People do not always appreciate what we do over here at Planet Numbers. They think that making international phone calls is as simple as it is straightforward.

But that isn’t always the case, not if you’re trying to do it all on your own. These are some of the things people fail to realize:

1) The International Call

Any attempt to contact a location beyond the borders of your Country qualifies as an international call. It doesn’t really matter whether you are using a traditional landline, mobile phone, VoIP or Skype.

The moment you attempt to reach out to an individual or group of individuals beyond your national borders, you have entered our territory. And to successfully initiate an international call, you have to add an access Code of sorts to the phone number in question.

That could be a country code or an area code, whatever passes for a series of digits that will enable your service provider to identify the destination you wish to contact.

2) The Telephone Code

To make contact with a person beyond the borders of your country, you need to learn the various sections that constitute the phone numbers that originate from your target country.

This will help you better navigate the foreign numbers you encounter in your life and which you might feel tempted to call for one reason or another.

A European number, for instance, starts with a country code. The city or area code follows. The actual phone number comes last.

So if you know the phone number of your target in Europe but you do not know the country or area code, a quick search of European numbers on the internet could simplify your situation.

Of course, you could just as easily search for the area and country codes. But it also helps to know their arrangement.

3) The Device

Most countries in the world have cell service of some sort. As such, people think that they can always call whomever they wish in most countries.

But that isn’t necessarily true. Not every phone can make international calls. This seems like an absurd concept in the era of smartphones. But not everyone has a smartphone. If you have tried and failed to make an international call, the problem might be your device, not the service in your target country.

4) Roaming

Some of you will have made calls from your home country to people in foreign nations. Some of you have also made calls while traveling. One of those is classified as an international long-distance call.

The other is called international roaming. Despite the confusion, the two are not the same. You need to understand exactly what you wish to do; otherwise, you could accumulate some unexpected bills.

Most major carriers tend to differentiate the two and the charges attached to their services almost always differ accordingly.

5) Offshore

Pay close attention to international calls made to ships. Frequencies and rates are going to differ, especially when the ship starts crossing into international waters.

There are so many ways to stumble when making international calls. Here at Planet Numbers, we try to make things easier. But we can only succeed if you reach out and ask for help. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice. It could save your wallet a lot of pain.

For any questions, please call our helpline on 0333 370 7333 or see our Contact Us.