Skype is gone. What is the alternative to call US numbers ?

A lot of replies here are missing the point.

With an appropriate (very cheap) monthly skype subscription, you could call international landlines from your landline or mobile phone with virtually unlimited calls (10,000 mins per month).

The receiver does not need any pc/device with apps like whatsapp.

There are a number of online VOIP services that offer cheap calls to landlines but they are much messier than the skype subscription method e.g. mytello.

With these you call a designated number from your landline/mobile and it uses VOIP to call landline abroad.

These are usually a pay and go service paid by minute e.g. you put £10 credit on and get 1000 minutes.

However, call quality is often very poor as these methods often use very poor bandwidth as a lot only use 2G if calling froom a mobile.

The drawback on these is they often have a hidden flat service charge of say 5p per call. Thus if you make a short call of 1 minute, it costs 6p.

If you really used a lot of calls say you called a loved one 60 minutes a day, this would cost £18 per month (Skype was around £5 per month (EU calls)

As I said in earlier post, I have not found anything that is remotely good as the skype service.

I actually put a second SIM from SPUSU (uses O2 network) which gives unlimited uk ccalls, texts and 1GB data for £3 per month.

The nice part is you get 500 mins of international minutes free as well in tbe monthly cost.

I only use the SIM for international calls or on rare occasions my main service provider is not available.

Calling from SPUSU is great if 500 mins is enough for your needs. It also allows wifi callling and VOIP over 4G.

OP wants advice on cheap calls to landlines but to answer query effectively, we need to know things such as countries, duration and frequency of calls to suggest solutions.

Unlike the skype system which was a sort of one size fits all solution (within limits of chosen subscription), it is hard to find an equivalent solutiont hat fits all usage needs at as low a cost as Skype.

True essentially but most individual people at home etc and not in an office I'd imagine CALLING TO a destination number probably wouldn't call from a landline asuming they even had one any more.

If you are calling Business to Business (B2B) then that's a different issue and I'm sure there's minimal problem with that.

For individuals they'd I'm sure about 99.9% of the time use a mobile or some otherr device with a screen. Note an advantage too uf using a device with a screen that it should be possible to get subtitles of the conversation or even instant translations if required (or both).

SKYPE was fine in its day but things have move on. Things like Whatsapp BTW (although probably not really suitable for a load of professional B2B calls) have no problems making audio calls over the internet to destination landlines.

VOIP rates seem quite cheap especially if you only make a few "Ad Hoc" overseas calls. Decent free / cheap Roaming plans can also cheapen the whole thing too.

I can't think when was the last time I used a landline - I don't even think it's connected any more.

Cheers
jimbo

WhatsApp cannot call a landline. But you can someone over the internet if they have WA installed and you know the phone number they used when registering. The call is totally via the internet.

Businesses are more likely to use MS Teams than WhatsApp.

Here is an option to check out.