Yes!  It’s here!  The new 2.0 version of Call Me in China has been released.  In addition to the carefully revised and welcoming look and feel, the new Call Me in China also includes some big updates for customers:

• Perhaps the biggest change is a greatly expanded inventory of home country numbers.  You can now pick a number in specific regions of your home country, even down to the granularity of small towns.
• A growing list of supported home countries.  We’ve added a couple more for this release with more on the way.  If you don’t see your country represented, just send us a suggestion and we’ll look into supporting your country right away.  It’s easier now than ever before to find a number that will fit what you’re looking for.
• For some strict countries that require documentation in order to receive a number, we’ve streamlined the process to ensure that you get your number as quickly as possible, in 99% of cases this happens in less than 24 hours.  For other countries, of course, you can start receiving calls on your new Call Me in China number instantly!

OK, without further adieu:  Check it out!

Call Me in China 2.0 Homepage

One of the most common problems that people report to our support team is that their friends, family, or customers complain that it’s difficult to connect calls; the phone just rings and rings.  Do you know what the number on cause of this is (besides not being available, of course)?

You’re already on the phone!

A system like Call Me in China, which uses a variety of different technologies to achieve a low-cost high quality connection between your home country and China.  Assembling this connection when you make a call is complex.  Each component has to basically connect to the next, which makes creating that connection sometimes fairly slow.  So, your caller may have already heard a ring or two by the time you hear your first ring.

For similar reasons, if you happen to already be on the phone, the line will simply continue to ring instead of resulting in a busy signal.  To be fair, after several rings, the service will report to the caller that the party isn’t answering the phone call.

We are working on improving this experience for our users.  In the meantime, just wait a while and try again.

If you do get non-stop and instant busy signals, this is a sign that something is wrong.  Though rare, this does happen sometimes.  Please let us know right away; it’s usually an easy fix!

Woohoo!  Call Me in China now has it’s own custom URL now on Facebook:

facebook.com/callmeinchina

Most everyone has heard the news now:  Microsoft is buying Skype.  We’ll save the business and financial analysis to the various articles that are covering this hot topic, but it does give Call Me in China the opportunity to answer a common question for everyone:  How is Call Me in China different from Skype? It’s true that the two services are similar, but Call Me in China is a simpler and more streamlined service.  Well, let’s highlight the three main differences:

1. Call Me in China is designed to work exclusively from phone to phone, no computers involved which makes the Call Me in China setup much simpler.
2. Call Me in China is optimized for calls from North America and Europe to China.  Although the tests are not scientific, calls to China generally sound better going through Call Me in China rather than Skype.
3. Call Me in China has better support.  That’s one of the benefits of a small and focused service:  we can afford to provide personal service to our customers.  So, if you have a problem, support is a single click away.  You’ve got to dig pretty deep with Skype.

Of course, the biggest bonuses of Skype is that you can make free video calls computer to computer and between mobile devices with ubiquitous wireless networks and high speed data plans.  For computer to computer, that’s a no-brainer.  If you and your family/friends/customers are seated at your computers, Skype is the way to go.  But in China, when you’re on the move out on the town visiting friends, shopping, having dinner, singing karaoke, or visiting customers and factories, a reliable phone services is the way to go.  Yeah, go Call Me in China!  :-D

We’ve had some requests for other countries outside of our list.  As of now, you can select a number from the following countries:  USA, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Poland, and Brazil.

However, we try to accommodate people as best we can. For example, we’ve recently had folks request and sign up for numbers in Holland and Mexico. So, feel free to ask if you can have a number in whatever country you want!

Of course, numbers in different countries vary quite a bit.  Numbers in Germany are hard to acquire since the government needs proof of residency.  No problem, if you’re a German!  Also, the price of numbers vary as well.  Holland is pricey (nearly $12) where Mexico is relatively cheap (about $5).

And, if you’re an existing customer, feel free to make a request!  You can have multiple numbers from several different countries on your account each pointing to your mobile in China.  Handy indeed!

Did you know it’s a piece of cake to change your destination number (the phone that your Call Me in China number connects to) when you log in to your Call Me in China subscription?  You can change your destination number as often as you wish and the changes are instantaneous.  You can probably think of several ways to take advantage of this.  Some ways customers have used this feature:

• Coworkers who visit China and share a single phone.
• Using a Call Me in China number to connect to a customer’s landline – except for when they’re on vacation.
• And, the most popular:  switching out a destination as customers with multiple SIM cards who travel around the country, especially those who frequently go to Hong Kong.

See the screenshot below (and sorry, for privacy and legal reasons, we have to obscure Homer Simpson’s phone number):

We’ve added a requested and useful feature which lets new USA signups to CallMeInChina pick their own area code.  This way, users can pick phone numbers close to their home town, or even have a vanity phone number in a prestigious location – heck, why not?!  Anyway, we think this will be useful for new signups.  If you’re a current user and would like to change your phone number to a new area code, just log in to your subscription and click on the support button on the left.

Selecting your area code is the first step of the easy two-step process.  We hope to add this feature for other countries soon!  But, if you’re signing up for a different country and want a specific area code, let us know and we’ll find one for you that fits your needs.

Here’s the UI:

Now, when you log in to your CMIC account, you’ll be able to access support by clicking on the “Support” tab on the lefthand side.  Clicking will raise a simple form for you to fill out and contact the Call Me in China support team.  Of course, you can always just email “support” as well.  Here’s a screenshot of the UI:

We’re happy to hear that many customers have reported improved call quality, including better clarity and less delay.  Well, this is no coincidence.  We’ve upgraded our servers to dedicated Xeon 3400 processor machines.  The Xeon 3400 is a quad-core single-package processor and well-designed for handling a high number of simultaneous calls.  Dedicated machines with higher bandwidth will also push call data in real time.  We’ve also started working with additional partners providing high quality lines to our servers.  All of these updates should translate to improved quality for everyone.

But, do you still have problems with your family, friends, and customers actually connecting to you?  If so, don’t hesitate to let us know.  We’ll do what we can to help you out.

For new folks interested in Call Me in China, we want to remind you that you can try our service risk-free.  If you like the service, that’s great; we’re happy to have you.  If it’s not for you, thanks for at least giving it a try!

Try Call Me in China now – risk free!