Can One Use VOIP in Saudi Arabia?

As long as one has a reliable working internet connection and appropriate bandwidth, the good news is that VOIP (voice over internet protocol) works great in the Kingdom.  Services such as SKYPE (www.skype.com) and Vonage (www.vonage.com) will work.  That is the good news.  The bad news is that these services will only work with sufficient bandwidth.  Otherwise there may be delays, distortion or other problems when attempting to use the internet telephony options.  Much on whether one will have success in using internet telephone, especially one such as vonage, will depend on location.  Good internet coverage and appropriate bandwidth seems to depend on location and in some cases, the type of dwelling in which the service is installed.  And of course, the medium used (DSL, satellite, WIMAX) will also impact on the speed and clarity of VOIP options.  I did not include dial up among the options as typically the speed is too slow to effectively use VOIP.

  

Options such as skype or vonage are excellent venues to keep in touch with “back home.”  Vonage allows one to both make and receive phone calls using either a regular telephone handset or with a device similar to a flash drive.  Unlike skype, vonage is not a free service.  Various options are available and described in detail at its web site as well as payment terms.

   With skype, no additional equipment is required although using skype to call landlines and mobiles or to receive calls from a landline are options available as pay services.  Computer to computer VOIP calls via skype are free.