If you are one of the 2.2 million Indian expats in UAE and are looking for a way to make entirely free calls to India from UAE, you have come to the right spot. If you read on, you'd be pleasantly surprised that I have found a way for you to make free calls to landline and mobile phones in India. Free calls to India are now possible with letsBrik.
As part of my research into this article, I spoke with various Indian professionals who live in UAE and most of them use either Du or Etisalat to make calls to India. Both are mobile telco carriers and charge hefty rates for international calls.
The telecom market is heavily monopolized by Du and Etisalat and the communication industry is heavily regulated by UAE government. The environment and government enforced restrictions makes it exceptionally difficult for international telecom giants to expand into UAE. The consumer is therefore has little choice but to use either Du or Etisalat.
VOIP is also regulated and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in UAE block all VOIP related traffic such as Skype. Unfortunately, there is very little foreign VOIP companies have done to pursue a change in UAE government policy.
Given all these constraints and highly restrictive environment, and hefty international calling rates charged by Du and Etisalat, I took it upon myself to see if there was a way to make free calls to landline and mobile phones in India.
After spending many hours on google and talking to various expats, I've discovered a unique web based application called letsBrik that can be used to make free calls to India. No registration, signup or any payment method is needed to make free calls. Yes, all you have to do is open the site on your browser, enter the phone number you want to call and, bam, the call connects. The only restriction is that letsBrik restricts free calls to just 1-minute duration. But, if you like the service, you can sign up, recharge your account and make unlimited international calls.
Unlike Skype it is not blocked in UAE. letsBrik has been serving UAE based customers for well over a year. There are some features that I found to be very unique:
1- You can set your caller ID when you make international calls. Typically when you make calls using Skype, the person you are calling sees a random phone number. With letsBrik, you can set your real caller ID which I found to be very useful.
2- You can pay in AED or INR. Yes, you can use any credit card or Paypal and pay in the currency of your choice. This will save you from unnecessary international transaction fees which most banks charge.
3- You can track your calls: who you have called, how many minutes each call lasted and how much money you spent on each call. Yes, you can see an entire record of your prior calls.
4- Video calling and SMS is also supported. Although a thorough review of these services is out of the scope of this article, I thought it would be useful to mention that for.
