We fixed the problem with our Canadian access numbers earlier this week. We had outgrown our capacity on those lines and needed to have additional capacity added into the system for us.

We also added an additional access number for most Canadian cities from another provider. This means that there are now two access numbers that you can call into, and that they are run by different providers. If one is down or busy, call into the other one.

Finally to let our Canadian customers know how much we appreciate their business, and are sorry about the recent problems, we have given all Canada accounts 50 free minutes of calling. The minutes are already in your account, use them up before your next billing date.

We are aware that we are having problems with our Canadian access numbers. We have been trying to resolve the issues with our access number provider in Canada, but they are taking longer to fix the problem that we would like. In order to ensure that our Canadian customers get the service that they deserve, we are obtaining additional access numbers from a second provider. That might take a few more days, but I will post them on the website as soon as they are available. We will also provide some additional free minutes to everybody up in Canada who has been inconvenienced by this issue.

Sorry about this, it will be resolved soon.

CONTEST IS OVER: THE ANSWER IS MAINE!

I’ll add 100 minutes to the 6 of you that guessed correctly.

Summer is almost over. I had to wear a hoodie on the way into the office this morning. In a couple of months it will be a jacket, hat, and gloves. Where does the time go? At least football is here, and my New England Patriots (hint hint) were able to pull a victory out of the jaws of defeat this weekend.

Anyhow…let’s kick off another contest. Every couple of months, all the partners get together for a retreat where we can go over the business and figure out what needs to get done next. Since the six of us live all over the country, it’s really nice to meet up, hang out, play some games, and work on IndiaLD in person. About a month ago we were all up in DELETED with our families for our annual summer retreat.

Here are some pictures. If you can guess where we are, I’ll give you 100 free minutes for your account.

The babies of IndiaLD on the ferry.

This is the view from our first lunch.

This lighthouse is the most photographed place in the state.

Post your guesses in the comments below. I just need the state we are in (its in the USA). Don’t include your account number in the comments, I’ll get that later.

Good luck, we’ll keep this open until Friday the 18th.

We have lowered prices on all of our plans.

IndiaLD now has the only true 1 cent per minute rate to India. That’s right, our 3000 minute plan is only $30.00. Like all our plans, there no fees, no sneaky admin charges, or other deceptive practices. Just one great deal to call India.

In addition to that amazing offer, we’ve also lowered prices on all of our plans:

We are constantly working to give you the best deal to stay connected to India. Whether that’s adding new features like the ability to send free SMS to India, or cutting costs so that you can spend less to talk more, IndiaLD can be counted on to stay the best deal on the market.

Existing customers: If you want to change your plan to take advantage of our new lower costs, login to you account and use the Account Upgrade Downgrade tool to change your plan.

Old customers: If you left us because you thought you were getting a better deal elsewhere only to realize that calling from a modem isn’t all that great, come on back. We miss you, and I bet you miss our freedom, versatility, and great quality.

New customers: Where else are you going to find a true 1 cent per minute deal that you can use from your home, mobile, and office phone…or from 12 countries around the globe AND get free SMS to India? Quit waiting and sign up now!

We just launched our new Upgrade/Downgrade Tool in the Account Management area. You can now upgrade and downgrade your account automatically. To make changes to your plan, login to your account and click on the Upgrade Downgrade Account link. This will take you to a page where you can change your plan without needing to contact customer service.

We know that many of you change the amount of minutes that you need from one month to the next. This tool will make it very easy to do that yourself. Enjoy.

Upgrade/Downgrade Tool

Here is some additional information about what you can and cannot do:

Downgrading can only occur at the end of your monthly billing cycle. We do not issue refunds for already purchased minutes. You can downgrade your account at any point in the month, but the downgrade will not take place until the start of your next billing period.

Upgrading can occur either immediately or at the end of your billing cycle.

For example, if you upgrade from 1000 minutes to 1500 minutes and want to do it immediately, then we will charge you the difference between the cost of the 1000 minute plan and the 1500 minute plan (in that case $3.90), and add the additional 500 minutes into your account for immediate use.

