International Calling Card Services

[eob]

Howdy all,
well I'm back out in Brazil for another 4 weeks stuck on this rig.
The main company's IT policy is very strict and as a result all VOIP and IM services are blocked (and most of the photos in the vwaudiforum threads hosted by the likes of photobucket ).
Telephone access for us gringos is quite scarce because they use scratch cards which they only get in the shop once a week and they sell out within hours and they hold back for the locals anyway.

I was looking at using the international call carriers such as Alpha Telecom and wondered if anyone had any experince with them or could recommend another provider.

The company will be paying anyway so cost isn't really an issue but good service is.

Cheers.

[DropKickMurphy]

dont mean to hijack this thread but am curious - how do you get a job on an oil rig?

what drew you to it, and what sort of qualifications do you need to get into that line of work?

and in answer to your question - can you not buy calling cards in thre UK and then take them with you when you go out to the rig or does that not work?

DKM

[eob]

I'm not on rigs continually, it just so happens that the project that I'm working on at the moment is on here. My company writes control systems for the oil and gas and pharmaceutical industries.
What is your background? The main skill sets that you see in this sector are process engineers and instrument technicians. We are PLC/SCADA engineers so qualifications in Electrical and Electronic engineering are necessary. There are courses starting which lean towards control systems for process control.

The calling card is not a physical card, more an online account which you top up with credit to use. You call a local number to the country you are in and enter an account and pin number then the UK number you are dialling.

[DropKickMurphy]

i'm a billing analyst so a million miles away from what i do, was just intrigued... I think another member works on oil rigs and it got me thinking.

I assumed it relied on engineering and chemists/scientific types for the sort of thing.

hmmm, again - is it not possible to set up some klind of online account here and pre-pay it so you dont have to queue to get the scratch cards on the rig? i'm speculating here of course.

DKM

[sooty]

Howdy all,
well I'm back out in Brazil for another 4 weeks stuck on this rig.
The main company's IT policy is very strict and as a result all VOIP and IM services are blocked (and most of the photos in the vwaudiforum threads hosted by the likes of photobucket ).
Telephone access for us gringos is quite scarce because they use scratch cards which they only get in the shop once a week and they sell out within hours and they hold back for the locals anyway.

I was looking at using the international call carriers such as Alpha Telecom and wondered if anyone had any experince with them or could recommend another provider.

The company will be paying anyway so cost isn't really an issue but good service is.

Cheers.

I know people who have used Alpha Telecom... You can also setup a direct debit option and get good deals if you commit to certin amounts per month.

Otherwise if you want to risk getting sacked you can download some proxy software called u94.exe which will bypass any blocks (including the firewall)... Otherwise get one of the IT guys drunk and ask them for the manual proxy settings!

Erm... Not thats what we do here!

[eob]

Otherwise get one of the IT guys drunk and ask them for the manual proxy settings!

It's no use, no matter what you say to these people, the stock answer is "I no speeka de eenglish!"
One guy said that to me then ten minutes later I heard him singing along to "Shine on you crazy diamond". "Pink Floyd?" I said to him with thumbs up. Yeah you understood that, bleedin....
They love the Floyd out here for some reason?! Nothing wrong with that mind.

[Ben]

i used to use a company called telco global communications but they were swallowed up by another such company whose name escapes me.

[eob]

Got it sorted now. Went with Alphatelecom in the end. Couldn't complete the sign up due to the firewall but my wife completed it at home.
15 minutes from Brazil to UK cost on £4.80. Not too bad.