International Call forwarding
 

I'm starting a thread on this because I'm increasingly relying on just a couple of sim cards for international travel, Piranha, Truphone, and now my US Tmobile phone with free data roaming and cheap calls almost anywhere.

But I'm left with problem of giving friends and family a local number when I visit a country, so they don't have to make international calls from their phones, esp. mobiles.
Piranha will add a local number for many countries, Truphone for a few, but a bit of a pain to call them to set up, then deactivate, etc.

There are call forwarding services like globalcallforwarding.com that cost $10/month, around 7c/min for countries I'm interested in, but also need set up and cancelling.

Another option is Keku, no set up fee, and much cheaper rates, but I'd have to register each person's phone who I want to be able to use the local number. feasible if only a few in each country...

other ideas?

There seems to be a two part answer.
1. Phone numbers in the places you go.
2. Forwarding of those numbers.
Is this only or primarily Europe?
Does Toggle forward? They would seem to have the European numbers taken care of.

Perhaps a 85-95% solution is possible and a 100% solution is not.
Get as many countries as possible, and the high hanging fruit will
just not be. Or at least not easily and soon.

I suspect there are some cost limits.
Would Piranha be a good first step?

Perhaps if others [not me--I am talking beyond my knowledge here] could know which countries you need they would see an answer better.

thanks, rfranzq,
services like globalcallforwarding give you a local number AND a forwarding service. Keku will forward from any number to any other, but only for registered phones.
In Europe, the problem will disappear as roaming rates are eliminated, so a UK number (e.g. Piranha) will be fine everywhere. But I'm also sometimes in Latin America and Asia.

If you need a forward # I use www.Kall8.com. You get a 800 type number that you can have forward to your local sim. I have used it for several years now, and it is quite cheep to use. It cost $2.00 a month plus a fee /min depending on where the call is sent to.

US 800 numbers have one problem: most US carriers won't let you forward calls to an 800 number.

cant you just sign up and VoIP / SIP service that offers a US DID and then use this provider (or any software PBX) to forward?

I always use the ADSL router at home to forward my local landline to various international SIM i am using (AVM FritzBox)

I used to love CallbackWorld's PIN2DEST service. I could give friends and family a toll-free number (in dozens of countries) and a PIN. When they call that number and enter the PIN the system connects them to whatever number I've set, anywhere in the world. There was just one toll-free number for each country and one PIN worked for all the numbers. I wish I could find a replacement for that service.

I agree with dg7feq. His method seems so much easier.

I would also go one step further. I would hire the DID on a monthly basis from somewhere like localphone, and while roaming I would also make use of localphone's local dial-in numbers for international calls.

Alternatively, if you have a lot of experience, just use Asterisk. :)

dg7feq, a new TR-069 exploit has just been announced.

So, if you're renting telephone lines from any german ISP (Kabel Deutschland for example), you may want to disconnect your FritzBox from your cable modem until AVM releases a software fix for their routers.

Check the announcement on teltarif:
http://mobil.teltarif.de/tr-069-sich...ews/56688.html

Update: This exploit is worse than I initially thought. Even if you're only using your FritzBox as a router (with no ISP contact via TR-069), I'd also switch off the MyFRITZ!-Konto if you're using the internal VPN or other "Fernzugang" services.

I have my 800 type number on my business card. So the clients call that number.