Calling international telephone numbers from the US to land lines in the Philippines can be confusing enough all by itself. If you add cell phones to the mix, it gets even more confusing. Prompted by an email question from a reader, I'm going to explain how to call both land lines and cell phones from the US to the Philippines. It's simple, but I forget how to do it and I live here. My first response to the email was wrong.
Calling Land Lines in the Philippines
I don't know when people started calling regular telephones land lines. It was probably when cell phones became globally ubiquitous. It doesn't matter now, I suppose.
To call from a US telephone to a Philippines land line, you have to dial a long string of numbers, starting with the international access number. The string looks like this: 011-63-city code-phone number.
The city codes can be found in major telephone directories. I won't repeat all of them here, but the city code for Manila is 2 and the city code for Olongapo, where I live, is 47. To call my home phone, you would dial 011-63-47-phone number.
Calling Cell Phones in the Philippines
The place in the calling sequence for the city code, when it comes to cell phones, is replaced by a 3-digit number which has nothing to do with any city. All cell phone numbers in the Philippines start with 0. My cell phone number prefix is 0907. When you dial internationally, you have to leave the 0 completely out.
If you wanted to call my cell phone, you would dial: 011-63-907-phone number
Expensive Calls
Dialing via the international access number of 011 is the most expensive way to call the Philippines, even if you use a phone card. The best rate you can possibly get is more than 5 cents per minute, even if you get a preferred country plan.
If you have relatives you call in the Philippines frequently, like my wife does with me, it makes sense to invest in a way to make your phone calls as cheap as they can possibly be. You should set up a cheap PC at the destination, sign up for the country plan through Skype and designate the US as the country. I don't want to sound like the poster child for Skype, but they have one of the most effective VoIP systems in the world.
A PC can run as little as $600 in the Philippines. The Skype monthly service charge is about $6.00 right now, and it includes the ability to have a local US number (usually in the same city where you live) at no extra charge. Your relatives can then call you or you can call that "local number" and speak to them for up to 10,000 minutes per month. It would then be a local call on your phone, making it cost nothing but your time (if you're using a cell phone to call).
Trust me. Your investment will pay for itself quickly even if the initial outlay seems expensive. With phone cards, you could easily spend more than $1000 per year. If you consider that you can also use instant messaging for texting, PC to PC and from cell phone to PC (at an extra monthly charge from you cell phone service provider), the benefits of using Skype far outweigh the investment. You can't top this deal even if you have one of the best cell phone plans in the world.
Similar Articles:
- Land Lines vs. Cell Phones
- Why I use Skype for my International Long Distance Telephone Service
- Is magicJack Better or Cheaper than Skype for Calling the Philippines?
- How to Call Internationally for less
- Cell Phones in the Philippines
This article is published as: How to Make Phone Calls from the US to Philippines Cell Phones
Why hasn't google taken over all the major communication channels yet? with all their finances, and global domination, it should be free to talk to anyone anywhere with only the cost of looking at one of their ads every time. Mock me if you want to, but its coming:)
I don't know, I'm not totally convinced that the market would be lucrative enough to attract Google's attention, personally.
I sometimes wonder why big guns like Google and Microsoft are utilizing this field.May be because there are already many competitors in this field.BTW nice written and explained article.
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@Find Name By Phone. I must agree with you sir, the competition is so great, plus the fact that there are some services which offer free calling abroad such as Skype of example. I dont think that Microsoft or Google are willing to set up a free service, do you?
I cant see them becoming involved in the near future, however we cant rule it out im sure.
There are a lot of cheaper ways to call to Phillipines
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we are using voip in our center, we are using eyebeam to call USA. i am wondring how to call cellphone in philippines using voip.what are the prefix? i am from philippines..
Ignore my email address but i'm trying to call my girlfriend but it's either ringing and says the number is disconnected or it says it's rejected. Help please?
It could be any number of things and I really can't help.
Do I put a 0 before the cell phone number? I tried both ways and it doesn't work though.
The only 0 is at the 011 at the beginning. The 0907 code, for example, would be 907 only.
Do I have to dial 011 if I am calling from a cell phone in the US? I know I have to do that when calling from a land line, but I seem to remember calling my wife there last summer and just dialing 63 + her number. AS a matter of fact, the number for her on my contact list is just +63 and the number
I don't have the answer. I'm not in the US.