Phoning a Second Life avatar is a call to Germany!

OK, the last entry in my Vodaphone InsideOut trilogy is that I learned that while calling OUT from Second Life to the real world is free (for now), calling INSIDE is the same as a call to Germany, and is going to be charged that way by your U.S. cellular provider.

The reason is that Vodaphone assigns a virtual number to your handset inside SL, in order to protect your identity, they say. They chose a block of numbers from Germany (+49) to use as the virtual numbers. So if you dial up an avatar in SL, you get charged (by your provider, not Vodaphone) for making a call to Germany. (Here's a link to the page where they explain these costs.)

Vodaphone says it may charge L$300 (300 Linden dollars) per minute for calls made from inside SL out to an RL phone, once the free beta trial ends on Nov. 30. I guess they haven't made up their minds for sure yet.