How to Call a Phone Number in the Philippines from Hawaii

© Copyright 2011 Patrice Walker All rights reserved

In this article, I’m going to describe three ways to stay in touch by phone with friends, relatives, and loved ones in the Philippine Islands when you are living in Hawaii.

These methods are:

• Direct dial
• International calling card
• Magic Jack

How to Make a Direct-Dial Call to the Philippines from Hawaii

A direct-dial call is probably a fairly expensive way to call the Philippines from Hawaii, but many people opt for this method. You’ll have to check with your phone company to find out how much it costs to make a phone call to the Philippines from Hawaii. Calls to the Philippines can be made to either a land line or to a cell phone.

Calls to a Land Line

There are four sets of numbers that you must dial in order to make a phone call to a land line in the Philippines.

• The “exit code” for the country you are calling from, in this case, the U.S. That number is 011.
• The “country code” for the country you are calling, in this case, the Philippines. That number is 63.
• The “area code,” which is a number representing the region of the country you are dialing. Area codes for the Philippines consist of either one or two digits. For example, the area code for Manila is 2; for Cebu, it is 32 (see table below for list of area codes for the Philippines)
• The seven-digit phone number.

Let’s say you are dialing a land-line phone number in Manila. The number you dial will look like this: 011-63-2-123-4567.

Calls to a Cell Phone

Calls made to a cell phone number in the Philippines use a slightly different format. This call includes:

• The US exit code – 011
• The Philippine country code – 63
• A three-digit, cell phone “provider code” which always begins with the number, 9. Each cell phone provider in the Philippines has its own set of codes and issues a code along with the cell phone number.
• The seven-digit phone number.

Dialing a cell phone number in the Philippines should look like this: 011-63-9XX-123-4567.

The person whose cell phone you are calling should have given you this cell phone provider code along with their seven-digit phone number.

This is a simply matter of purchasing one of the many international calling cards that are available on the market and following the instructions on the back of the card. The big advantage of using an international calling card is that this is a very competitive industry, so you should be able to find some fairly inexpensive international calling rates.

The Magic Jack is a VOIP (voice-over-Internet protocol) device that lets you make phone calls from your computer. In order to use Magic Jack, you need a high-speed, broadband Internet connection which could be DSL, cable, or fiber optics. You also have to keep your computer on to make and receive calls.

I’ve seen the Magic Jack at a Radio Shack here on O’ahu for $45. That price includes the first-year’s subscription fee of $20. After that, you pay only $20 a year to continue using it.

Continue reading to find out the two ways you can use the Magic Jack to call a phone number in the Philippines from Hawaii.

To make calls with the Magic Jack, you simply plug the USB end of the Magic Jack into your computer’s USB port. The software will download and prompt you through the registration and activation process. At the end of this process, you will receive a U.S. telephone number. Now all you need to do is connect your phone to the other end of the Magic Jack via a telephone cable, and you’re good to go.

Two ways to use the Magic Jack to call a phone number in the Philippines from Hawaii:

• Method #1: Use the Magic Jack to make a direct call to the Philippines. In this case, you have to purchase international pre-paid minutes from Magic Jack, which run from $.18 to $.22 per minute to call the Philippines, and then follow the step-by-step instructions provided in the Magic Jack user guide.
• Method #2: Purchase a second Magic Jack, activate it, and send it to the person you call the most in the Philippines.

This second method is a lot less expensive than purchasing Magic Jack international pre-paid minutes. You can get an international calling card with cheaper rates than $.18 to $.22 per minute.

And because the second Magic Jack you send to the Philippines comes with a U.S. telephone number (i.e., U.S. area code plus seven-digit number), you can call that U.S. number for free (minus the cost of the device and the $20/year subscription fee). And the person in the Philippines with this second Magic Jack can call your U.S. number for free, as well.

NOTE: **For this method to work, the person you are sending the second Magic Jack to must have a computer with a USB port and high-speed, broadband Internet connection.

Finally, be sure to read some Magic Jack product reviews before purchasing it; some people swear by it while others have had problems with it.

I hope this article has given you a start in helping you decide which of the three methods - direct dialing, using an international calling card, or taking advantage of the Magic Jack – is the best way for you to call a phone number in the Philippines from Hawaii.