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Telephone Box

The Cost of Phoning Home #sp

Published on April 27, 2015 β€’ Last updated December 21, 2017 by Elizabeth Atia

A sponsored post for Lebara Mobile.

Telephone Box

I am a migrant.

In 1999 I packed my over-sized Canadian Army Surplus rucksack with all my belongings, withdrew all the cash out of my bank account (what little of it there was!) and bought a one way ticket across the pond to Scotland – the home of my ancestors. I ended up settling in Shetland, a remote island archipelago which belongs to Scotland, legally, but considers itself Scandinavian in history.

When I got here I phoned home to let my family know I’d arrived safe and sound. I made that call from the payphone next to the Lerwick Town Hall, popping coins one after the other into the red phone box coin slot. I spent at least Β£20 on thatΒ very, very brief Β chat (we’re talking less than five minutes!).

My how times have changed! My trans-Atlantic move occurred before owning a mobile phone became mainstream. Landlines were still the communication method of choice, and because long distance and International calls were so extortionate they just didn’t get made.

Lebara

Fast forward 16 years and there are now more mobile phones than there are people in the UK. Even I own one – an iPhone 4s swapped with my best friend for a bag of organic onions when she upgraded to a newer model (true story!).

There are so many mobile phone providers out there now that it can be difficult to chose who to go with, or to decide who provides the best service. This isn’t as much of a problem in Shetland where Vodaphone is the only network to provide semi-reliable coverage. In fact, our village is due to have sure-start signal boxes installed, so sometime in the near future I will have coverage in my entire house rather than just a four square inch corner of the north facing kitchen window (while wearing a pink jumper on a Tuesday only! – ok, not really, but sometimes it feels like that!)

Lebara Logo

INTRODUCING LEBARA

In 2001 three friends:Β Rasiah Ranjith Leon,Β Baskaran Kandiah andΒ Ratheesan Yoganathan formed the Lebara Group, a telecommunications company which was aboutΒ to shake up the international callingΒ market. Now, over a decade later, they are one of Europe’sΒ fastest growing mobile companies with fiveΒ million active customers, 1,000 employees worldwide and operations in eightΒ countries.

Their vision? To provide an affordable means for migrant communities to connect.

Lebara bring happiness to the lives of migrant communities all over the world by making their lives easier.

Their first product was an international telephone calling card sold through independent mobile phone shops.

Now the award-winning company provides a whole host of services from Lebara Mobile, providing low cost international calls and texts,Β Lebara Money, for UK customers to send money abroad and Lebara Community, an online network connecting migrant communities.

Lebara Community Screenshot

I was pleased to learn that Lebara Mobile use the Vodaphone network, which means their services will work in Shetland. I can’t be bothered with contracts or registering phone numbers with calling plans as my calls to Canada are that intermittent. Β So to compare where my money would get best value let’s just say I’m starting with my current BT landline, my PAYG Vodaphone SIM and a Lebara SIM.

How do they compare?

BT: Currently, if I want to phone home on my landline with BT it’ll set me back 20 pence per minute. I could set up a call plan with extra call set up fees and monthly charges, but as I don’t phone home very often this wouldn’t work for me. Β£10 = 50 minutesΒ chat home.

VODAPHONE: If I want to phone Canada with my Vodaphone PAYG mobile, it will cost me Β£1.50 per minute, their standard international charge. I could, however, opt in to the Vodafone Freebee International Minutes plan by texting a number to them. A Β£10 top up wouldΒ give 60 minutes of call time to Canada at 1.5p per minute, but I’d have to keep an eye on the clock because after those 60 minutes are used the call charge goes back to the standard Β£1.50 rate. So Β£10 = 96 minutes chat home.

LEBARA: With a free Lebara pay as you go SIM card, phoning Canada with a Β£10 UK Plus Plan only costs only 3p per minute, with no extra charges. Β£10 = 333 minutes chat!

Lebara screenshot

In addition, the Lebara BEST tariff offers rates as low as 1p per minute to selected countries (not Canada though) from your PAYG balance – 1p a minute for International phone calls! There’s no reason not to phone home with prices like that!

