All the students in NTU have an email account and easy access to the Internet. So, it is very easy to keep in touch with the home country through emails. However, nothing beats a real phone call. Hearing the voice of the family and friends is pretty cool.
There is a company on the Internet, whose business is actually to enable people to make international phone calls through the Internet at very cheap prices. All you need is a computer with an Internet access, a sound card, a microphone and a pair of headphones.
The concept is very simple, you first download from the web site of the company a software to be installed on your computer. Once installed, it will check your hardware and go through a registration procedure to open an account. Once your account is open, you need to top it up using a credit card via the Internet. After that, the world is yours for amazing prices !!!
I usually don't like to advertise for any company, but I must say that when the service is very good or makes me very happy, I feel that I must tell people about it. After I topped up my account for the first time with US$ 8.45 and dialled the number of my home back in France from Singapore, I waited a couple of seconds and the message "You can call this number for 182 minutes" appeared on the screen. I felt ecstatic. I was so excited I really wanted to call everybody I knew back there to tell them how great this thing was.
The company is called net2phone.
Here are some of the prices as they offer on January 30, 2000. (Prices are shown in US cents)
