Making Calls to India and MagicJack Workaround

There was a time when we were paying 51 cents per minute to make calls to India using the traditional landline phones ten years ago. The prices have come down significantly. Plus, the traditional landline doesn't exist anymore.

Three years ago, we made the switch to MagicJack replacing Comcast's expensive phone service. At the same time, we replaced T-Mobile's cell phone service with Tracfone prepaid service. We are quite happy with the changes because it has saved us over $2500 and counting every year. See How to Save Money on Cell Phone Bill.

For India calls we used various services such as Reliance, Airtel, and many others before finally settling on India LD. IndiaLD offers the cheapest rates among all competitors. We pay roughly $11.74 (with taxes) for 1000 minutes/month service. When we run out of minutes, we simply add more minutes from IndiaLD's website.

While we are happier with IndiaLD's service, we are not happy with IndiaLD & MagicJack combination. Over the last few years, MagicJack has begun blocking calls made to conference platforms (such as the one India LD uses) including many companies' conference call systems. This has made it impossible to use IndiaLD using MagicJack.

Very quickly, we were able to find a workaround to MagicJack's conference call blocking problem using Google Voice. If you need step by step directions with screenshots, please see Solution to MagicJack's Conference Call Blocking Problem.

The process is quite simple and involves signing up for Google Voice phone number. This is your own phone number you can give others to call you. Also, you can make calls using this phone number. You just need to dial your own Google Voice number. The automated system will tell you to press 2 and then the number you want to call to and #. So, using MagicJack phone, we call Google Voice and then IndiaLD's access number, and then finally India number. If use use IndiaLD's speed dialing feature, we don't even need to remember and dial India's number. This workaround allows us to keep MagicJack and still make calls to India. By the way, this workaround works for any other conference call that may get blocked using MagicJack and isn't limited to only IndiaLD calls getting blocked.

Very recently, I received an iPhone from my work. I have now downloaded MagicJack's free iPhone app. This app comes very handy because I can make calls and receive calls over Wifi without using my iPhone minutes. Plus, it separates my work calls from my personal calls.

Our MagicJack requires to plug into a computer. But, we are now pondering whether we should just get MagicJack Plus or its competitor Nettalk Duo that doesn't require PC, but simply plugs directly into the router or a modem. We think this will save electricity, at least $5/month, to keep our desktop PC running for MagicJack.

Update 12/17/2012: We just bought the MagicJack Plus that went on sale for $34.95 + $7.95 shipping offer for current MagicJack owners. We were also able to transfer our existing subscription over to MagicJack Plus while keeping our existing phone number. If you are considering buying MagicJack, look no further. Get New & Improved 2012 MagicJack Plus + Free 1YR Subscription Magic Jack Service from Amazon.

I hope this post helps anyone who is looking for alternatives to expensive phone services. If you have any feedback on Nettalk's service, please free to leave your comments.