If you want to upgrade at the end of the month, then there is no charge until your account’s billing cycle ends. At that point you will be charged for your next month at the 1500 minute plan rate.

We do not offer rollover minutes to the next month. For customers who are worried about unused minutes, we suggest that they downgrade to a lower plan and then use our Top Up tool to purchase additional minutes should they need them.

As with all our new services, let me know how its working.

We are now offering UK virtual phone numbers for people in India, US, Canada, and many other countries for free. This is a great solution for someone who gets a lot of calls from the United Kingdom, and wants to give out a simple UK based phone number that people can use to call them.

A virtual number works by forwarding a UK number on to an international destination. You tell us what that destination number should be, and we’ll give you your own UK virtual number.

We are using 0843 numbers which charge the caller 2 pence per minute to make a call from the UK. The charge is billed directly to someone’s phone bill. There are no accounts to setup, no credits to buy, they just dial the number and get connected directly to you. 0843 numbers are a very popular way of making international calls in the UK because of their convenience.  2 pence per minute is a great rate for calling India, especially since we are not charging a setup cost for the number forwarding.

There is no setup cost for these numbers. There are no charges from us for incoming calls. The caller pays 2 pence per minute for the call, and that charge is applied directly to their phone bill. Some mobile phones may charge additional fees.

If you have friends and family in India who get a lot of calls from the UK, be sure to tell them about this.  Right now we only have 2000 phone numbers to giveaway so act fast. Because we do not have limitless amounts of numbers, please make sure you have a decent amount of calls coming to you from the UK before you request this.

More Information and the UK Virtual Number Setup Form

As promised, we have expanded our customer care hours to be 7 days a week and 18 hours a day. Customer service will now be available from 8:30 AM  to 5:30 PM Pacific Time and from 8:30 PM to 5:30 AM Pacific time 7 days a week.

We had been staffing those hours for the last week to break the team in. Now that they have some experience, its time to let everyone know about our expanded hours.

Account holders can now send SMS to any mobile phone in India for free. To send, login to your account and look for the Free SMS icon in the upper right hand corner of the page. You can send as many SMS as you want (within reason…no spamming people) from your account to friends and family in India. There is no charge for this, just another benefit of being an IndiaLD account holder.

A couple of things: Your message will be delivered with IndiaLD as the sender and any dirty words will be censored. Both of these are in order to comply with Indian telecom regulations. So make sure to put your name in the message and use clean language!

As with all our products, let me know what you think and how its working out. If its popular enough, we’ll add some additional features like the ability to message multiple people and maybe a contact book.

Now you can listen to streaming Bollywood radio on your phone in the USA. Call any of these 3 numbers below and hear a different stream of Bollywood and Hindi music right onto your phone:

(916) 844-3378
(916) 844-3379
(916) 844-3380

These numbers are located in Northern California, USA. They are regular phone numbers, and you are responsible for the cost of calling them. These numbers are not limited to IndiaLD account holders. Anyone who wants can call them and listen to Bollywood music over the telephone.

If you are an IndiaLD account holder, calling these numbers will not deduct from your monthly calling minutes.

This is a bit of an experiment for us. We are curious to see if there is any demand for listening to desi radio, news, and podcasts over the phone. Maybe you have unlimited minutes on your cell plan and a commute where you don’t get any good radio stations to listen to. Maybe your company blocks streaming audio in the office. Maybe you just want to listen to some Indian music and only have your phone with you…

Let us know what you think, and if there is any particular sort of stuff you would want to listen to over the phone. If this takes off then we’ll expand it to include more languages and different shows.

And don’t worry, we are hard at work on our core offerings. Web-based free SMS to India will be out real soon.

It’s time for another one of our weekly free minute giveaways. The first 20 accounts to email chris@indiald.com with their account number and the subject Hot Twitter will get 100 free minutes to call India.

Its hot out there today, let’s cool off a bit with some free minutes to call India.

UPDATE: This giveaway is now officially over. Do not email in requesting minutes. I already went 25 accounts over my 20 account limit and am all out of free minutes for this giveaway.