A voice from the future

[nolly]

Also from Monday, I talked to my brother for the first time in months. It's not that we haven't been speaking -- we've exchanged some email and snail mail. It's just expensive to call France,and they didn't have a phone for ages. They finally got one a few weeks ago, but due to the whole not working thing. I really couldn't afford to call. But MCI just gave me a $50 phone card for switching to their service, which gives me$0.20/minute to France. So I called him after the movie last night, after checking the time difference online. It was Tuesday morning there, and we talked for 10 or 15 minutes before he had to go finish getting ready to start his day, and I needed to head for bed soon. That was amusing. He says the future is pretty much like the past.

Comments

phone cards

[redbird]

I'd guess you can do this in LA too: when I needed cheap calls to the UK, I went to a kiosk at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and asked the man for a phone card to England. He sold me one good for 5 cents/minute calls to anywhere in Britain. The only downside is that they expire, in this case six months after first use, so I didn't use all my minutes--but I did use enough to make it pay for itself.

Also, you might try asking MCI about an international access plan: they're forever inventing new plans and rate schedules, and the last time I called, they gave me one good for the UK for either 9 or 11 cents a minute, depending on time of day, and no additional monthly fee compared to the plan I had already.