VOIP in Saudi Arabia

1 Yes

2 Yes

3 Dunno

Q3-
For incoming calls: No
Setting up a KSA number on outgoing calls: Yes

TheLegendLeads wrote:

Q3-
For incoming calls: No
Setting up a KSA number on outgoing calls: Yes

Actually, I'm doing it

I use two phones, the basic phone with the Sim card (local KSA number) and the smartphone with an Internet Data Card that I use for VOIP.

I've set my local KSA mobile number as my VOIP caller ID. So my folks see my local mobile number when I call them. And when they call, I receive it on my basic mobile phone.

But, its true that I cannot receive incoming calls on my VOIP.

Thank you for your intelligent replies!

1) Do you need to have a data only SIM card in your smart phone to do this, or will it work equally well with a normal phone SIM card?

2) Do you have to have Wi-Fi enabled in your smart phone in order to do the VOIP out call?

3) Do you think you save much money doing this with the two phones?

4) Is the voice quality of the VOIP calls OK?

5) I heard that to use VOIP properly it is necessary to have a better signal than is usually required for ordinary voice. Have you found this to be a problem?

Q1- Data SIM preferred. Actually let me say: SIM with data bundle subscription. Without that you are not subscribed to any data bundle STC/Mobily/Zain will charge you 2.5 SAR/MB. Big Rip-off.

Q2- No. You can use VoIP over 3.5G.

Q3- Yes. Check out VoIP websites for their rates.

Q4- Depends on your Internet quality. Yes, mostly it's much better than OK.

Q5- Better signals means better 3.5G too. And that's the only relation.

With your good information to go on, lets do the numbers!

Skype uses - support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10853/how-much-data-will-skype-use-on-my-mobile-phone about 1MB/minute of data for a mobile to mobile or mobile to land line call.

Prepaid or postpaid - stc.com.sa/cws/portal/en/individual/ind-internet/ind-int-start/ind-intr-str-intrntonmov/ind-intr-str-quicknet-segments, you can buy 10GB of data from STC for 200SR for a data SIM card. (For a mobile SIM card, the price for data is double!) Clearly, it is better to get a data SIM card for doing VOIP.

As far as I know, there is no expiry date on when you have to use up this data. (Please let me know if I am wrong!) That means, once you credit your card, you can take as long as you like to use it.

With a subscription - stc.com.sa/cws/portal/en/individual/ind-internet/ind-int-start/ind-intr-str-intrntonmov/ind-intr-str-quicknet-segments/ind-intr-str-quicknet-actionsegment from STC, you also pay 200SR for 10GB of data. The price of data is the same as prepaid/post paid. In addition, you get unlimited surfing on Google and Twitter. You also get free surfing at night (from 2AM till 6PM, I think.) The downside is that you have to pay every month, even though you might not have used up all your data allowance. I think that if you don't do many outbound calls, it is therefore definitely better to do the prepaid/postpaid instead of a subscription.

How much VOIP phone time will you get with your money?

For the 200SR you get 10GB of data either way. 10GB is 10,000MB. At 1MB/minute, that means you get 10,000 minutes of VOIP calling, or about 160 hours of VOIP calling for 200SR. That is approximately 5 hours of VOIP a day, if you used up all your allowance in one month. That is a lot of call time! Therefore, if you expect to be making VOIP out calls less than 5 hours a day every day, you should choose the pre-paid/post-paid option.

Who chats on the phone 5 hours a day?! I think normal people are on it less than an hour. (hehe!) Lets say you do VOIP out calls 1 hour a day. At such a rate of 30MB a day, it amounts to 1800MB a month, approximately 2GB a month. Your SR200 bought you 10GB of data, so that 200SR will last you 5 months, at a "normal person's" usage rate of 2GB a month. The approximate cost of VOIP calling for a "normal person" would be about 40SR a month.

The cost of the cheapest STC mobile subscription service is 20SR - stc.com.sa/cws/portal/en/individual/ind-aljawal/ind-alj-start/ind-alj-str-postpaid/ind-jawal-pp-plans/ind-jawal-pp-plan-classic-details a month. Then you have to pay for all your phone calls and text messages.  Lets say that you did the same as in VOIP and spent an hour a day on the cheapest mobile package telephoning other STC mobiles. That would cost you about 20SR in calls. 20SR in calls plus 20SR in subscription is 40SR - the exact same price as the VOIP option!

CONCLUSION

By doing the VOIP option, a normal person spends about the same as the cheap phone subscription but carries 2 phones around!

I would be very interested to hear from you about whether you think my reckoning is OK. Surely it is wrong! Does anybody have any further comments?

