With competition and the widespread use of voice over IP (VOIP) Internet technology, overseas long distance is cheaper than anyone could have imagined 20 years ago. It is possible to call North America and other overseas destinations from Gozo for just a few pennies a minute. We spend at least ten hours a month on the phone to friends and family in North America and our flat-rate plan costs us under $35 USD. This article outlines the many different options for long distance calling from Gozo.

Truly cheap long distance calling from Gozo is all about VOIP and you no longer even need to have Internet to take advantage of the savings. This article outlines the various options according to whether or not you are planning to have a broadband internet connection at home.

Without Internet:

Ten21: Maltacom has a very easy-to-use new VOIP offering called Ten21 that you can use to call overseas from your fixed land line without having to apply for any extra services or buy any cards (aside from your usual Easyline card on an Easyline phone). Many countries such as U.S.A. and Canada are 3.5 Euro cents per minute. Ten21 is available to Easyline customers and traditional postpaid customers. You simply dial 1021 before the country code.

Prepaid VOIP cards (available at stationers and some groceries) have also been a popular solution but sound quality is sometimes uneven. They work by having you call a local number (local charges apply) and then entering your card's PIN and the number you are calling. Now that Maltacom offers Ten21 it looks like VOIP cards are really only necessary for calling overseas from public phones.

With Internet:

Vonage: This is what we use and we love it. We signed up for Vonage service while we were still in North America and they sent us a router to plug into our internet connection. Then you attach a normal North American phone to the jack in the router and you are pretty much up and running. We brought our phone and our router with us to Gozo (as well as an international power converter to convert the router voltage) and after we had our ISP reset our connection because of the new router it worked like a charm. The phone works like any other North American phone (we've even used it to call numbers here in Malta in a pinch). We pay $35 USD a month and that gives us a local number in North America for our friends and family to call us easily (they only have to dial a local number and it rings in Europe). Additionally, we can call to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada, as much as we want (there are even cheaper plans that give 500 minutes of long distance calling). We also get voicemail, caller ID, and a number of other features.

Hello: Hello is a local offering from cable internet company OnVol and you have to have their broadband cable internet to use it. For an extra €6.87 per month they will set you up with a VOIP router (you provide the phone). Then you purchase prepaid Hello cards for long distance calling at rates similar to other VOIP providers. You get also free local calls to other Hello members but there is no way to make local calls to non-Hello customers so its use as a local service is limited.

There are a number of even cheaper or free VOIP programs such as Skype that let you communicate by voice computer-to-computer or computer-to-phone (earphone/microphone headset required).