By Some of you stationed in Korea may find this new program offered by LG Dacom to be of interest:
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, troops stationed in South Korea can give their sweethearts back home the gift they’ve been waiting for — a cheaper phone bill.
U.S. phone numbers will once again become available on posts Saturday, according to an Army and Air Force Exchange Service release.
Customers can register for the new numbers at any LG Dacom storefront. The numbers, which will be issued in addition to the Korean numbers customers already have, will cost customers an additional $15 a month. If they have LG Dacom’s unlimited calling plan, the service will cost an additional $10 a month. AAFES spokesman Jeff Craven said the fee is to cover LG Dacom’s costs for the use of the U.S. numbers.
Craven said callers in the States who dial the numbers will pay either local or reduced rates for the calls.
“Even within the same area code, distance matters,” Craven said.
Calls to the United States from South Korea won’t be any cheaper, Craven said, and the cost and procedure for dialing numbers outside Korea will remain unchanged.
Craven said the new service is a response to customers who’d asked for an easier way for friends and family in the States to contact them.
Craven said customers will be able to choose from a list of area codes available at any LG Dacom AAFES concession. He said the area codes available will change daily, as there is a limited amount of phone numbers available for each area code. [Stars & Stripes]
Since this new service involves LG Dacom, judging by their track record it makes me wonder how they plan to rip servicemembers off with this?
6:50 pm on February 12th, 2009 1
ANYBODY in Korea can already so something like this using Skype. The instructions for setting it up are here:
http://www.koreabizjournal.com/2009/02/11/the-mir…
Through Skype I have a Kansas City phone number that rings to my Korean cell phone. I pay $25 per year for the number, plus, I think 7 cents per minute for the actual phone calls. Anybody can do this.
7:11 pm on February 12th, 2009 2
I should add that even if you don't know a lot about computers, once you set it up, you don't need a computer at all. It all runs pretty seamlessly. You can even choose to auto-charge your account and auto-renew your phone number when they run out. So it'll take ten minutes to set up, and you never have to think about it again.
Oh, and another benefit is that whenever you travel, you can just set the number to follow you. My friends and family used the same number last may to get ahold of me on a pay-as-you-go phone when I was in KC for my brother's wedding for a couple weeks. I don't understand why Skype doesn't market this feature, as, imo, it's the best thing about the whole company.
1:58 am on February 13th, 2009 3
I don't care enough to communicate with people back home that I would pay $15 for this. I shant be unsatisfied by this, but I bet that I would be if I cared.
2:49 am on February 13th, 2009 4
Steve thanks for the tip. I knew LG Dacom had to be ripping off servicemembers somehow. If a soldier signs up for the LG Dacom plan at $15 a month that comes out to $180 a year, compared to $25 a year for Skype.