Good thinking yeehi but there are serious flaws in the maths done

1- Where is the VoIP subscription charge? None including Skype is free. VoIP calls esp to ME costs a LOT. For KSA, my service provider charges 0.08 Euros/min. And for my home country, they offer 0.005 Euros/min. If you are willing to replace your local calls by VoIP, immediately drop the idea

2- If you buy an STC SIM for 20SAR/month, Your usage CANNOT be just 20 SAR only with a high call rate of 0.45 SAR/minutes.

Here is what I do:
- Using a smart phone with 2GB data subscription (not data SIM).
- All my local calls are via STC SIM.
- Internatinal calls are via VoIP.
- I receive an average of 80-90 mails per day on my fon (notifications and preview).
- I use WhatsApp, Viber, Tango, FB a LOT.

TheLegendLeads wrote:

... (I simply don't want to go through the Maths again)

Here is what I do:
- Using a smart phone with 2GB data subscription (not data SIM).
- All my local calls are via STC SIM.
- Internatinal calls are via VoIP.
- I receive an average of 80-90 mails per day on my fon (notifications and preview).
- I use WhatsApp, Viber, Tango, FB a LOT.

Ditto.

Except that I use Mobily.

And I prefer a Data-only Sim on the Smart phone as I don't need to receive calls / texts on both the phones. Also this ensures there is no disturbance (calls / text) when I'm using VOIP.

By doing this, the all the data / signal is used towards the VOIP calls or other apps that require internet.

Kindly suggest good VOIP service providers in KSA to call UK and Pakistan.

I use SmartVoip. It's good; though may not be the best.

Service Provider: I use VoipDiscount which has the cheapest rates for calling to India.

VOIP Application: I use the Mobile VOIP application for my Android Smart Phone.

It works on I Phone, Nokia (Symbian), Blackberry & Windows Phones also.

List of supported VOIP Service providers are here (more than 50 of them).

TheLegendLeads wrote:

I use SmartVoip. It's good; though may not be the best.

Thanks, have you tried Nymgo it is cheaper and works ok from UK.

ghanshyampdave wrote:

Service Provider: I use VoipDiscount which has the cheapest rates for calling to India.

VOIP Application: I use the Mobile VOIP application for my Android Smart Phone.

It works on I Phone, Nokia (Symbian), Blackberry & Windows Phones also.

List of supported VOIP Service providers are here (more than 50 of them).

Thanks ghanshyampdave

Oh I think Nymgo is very good. But was informed that it doesn't work in KSA. Does it ?

Actually, (let me provide hints) So that you could base your selection on some factors.

1- Call Rate: Famous companies give different rates for different countries. My observation was: Famous VoIP providers offering a very very low rate for India were too expensive for Pakistan.

2- Call Quality: It has direct relation to price but not always

3- Hidden (or say Obscure) Charges: I'll give an example. I tried a very very cheap call rate VoIP service providers. But to my surprize, they used to charge something called: Connection Charges. 0.02 Euros for every call i had to make. So in fact, they were much expensive. We've to take care about the marketing tacts companies apply to promote their business

I just can't understand this VOIP in Saudi.

Is it the case that for calls within Saudi, it is not worth using VOIP? That the only economical use of VOIP in Saudi is for international calls?

Yes, you got it right

Not only KSA, say entire Middle East.

yeehi wrote:

I just can't understand this VOIP in Saudi.

Is it the case that for calls within Saudi, it is not worth using VOIP? That the only economical use of VOIP in Saudi is for international calls?

For calls within Saudi, you should ask your Company for a Mobile phone & Sim card. Why bother yourself using VOIP.

Hi all
any body interested to voip business with bangladesh?

Rgrds
JIJ

another cheap service is voipzoom, i think it's cheaper than most of the ones listed and i've been using it for years, works great.

yes, we are using nimbuzz, skype, action voip through VOIP..

go ahead

if you use skype, you can forward it to your KSA phone number

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I want way to work VoIP in Saudi Arabia .. Becouse all sims are blocking  !!

Have you heard of the MAGIC JACK ? it cost like $20US and is supose to allow you to dial for free
Do you thjmk this will work in Riyadh ?
I may buy one when I move nest month
Mauricio

mauriciovenegas wrote:

Have you heard of the MAGIC JACK ? it cost like $20US and is supose to allow you to dial for free
Do you thjmk this will work in Riyadh ?
I may buy one when I move nest month
Mauricio

It works but calling back to the States it was, for me (could have been my internet connection, I don't know), like a really bad cell phone call, where they don't hear every third word.

I use the pay option on Skype.  For $6/month, I can call people on their phones (instead of computer-to-computer) at home and the quality is almost always excellent.

Yep second wht Allie says...Skype subscription works beautifully the call quality is grt...

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Hi,

Could you please tell me which Voip are u using?

i am kashi raj, i am using voip call in saudi arabia. i am calling only in my relations and family persons. so please accept my request, and how are you using voip provider calls in nimbuzz, please send my email id.

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