This is not so much a post of my travel experiences, which was the initial goal of this blog, but more a bit of a tip for other travellers as those who I have spoken with about this specific trick during my journeys have been quite intrigued and wanted to investigate doing the same themselves.

At present, people in Sydney, Australia and London, England are able to call me as though I live down the street from them. They pay local call rates, and I am able to get their calls and messages for, in most instances, no cost at all no matter where I am in the world.

How did I do it? It’s surprisingly simple and I am sharing it here because, after a decade working for a telephone company and a few years studying internet technologies, I know for a fact that telecommunications companies are selling products for a small fortune when they cost fractions of cents to provide.

1 – Get a Skype Subscription

For the sum of $12.95 per month (and less if you commit to a full year up front) Skype gives you free calls from your computer (or any computer you login to your account through) to landlines and in some cases mobiles in a number of countries. At present the list of countries included in this package is 43, and that number is increasing as Skype’s reach expands throughout the world.

In addition to the free calls (did I mention they are Unlimited, well, within the bounds of fair use, of course), having a subscription also provides you with a couple of handy features:

VoiceMail

Allowing you to access voice messages left for you through your computer whenever you login to your account. Much more convenient than calling home or navigating an unfamiliar voicemail platform in a foreign language and provided by a local cell provider.

3 Online Numbers (formerly known as SkypeIn)

Within most of those countries where free local calls are available, you are able to create a phone number which then allows people to call that number and be routed through the Skype Network and ring on your computer, same as a Skype-to-Skype call.

2 – I Created Online Numbers in the Countries where People would want to Call Me from

So, as I have family and friends in London and Sydney, I created Online numbers in those cities. This meant that people could call a local number, for an untimed and relatively cheap rate, and the calls would ring on my laptop when I was online, or divert through to a Skype VoiceMail service if I was offline, and I could then listen to those messages when I was next online.

3 – I bought a Cheap GSM Mobile

In South East Asia, cheap mobiles are almost more common that fresh water. So for AU$40 I bought a phone which featured an inbuilt flashlight (damned handy in dorms). Bonus is that, should I lose it or have it stolen, it is a cheap throwaway phone and not an AU$1000 iPhone/Coffee Machine/Personal Computer/Toy. Easily replaced.

4 – When I am in a Country where Free Calls to Mobiles are Available, I buy a Local Prepaid SIM Card

SIM Cards, for those not familiar with them, are the little chips which you insert into a GSM handset and which allow you to connect to the provider’s telephone network. Pretty simple.

5 – I set the Call Diversion from Skype to the Local SIM Card’s Number

Using the Skype GUI, or through their website, I can set up a diversion of my Skype account to the Local mobile number associated with the new SIM Card. This means that, when I am online or not, calls people make from a Skype account to my Skype account, or from normal phones to the Online Numbers I created in London and Sydney, they are diverted through Skype.

6 – Profit! Or at least Don’t Spent So Much Money

So, the end result?
I can be walking through The Forbidden City in Beijing, or standing on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, or trying to dodge Ping Pong Show Touts on Khao San Road and someone can call a local number in their city and ring on my mobile for nothing… NADA… ZIP… SWEET F.A.

How cool is that?
No more insanely expensive GSM Roaming charges.
No more dingy, over-priced international telephone booths.
No more heavily inflated hotel phone bills.

Sure there is a downside that sometimes you will leave a country with credit on the phone, but that is normally a fairly small amount all things considered.

And at the end of the day, being able to be that close to your friends and family is just a really comforting feeling when you are so far from home.