It might be surprising to some people just how cheap some international call rates are from some Irish mobile phone networks. With most out of bundle calls to mobile networks here in Ireland costing around 20c to 35c per minute – you would expect calls to the USA or Australia to be a lot more expensive than that … wouldn’t you?
The surprising thing is – that on some Irish mobile networks you can make calls to mobile phones in countries such as the USA for just 2 cents per minute. That is less than the cost of making a call to another mobile here in Ireland! These low international rates don’t require you to be on long contracts or to purchase minimum amounts of top-up – these cheap rates are often available to pay as you go customers.
Some sample International Call Rates from Irish Mobiles to Mobile Phones in other countries.
(Pay as You Go Tariff). Prices are per minute. Some networks require you to opt into the lower rates by texting a request. Cheapest rates in bold.
| Country | Vodafone | Eir | Tesco | Three |
| Australia | 30c | 15c | 12c | 51c |
| USA | 15c | 15c | 2c | 35c |
| Poland | 23c | 15c | 11c | 23.7c |
| Nigeria | 30c | 50c | 12c | 35c |
| UK | 23c | 10c | 20c | 23.7c |
The above international call rates were compared using figures from the mobile provider’s international tariffs from their websites.
FREE Calls to UK
Some landline providers offer free calls to the UK as part of their phone and broadband package. If you call the UK a lot – it could be worthwhile switching. Read more about cheap calls to the UK from landlines here.
If you have a landline and you need to make a lot of international calls to landlines – it might be worth switching your phone line to Sky.
You don’t need to get Sky TV to have their phone service, they just use the same phone lines as Eircom etc.
As part of their phone service, Sky offers free landline calls to several international destinations (Landlines only) (Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA. (the deal also includes free calls to mobiles in Canada and USA)
The charge for the “anytime” service is €62.50 a month including line rental and all calls to landlines in Ireland and UK. Unlimited Broadband is also included.
Find out more by visiting the Sky Ireland Website