jacib]

If both parties have a smart phones, the app Viber is free and works quite well (that's how I keep in touch with friends in Turkey--it's especially nice because it let's me text them, too, like I could when I stilled lived in the country. It also can work on wifi signal in addition to cell phone signal). There are other similar apps as well, so if you're not satisfied with Viber, there might be ones you and your friends like more.

For calling other types of cell phones in Turkey, Penny Talk was the best deal that we found a few years ago and my family just kept adding money to the account. Calling card plans like that can be quite affordable; shop around and there are some good deals. It might actually be that it makes the most sense to buy two different calling cards, one for Somalia, one for Indonesia. I think we just googled a bunch of things like "cheap calls turkey" and "cellphone calling card turkey" for like half an hour until we got a few offers and then just chose the cheapest.