NOKIA
SMARTPHONE
HACKS Tips & Tools for
TM
Your Smallest Computer
Michael Juntao Yuan
,ch05copy.7378 Page 137 Thursday, July 7, 2005 10:20 AM
HACK
Use Calling Cards with Your Mobile Phone #29
H A C K Use Calling Cards with Your Mobile Phone Hack #29
#29 Use a discount-rate calling card without the hassle of manually dialing PINs
or even access numbers. Also, make the calling card work with your
Contacts program!
Calling cards are good companions for mobile phones. Mobile phone call-
ing plans, especially regional plans, sometimes have expensive long-distance
rates. Even for national plans, the rates for international calls are often very
expensive. Using calling cards, you can call in a local or a 1-800 access num-
ber, and then have the calling card service connect you to the destination
number via a landline or even the Internet at very cheap rates. You’ll still use
up your plan minutes, but you won’t pay as much in long-distance charges.
Long-distance calling cards discussed in this hack are differ-
ent from prepaid mobile phone cards discussed in “Use Pre-
paid Calling Cards” [Hack #28].
However, making a calling card call on a mobile phone manually can be a
real hassle. You have to key in a 10-digit access number; wait for the
prompt; key in the PIN code (which is normally longer than 8 digits); wait
for the prompt; and finally key in up to 16 digits of destination phone num-
bers (in the case of an international call). Try that when you are walking or
driving! Fortunately, a couple of tricks are available that can make it easier
to use calling cards.
Use Speed Dialing
With so many calling card services, you can shop around for the one that
provides the best services and the best rate. Some calling card services pro-
vide two key features for easy mobile dialing:
No-PIN authentication
Some cards allow you to register several preauthorized phone numbers
with your account. If the calling card service caller ID detects that you
are calling the access number from one of the authorized phone num-
bers, it automatically authenticates you without asking for your PIN
number.
Speed dial for destination numbers
Some services allow you to assign two- or three-digit speed-dial codes
for your frequently called numbers. Once you are authenticated and
authorized to access your account, you can use those codes to dial long
numbers quickly.
Chapter 5, Make and Receive Voice Calls | 137
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HACK
#29 Use Calling Cards with Your Mobile Phone
Using these two features, you can shorten a 36+ digit international call to 14
or so digits. They are great timesavers. We recommend you use calling ser-
vices that provide those features.
Store Calling Card Numbers in the Contacts List
If you make frequent calling card calls, you can put the calling card access
number, the PIN, and the destination number in one entry in your phone’s
Contacts list. Then, you can dial it quickly by locating the contact or even
set it for speed dialing or voice commands.
But the problem is that the phone cannot just dial all the digits without a
pause. The calling card service needs to accept the call after you dial the
access number, before you can dial the PIN. It also needs to verify the PIN
before you are prompted to dial the destination number. How do you put
pauses between the access number and the PIN, and then between the PIN
and the destination number, without human intervention?
Nokia phones have a nifty feature that puts pauses in a stream of digits. You
just enter the phone number normally in the contact entry. When you need
a pause between numbers, you click the * key three times until the letter “p”
appears. If you need a longer pause, you can enter more than one “p” con-
secutively. Then you can go on to enter the next number after the pause.
Figure 5-9 shows this process.
Click the * key three times to get the
p (pause) character in the digits
Figure 5-9. Entering a calling card number in the Contacts list
—Haihao Wu and Michael Yuan
138 | Chapter 5, Make and Receive Voice Calls