What about google voice. Anyone have any luck with using it for local or back to the USA calls?

Spotty performance from what friends have told me.

A friend with a Mac has used Face Time without a problem.

I use Google voice. You must set your homepage to Google, load Google Chrome, then load Google voice. (Chrome actually made my computer much faster.)

You may have to mess around somewhat to get it to work. If you have questions on how to do it, just Google it.

The great thing is it is video calls, or just voice. Your choice. Free and worked for us last year/this year from BZ to US and Canada, free. You can call any cell phone, hard line, or computer. It worked great for us. Just find a good connection. You will probably want to set this up before departing so you know it is working.

Incoming calls from friends outside of BZ will be charged. (to their CC) But at least you can call anybody you like for free.

If you can not use Skype for voice and video calls, can you at least use skype as a text messenger without the voice and video? Or is the whole program impossible to use?

When it is blocked, you can not connect at all, which eliminates any use including texting.

A good VPN allways works for me........never have problems with it being blocked.

Thanks

I'll make sure to get a good vpn before I leave the states then.