what's the least expensive way to call israel from the usa?

[Ori Berger]

Michael Shiloh wrote:
> calling cards and skypeout have been recommended, but i haven't yet 
> compared prices. what other options are there?
> 
> i'm calling from california, if that makes a difference.
> 
> michael

Depending on the volume and your access to a server.


You can get voip termination (equivalent to "smtp" -- letting you 
originate calls from a voip device) for ~1 cent/min to a landline, ~9 
cent/min to a mobile. grnvoip works for me (they have "regular routes" 
and "premium routes"; Terminating in Israel, regular routes are good 
enough. Terminating in the US, I switched to premium because regular is 
not good enough for me).

As for how you actually make the call -- you can run a SIP server at 
home if you have the bandwidth and reliability, or you can get a VPS for 
$8/month and do that remotely.

The following thread may be helpful:
<http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/pipermail/linux-il/2009-January/000059.html>

If it's a low call volume, and you don't need flexibility then skypeout, 
olehphone or just getting a 012 smile (area code 072) in Israel and 
taking the adapter to california may be preferable.

Ori.