Roland and Rolf, thanks a lot for your help in this matter. Your telekom
situation seems to be what it was here in Brazil until a few years ago,
before they privatized. It got better afterwards... :)


Roland wrote:

>>>>I did some online research, but pretty much all I came up with are ca=
lling
>>>>cards with cheap rates for calling _to_ South Africa. My own calling =
card
>>>>has a rate South Africa to Germany of USD .29, which is the cheapest =
I've
>>>>seen so far. The access number is listed as 09-882-338-662-3500 -- th=
is
>>>>looks awfully long; is this a toll free number in South Africa? Or if=
 not,
>>>>what kind of number is this (is 09 the area code)?

> The number looks really odd to me.=20

To me too :)  But it seems to be:

09 (international calling prefix)=20
+ 882-33 (the "international networks" number plus the Oration Technologi=
es
code)=20
+ 8662-3500 (the actual number)

> A few peculiarities on our numbers; The number you list doesn't look to=
ll
> free, those always have '0800' preceding.=20

That would be national toll-free numbers. This doesn't seem to be a
national number.=20


> And as far as I know, between here and almost anywhere in the world, th=
e
> call into SA will be the cheaper.=20

That's what I figured by now, too. At least originating from the
"well-connected" (that is, cheaply connected :) countries like USA or UK.

Do you know Skype.com? That's Internet telephony. I used to use
Net2Phone.com, which isn't bad either, but they had odd disconnect proble=
ms
lately, and Skype doesn't seem to suffer from this problem. Pretty cheap
international calls, if you have a halfway decent internet connection.

Another possibility when you can't use Internet phone and have those stat=
e
monopoly rates is call-back. I used to use that a lot before Internet
telephony became viable here. I've seen a number of providers announcing
services for SA.


> We have a local service for queries on international rates, testing
> numbers etc, reached locally on 0903 So, externally that would be +2790=
3
> (got a feeling 0903 is a.. constant, query number, anywhere in the
> world?)=20

903 is not international. Actually, I don't know any country where this
would work. I think those "special" numbers are quite different in every
country.


> Also, I've never heard of the term 'calling card'=20

That's something very common in the USA, either pre-paid or post-paid. Yo=
u
get a usually toll-free dial-in number which you call, digit your access
code, and then get a dial tone and can dial your call. The charges are
either taken off your balance (pre-paid) or later billed (post-paid). The
advantage is that you can use it from any phone:=20
- public phones (don't need nickels, and quite often it would be impossib=
le
to make international calls from public phones without a calling card or
something similar),=20
- hotel phones (they usually have exorbitant rates, but using a toll free
number is often free or at least cheap),=20
- a friend's phone (without charges to his bill).

Then there are international calling cards; work the same, but with dial-=
in
numbers in different countries. Sometimes the dial-in numbers are not
toll-free, but it still may be worth it to call a local number to get
cheaper international rates. My international calling card enjoyprepaid.c=
om
is pretty cheap from the USA to almost anywhere, and here in Brazil they
have a local number in S=E3o Paulo. When I cannot get to an Internet phon=
e,
it's still cheaper to pay long distance to S=E3o Paulo and then their
international rates than to pay the international rates of the local
telephone companies.=20

I guess these "calling cards" once used to be actual cards, but they aren=
't
anymore. They are just a combination of dial-in number and access code th=
at
you buy access to or sign up for.


> As far as rates go, my Telkom tariff rate for 2005 says;=20
>=20
> Destination      Standard time      Global Off-peak time=20
>                  Fixed   Mobile     Fixed    Mobile=20
> Germany          R2.00   R2.70      R1.80    R2.40

It seems to be difficult to get better rates with what I've seen so far, =
so
I guess that's just it. Not that big of a deal; I just thought it might b=
e
easier :)

Gerhard

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