After delighting Indian consumers with cute and funny India themed stickers, and also the free talk time offer that has been continuing since past couple of months, LINE is ready with yet another offering. Indian users can now use their LINE messaging app to make cheap and high quality domestic and international calls to any phone number, across more than 200 regions. This is, of course, in addition to the free calls that can be made to other LINE users, anywhere in the world.
As per Damandeep Singh Soni, Spokesperson from LINE, “LINE Premium Call is an excellent way of calling family and friends across 200 countries without any hassles of buying a new SIM card. The call rates are very competitive and the voice quality on the app is phenomenal. We’ve been able to use the massive telephony infrastructure to the user’s benefit by adding this service for uninterrupted smooth international calling. Our focus at LIN
This newly launched Premium Call service does not need users to install any separate app, or use any additional SIM card. The users of LINE Free Calls and Messages app just need to install the latest update of their app. Tap on the More tab in the app and start using the premium Call service.
However, since the Premium Call service is a paid service, before using it, you will need to purchase the call credit using Credit or Debit card. Or you can also use the LINE coins, even if you have acquired them by downloading a free LINE game or app.
One problem that users often face while using apps to make phone call is the problem of poor voice quality and frequent call drops. As per the information I got, LINE has been steadily engaged in research and experiments to improve the quality of LINE calls. And these efforts have worked well enough to imrove the voice quality of LINE calls by 120 % between the later 2012 and first half of 2014. And that might account for the leap of 5.6 times in LINE’s voice call usage.
So, what do you need to do to start using LINE’s Premium Call service? Simple. Just update your LINE messaging app, if it hasn’t already been automatically updated in your phone. Launch the app and tap on the ‘More’ tab. You will see the icon of ‘Premium Call’ on the panel that opens up. Just tap on it and that will open up the keypad using which you can input the number you want to call. The domestic calls can be made just by inputting the phone number or selecting the contact from the contact list. However, before making an international call, you will need to first select the recipient’s country code from the drop down menu above the keypad. And then, just tap in the number, or go to the Contact list to select the contact.
The rate of calling landline and mobile numbers in India is INR 1.22/min or 2 call credits. The rate of calling phones in other countries differ, depending upon the region. You can check out the details of that in the Price Table of Line Premium Call.. I did look at some of these rates. They are surely competitive, but I can’t say cheapest.
