However, because of the way international calls are billed, monopoly PTTs have been able to fix prices far above the actual cost of the call. The end result for customers is that international calling will, over time, become almost as cheap as domestic US dial tone. It won't happen overnight, but thanks to competition in international telephony, Internet telephony and international callback, it will happen. It is just a question of when. If you reside outside the US, or are planning to travel overseas, there are two ways you can reduce your phone bill - use international callback service or use an Internet to telephone gateway service.
International callback is based on a very simple premise.
Because of the way international calls are billed, it is usually much cheaper to call from the United States to a particular country than the other way around. A call from the US to Australia may cost, for example, well under 30 cents per minute. The same call from Australia to the US will often cost several times as much. The way international callback works is you dial a special number in the United States which rings once or twice, but never answers. The international callback system then calls you back at a telephone number of your choosing.