a.journey.of.my.life

This is always an interesting topic for a person who works abroad while his/her families are staying in the home country. He/she will try to find a the cheapest way to be able to communicate with them.

Just like me right now; staying in Riyadh, whilst my wife is still in Yogyakarta, since I need to proceed my iqama (Saudi’s government ID) before I can be a sponsor for my wife. and she’ll be able to enter the Kingdom (that’s what we call Saudi Arabia) with a family visa/resident visa.

With VoIP access technology, I figured there are three types of communication that I can utilize.

1.Mobile2Mobile/PSTN call

Mobily (an GSM/WCDMA operator in Kingdom) offer SR 1.6 per minute call from Mobile to one favorite number in Indonesia, either it is a PSTN Number or Mobile Number.

The quality, some people said, not really good. Because, in order to get that ‘call price per minute’, they will transfer the call via VoIP Gateway, and that’s why the quality is not really good.

But, in term of price, it really save some money. Compared to normal internaional call which cost SR 2.2 (off-peak rate and SR 2.3 (peak rate), it does save around 27%. But, compared to the following alternatives, it gives the highest cost.

With assumption I make a call 10 minutes per day, then for a month I will spend SR 480

2. PC2PC call

VoIP call with PC2PC call is very cheap, even it’s be free if you know how and when to use it

From office, I don’t have to pay. because the bandwidth usage is paid by Eric**on =)

But, if I want to make a call from the apartment, I need to register to Mobily Broadband Solution which cost me SR 100 for 1GigBytes for 1 month. Not bad…

The other thing is, my parents don’t familiar with this technology. It takes sometime to educate them. So, I can’t do this immediately.

With the same assumtion, I will make a call for 10 minutes per day, for 1 month I will spend = SR 100 + IDR 350000 = SR 240

I assume that IM2 with Wireless Broadband Solutuion will give a better price and quality in order to make a VoIP call.

3. PC2Mobile/PSTN call

Ok. we arrive to the last alternative.

My family in Indonesia don’t have to set up anything. I am the one who needs to subscribe to Mobily Broadband Solution that cost me SR 100 for 1Gig. And also, I need to buy a Skype Credit that cost me SR 0.4 (PSTN) and SR 0.7 (Mobile).

I think this would be a better solution. With assumption that I won’t make a call into mobile; means that I onlu use PC2PSTN VoIP call. For a month, with the same assumption as above, I will spend SR 220. Consist of SR 120 on Skype Credit + SR 100 on Mobily Broadband Solution

So, that’s it…

I found the cheapest way to make a call to my home country…

Thanks to Mobily and Skype

PS: I put a simple table compare those three options. Sorry not to put in a good series