Several companies offer free calls to France in light of the recent tragedy that took place in the country. In an effort to help however they can, many telecommunications companies and technology firms are offering their services for free to people trying to contact their loved ones in France.
Telecommunications companies like Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint have all offered free calls and text messages to France for their United States customers. Verizon announced that its customers will be able to make free international long distance calls and send text messages to France for no charge on the 13th, 14th and 15th of November.
In a message posted on the company’s website and addressed to all its customers Verizon also announced that landline calls from customer’s home phones in the U.S. to French phones would also be free during this period of time as a show of sympathy and support to those affected by the sad events that took place in the last few days.
Other companies have showed similar support. Sprint announced it would drop all fees for international long distance calls, text messages and roaming charges from the United States to France for their customers using Sprint, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile.
Sprint also stated that they will stop charging these fees on November 13th but have not limited the amount of time during which this will span for now, saying there will be no costs for these services until further notice. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure also stated that this decision was made because, amid the chaos and devastation that the French people are suffering through at the moment, the company wanted to show its support and to try to comfort people in any way it could.
T-Mobile has also chosen to participate in the joint effort to facilitate contact between their U.S. customers and family members in France. The company announced that it would offer free calls and text messages to the country starting Friday, the 13th of November until Monday the 16th.
Besides telecommunication corporations, technology companies have also joined the effort to support customers that need to contact friends and family in France these days. Microsoft has made all domestic and international calls to both landlines and mobile numbers in France free for their Skype users. It hasn’t announced how long this project will last as of yet.
Google has undertaken a similar role by providing the same service for its Hangouts users, which can now use the application to contact family and friends in France for no charge.
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