Google, Skype and the carriers offer free calling to France after series of terrorist attacks in Paris
In case you haven’t checked the news in the past few days, a horrific series of terrorist attacks shook the Paris streets late Friday. The death toll rose over 100 by the end of an hours-long hostage situation that ended in a shootout. Others were either minorly or critically injured. You can read more about the attacks here if you so wish.
But there’s some important news for those who have friends or relatives in the country. Many carriers and calling services are making all calls and messages to France absolutely free. Google has done so with their Hangouts calling, Skype is offering it through their own platform, and Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile have all announced that they won’t be charging for you to get in contact with your loved ones in the area.
This is a great gesture by the carriers who are able to forego a dollar in order to help the emotionally-wounded public get in contact with the people they care about and make sure they’re OK. Here are some more specifics about who’s doing what:
- Google is offering free calling to France through Hangouts until an unspecified date.
- Skype is offering free calling to France for “the next few days.”
- Sprint is offering free calling to France until an unspecified date.
- Verizon offered free calling to France between November 13th and November 15th. The offer is no longer available.
- T-Mobile is offering free calling to France through November 16th.
- AT&T is offering free calling to France through November 17th.
As you can see, there are options no matter who you’re with. If you haven’t already called to check on your loved ones and your carrier has already ended their respective offer then it seems Skype or Google Hangouts is your best bet in the here and now, though you’ll want to make sure you take advantage sooner rather than later (which we imagine was already the plan for many of the folks who this applies to).