They’ll even switch your current phone number to a Lebara SIM for free, so you don’t need a new number. Do you make international calls often? How much would it cost you to phone home?

After all that there is the Lebara Foundation. In 2008, the Lebara Foundation, the non-profit, philanthropic arm of the Lebara Group, was registered with the aim of providing housing, health measures and schooling for displaced children and communities around the world. By using a Lebara SIM card, you are also helping them to do amazing charitable works. They don’t just donate to a charity – they find people and help them directly.

lebara foundation

For example, there’s Sangeeta (left) who was abandoned by her parents in India when she was only 3. The Lebara Foundation have provided her with the means which to attend school. Mohammed (right), born in a refugee camp for Sri Lankans in the Tamil Nadu state, was on the verge of dropping out of school because his family could no longer afford the fees. He given a scholarship so he could continue his education.

Their projects are delivered in partnership with the United Nations, international non-governmental organisations, the private sector, national governments and local communities – so each time you make a phone call with Lebara you are helping others in need.

Lebara stands for simple, honest values and they want to make a difference to the lives of 1 billion people by 2020.

Are you a migrant, or do you make international phone calls? Why not have a look and see how much it would cost for you to phone home?

Visit the Lebara website to see how much it would cost you to phone home.

You can also find Lebara on Facebook and Twitter.

Lebara Logo

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Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary received financial remuneration for this post (a girl can’t pay the bills with cake alone!). All thoughts and opinions expressed are our own, and we retained full editorial control of the article. We are not affiliated with Lebara Mobile, and all rates quoted in this post were true at the time of posting (April 2015), to the best of our knowledge.

Category: Product, Sponsored Post

About Elizabeth Atia

Daydream adventurer. Expat Canadian. Foodie. Calls Shetland home.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Karl

    July 13, 2015 at 7:32 am

    that’s nice, bag ‘o onions for an iPhone. anyways. nice work. lebara’s packages has got me wondering if we’ll ever get as cheap options in US anytime soon.

    Reply
  2. Ca

    May 15, 2015 at 5:39 pm

    Wonderful blog, Elizabeth. A bag of onions……..only you could manage that!

    Reply
  3. kellie@foodtoglow

    May 14, 2015 at 2:30 pm

    What an informative piece (and I like the bit about the iPhone4 for a bag of onions!!). I have often noted the signs in window but knew little.And know I know that not only are they a low cost provider but support charity, too.

    Reply
  4. Sundra

    May 11, 2015 at 6:40 am

    I like how the company supports good causes. That’s a great sell, methinks. So far, I find joinvip to have the best quality for this sort of service, however. I am yet to try Lebara, though, so it’ll be interesting to see how it measures up.

    Reply
  5. Fuss Free Helen

    April 28, 2015 at 10:00 am

    Oh, I didn’t know that they support good causes. Well worth knowing and makes me think differently about the company.

    Reply
  6. Helene @Croque-Maman

    April 27, 2015 at 10:05 pm

    It looks like a great deal to me! I love how the name of the company came from the 3 friends names πŸ™‚

    Reply
  7. Astrid

    April 27, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    I didn’t know you’re an immigrant and that phoning Canada from the UK is that expensive. Glad Lebara provides much cheaper solutions. Btw, I didn’t read this in your post (may’ve missed it though) but do you have a reliable Internet connection in Shetland? I ask because, in rural areas in the Netherlands (and they’re not nearly as rural as Shetland is), we don’t have high-speed Internet connections sometimes. Therefore, I wondered how you manage to keep a blog.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      April 27, 2015 at 4:28 pm

      We do have a fairly reliable internet connection, yes, and it’s been getting better. It still drops, a LOT, and causes much internet rage, but nonetheless, it’s reliable enough to have a blog πŸ™‚

      Reply
  8. Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche

    April 27, 2015 at 3:15 pm

    I love that you swapped an iPhone for some onions!! So funny πŸ™‚ Lebara sounds like a great company!

    Reply

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Adventurer. Expat Canadian. Foodie. Loves bikes. Calls Shetland home. Read More…

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