In addition of making overseas calls from your home country, you can also use Skype to call family, friends and colleagues who back in your home country on their landline or mobile – when you are travelling overseas. All you need is Wi-Fi access or mobile broadband on your smartphone, and some Skype credits.
When I first arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, while waiting at the customs, I logged on to the free Wi-Fi network in the airport and used Skype to call a local sight to make enquiries and make reservations for a day trip to a wildlife rescue centre in Petchaburi.
Free airport Wi-Fi in Thailand
I found out when writing this article that the AOT Wi-Fi network at Suvarnabhumi Airport is provided by True Move and is available at the main internaltional airports in Thailand.
These include the airports at Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket and Hat Yai.
The Suvarnabhumi Airport serving Bangkok provides a pretty decent free Wi-Fi to travellers in its terminals – good enough to make VoIP calls using Skype.
First you need to register in the login page for the AOT network in the airport and you get to use the network for free for up to 2 hours a day.
Don’t bother to memorise the complicated userid and password they issue you, the next time you use the network – which is probably when you leave Thailand – you can register as a new user again and use a new set of userid and password.
After I left the gates, I got myself a local SIM card for use in the dual-SIM Motorola Moto G that I’d brought along for the trip.
Free 60 minutes of Skype per month
If you’re a Microsoft Office 365 subscriber, you get 60 free Skype world minutes every month for calling landlines and handphones in many countries around the world.
The recipient doesn’t have to be on Skype and can answer from a conventional telephone terminal.
With Skype world minutes, you can call landlines and handphones in Singapore, Thailand, as well as Canada, Guam, Hong Kong SAR, Puerto Rico, and the United States.
For other countries, you can only use the world minutes to make calls to landlines but not mobile numbers.
You can read the latest details here.
That took care of the local calls and data connectivity on the move.
During the short break in Thailand, Skype came in useful for returning calls to people back in Singapore.
Instead of incurring overseas call charges using my regular SIM card, or overseas roaming charges for incoming calls, the Skype provided affordable VoIP rates.
Naturally, I continued using Skype to make and take international calls with friends in countries other than Singapore and Thailand, just as I do back in Singapore – both using Skype-to-Skype and Skype-to-phone connections.
So even with autoroaming and a local SIM card, Skype provides an additional affordable means of voice/SMS communication, as long as you have an Internet connection.
You can subscribe to Skype or purchase Skype credits online prior to leaving, and make calls to landlines and mobile numbers anywhere around the world.
Tags: airport, AOT, broadband, Microsoft, mobile, Moto G, Motorola, prepaid, SIM, Skype, Suvarnabhumi, Thailand, Thailand 2014, tips, travel, True Move, Wi-Fi
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