Alternatives to Skype for ADSL 512 kbps?

Question

Skype

Hello.
Next week, under a contract, I am moving to Turkmenistan for six months.
As far as I know, the situation with the Internet there is one of the worst in the world, and if you do not take into account the DPRK, then the worst.
For the "broad layers" it became available relatively recently, several years ago, the only provider is the state-owned Turkmen Telecom. Tariffs... God forgive me :)
The best option from unlimited is 512 kbps. Yes, "kilo", not "mega". For 600 manats per month. It's about $200. Yes, American. Year so 2006..7, by our standards. However, no, our prices were better.
The toad presses. Most likely, I will have a normal dial-up access, 40 kbits plus or minus. Tell me something as an alternative to Skype, which will be at least relatively normal, well, tolerably work under such "circumstances of the end of the twentieth century")) I would like, all the same, to be able to communicate with my family at no cost.
Thank you very much.

Answer 1

such a speed is enough for voice (Opus supports constant and variable bitrate encoding from 6 kbit/s to 510 kbit/s), the main thing is the stability of the channel outside the country, the amount of delays and jitter. it will probably only be possible to check it experimentally on the spot, tk. this not only may depend on the provider, but also on the quality of the telephone line in a particular location.

Answer 2

I always thought that the worst internet in China :D

Answer 3

Used Skype back in the days of Dial-up with the same speeds. It was quite possible to communicate by voice.

Answer 4

1. 512 Kbit/sec is not dial-up. Dial-up is 57.6 Kbit/sec.
2. In 2006, the Russian Federation already had a whirlwind to apartments and cheap rates of 10-20 megabits per second, and 512 Kbit / sec is the year 2002, and even then there were no such prices.
3. Skype will work quite well on 512 and will not buzz. Just as different SIP clients will work quietly, half a megabit is a lot.

Answer 5

Maybe DaaS will help you ? Roughly speaking, this is a PC in the cloud.