The internet has changed the way we communicate. Right now, we can call friends and relatives virtually from anywhere with internet connections. As long as we have the minimum requirements, like internet, preferably broadband supplied by an ISP company or mobile network, computer or any internet connected devices that have access to VOIP or instant messaging programs. Using these applications can save you a fortune in making international calls, which is otherwise not cheap using a conventional phone.
However, this set up has limitations, when you are up and about and away from your home's broadband internet. It can be impractical to carry along laptops, netbooks or tablets to make an international free calls. Another problem is if the contact has crappy or no internet at all.
In the real world, mobile phones are still the most appropriate device to carry and use to call somebody abroad, specially with offline contacts, anywhere. With the advancement of the telecommunications infrastucture and smartphones, the mobile network operators has driven down the prices of international calls into something similar or even lower than a local calls. Mobile operators can provide you a sim card that is used directly to call abroad without dialling any access or PIN numbers. Others use calling cards with access numbers and PIN's.
Inconvenience with calling card credits and other similar international calls method
Calling card system or other similar methods using access numbers and PIN's are easy to top up, but may not be convenient to use when you do not know how to set up your dialling method. Companies like just dial let you purchase a calling credit by texting a code like
bcall to
80550. This will give you a £5 credit for calling abroad. A text message will be sent with instructions on how to use your credit.
Traditional dialling
The screen above shows the amount of credit, the local access number and the PIN number. The PIN is only used when you use your credit using a different mobile phone other than the one you purchased your calling credit. The local access number which is 2 in this case, can be dialled directly from the phone you made the purchase from without entering the PIN. It will then ask you to enter the phone number you wish to dial. This is the most annoying part especially when you can not memorise the country code + area code + mobile or land line number in your head and the worst scenario is when the destination number is within the contacts list of the phone you are using. Going back to your contact list and selecting the number of your contact to hopefully dial it automatically doesn't work when you are engaged in a call. The traditional solution is to write the number in a piece of paper and dial it manually, everytime you are asked to. This might not suite everybody's convenience and you wish there is a way in dialling the access number + the destination number automatically.
Smart dialling
The solution is to edit the access number and add wait symbol ( ; ) or pause(,) between the access number and the destination number.
Format is below:
Two touch operation
Access number + wait symbol + destination number
020724666;00639053407220
or
One touch operation
Access number + pause symbol + destination number
020724666,00639053407220
On an Android Phone (two touches using wait, one touch using pause)
1.Create a contact and type in the access number then press
sym to show the
wait symbol, (or
pause for one touch operation), followed by the complete destination number. Save it and you are ready to dial automatically.
2. When you dial the created contact, the network will prompt you to continue dialing the destination number which is already pretyped, you just need to press yes.
On an iPhone(one touch operation only)
Unfortunately the iPhone doesn't have a wait button, but still you can use the pause
(,) symbol instead to create a one touch direct dialling. The format is
Access number + pause symbol + destination number
020724666,00639053407220
***I tried using
pause instead of
wait which created a one touch operation but sometimes I run up to problems like the mobile signal is drifted into somebody else conversation, other instance it made me answer a call from one caller calling her sister while I was dialling my overseas contact, the person at the other end told me that she was making a call and I answered the phone. Weird!!!! It reminded me of having a party line during the era of old rotary landline phones! With this experience I will recommend the two touch operation, using
wait symbol , rather than one touch using
pause.
On a regular mobile
When making a direct number with access number plus destination number, you can use pause button by pressing the * button until
p appears on your screen.
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