I'm in Paris, in an apt. that has a phone that is supposed to call to the USA for free. I'm guessing it is a voLP connection. The owners said it works through the internet. However, their instructions on how to do it were vague, and now they are unreachable in Vietnam.

I need to use the phone, since my daughter will be flying back to the USA tomorrow.

Does anyone have any experience dialing a phone like this? It is a Siemens gigasetA260.

I've tried dialing 0 + area code + phone number,
00 + area code + phone number

00 + 1 + area code + phone number

Once, in all my attempts, it actually worked, and my call went through, but I've never been able to repeat it!

thanks, Jacqui

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Marta,

I think the dialing codes are from the VoIP provider not the phone set. Typically it is the same as you would use in the country which would be 00 + 1 + area code + phone from France. Is there any indication what company provides the VoIP?

When dialing FROM France, the International Direct Dialing codes vary by service provider:

00 (France Telecom)
40 (TELE 2)
50 (OMNICOM)
70 (LE 7 CEGETEL)
90 (9 TELECOM)

This prefix is used instead of 01, or 011, or whatever and precedes the country code, area code and seven digit number. The prefix would be "00" if France Telecom is the provider as Marta explained, but could be one of the more obscure companies listed above.

Thanks Jeff. That is good to know. I assumed it was always 00 but should have guessed there might be other land line providers and they would have a different international access code. Hopefully Jacqui figured it out.

Thanks for all the help with the phone. So far, nothing has worked. I tried all those prefixes Jeff mentioned, but none did the trick. I tried them both this way:

(40) + 1 + (USA area code) + (USA phone number)

and also:
(40) + (USA area code) + (USA phone number)

I did that for each of the provider prefixes Jeff listed: (40), (50) etc.

The Vietnamese owner emailed me saying he will call me, but I don't know how well that will go, if he's not able to just email the number sequence.

If the mystery gets solved, I'll post the results. In the meantime, any more ideas?

Thanks!

I live in Venice and have voip you life that I brought with me from the states...all I do is dial like I was living there...not sure if this is the same or not...I also have a separate phone and it is hooked up to a linksys thing (sorry folks i am not technologically adept)

anyway I thought i would let you know just in case it can be of some help to you...