Are there ways to call "international" toll-free phone numbers?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 23 Jul, 2023
- |
Nobody has posted anything here in a while, but I just learned something that might be useful to others. It is very cheap and easy to phone a US toll free number from a cellphone in Indonesia.
Dial 01-017-1-***-???-????
The *** is 800, 866, or whatever the toll free code is. It only costs Rp400/min which is less than 4 cents.
I got this code by calling the cellphone service provider here in Indonesia. I suspect telecom companies in other countries have similar setups, so it would be worth giving them a call.
Too many times while overseas I’ve felt cut off from so much useful stuff by not having access to toll free numbers. At least while I’m in Indonesia that won’t happen again.
If it’s a true international toll-free number then it will have Country code +800 – Universal International Freephone Numbers (UIFN). These numbers are toll-free from any country that participates in the UIFN scheme and from which the number’s owner elects to receive calls. UIFN number must be provisioned by the owner for each individual country they intend to receive calls from.
Generally
The simple answer is: you can’t…from a normal phone. Toll-free numbers are specific to the phone exchange system of a particular country and thus when calling from a VOIP phone provider like Skype or calling from a different country’s network the call won’t get routed through correctly. Your alternative to insist on asking for the version of the toll-free number with an international dialling code. In most cases, toll-free numbers are simply forwarding call internally with a phone exchange and by changing the prefix, you get the real number. In the UK for instance we have Say No To 0870 which provides listings of direct numbers.
North America
A more complicated answer is that for countries under the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) Agreement such as USA, Canada and handful of other countries they all have a common numbering system and toll-free calls will be supported. This may or may not always work depending on whether the toll-free number owner allows such calls: see this guide on international toll-free calling.
Skype
For selected few countries, Skype does support free calls to toll-free numbers. This covers US and UK among major countries, which should cover a wide range of financial, airline, and travel assistance numbers. Manually change the country to the one you’re dialling to from the drop-down list in Skype’s phone pad if you don’t want to type in a number with international dialling code.
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