Who Remembers the Calling Card?

Andy Abramson just posted an article discussing SIP vs the calling card. I found it particularly apropos, as I've just returned from a two week vacation in Europe. It's been a few years since I've been in Europe, but what I've always done in the past is get myself to a local newspaper store and purchase a calling card in order to call home and tell my friends what an awesome time I'm having without them. I tried to do this on this vacation, except that I discovered that calling cards seem to have become obsolete, at least in the stores of Aberdeen, Scotland.

However, what I did discover in the local chain supermarket was that I could buy a pay as you go (practically) disposable cell phone. In the supermarket! I could also buy minutes to charge my phone with, for not too much more (including the phone) than I would have previously have spent on a calling card. I was thrilled at the convenience.

Why wasn't OnSIP Hosted PBX the right answer in this scenario? This vacation happened to involve a lot of travel to farms and other remote locations where cell signal was spotty and an Internet connection was out of the question. So one of the downsides to buying a U.K. cell phone was that I had to pay international rates when I called home, which I wouldn't have had to do if I were using a SIP phone and my OnSIP account, but on the other hand, the pay as you go cell worked where there was no Internet connection available.

Had I been on a vacation where I had a steady Internet connection, OnSIP would have been perfect (and far less expensive than pay-as-you-go international rates, which became really ridiculous once I left the U.K.). Touring the farm country of Scotland, Wales and the Netherlands just didn't fit into that profile...at least, not in 2008. The years to come will no doubt bring a different story.