|
|
| Roaming voice and data charges, and how to avoid them |
July 10, 2008 |
By Ian Harvey
 Ask not for whom the bell tolls, because it’s tolling for you in the form of outrageous roaming charges anytime you use your mobile outside your home turf.
Once upon a time most of us didn’t turn our cellphones on when travelling, lest we get dinged by those heavy long-distance and roaming charges that can make a three-minute conversation cost as much as lunch on the Champs Élysées.
But turning off is a luxury we can no longer afford, with both bosses and clients expecting all-the-time access to us. Meanwhile, rates have only improved slightly.
And habits die hard. Earlier this year, I was on the U.S. west coast for a week and used my Toronto-based mobile to pick up some e-mails between flights instead of firing up the laptop and paying the $10 Wi-Fi access fee. I racked up 22 minutes in voice calls back home at 95 cents a minute, plus long distance charges of $12.50. That’s $33.40 for almost nothing. Worse still were the data charges: a puny 475 Kb transfer (about 158 e-mail headers, since I constrict each message to less than 3Kb) cost $23.75 in roaming charges. More galling was that the incoming e-mails were mostly spam because Rogers doesn’t filter mobile e-mail with the same efficiency it applies to regular e-mail.
None of that is enough to bankrupt anyone, but regular use while away would have cost as much as the flight out there.
This experience is backed by a recent study from Brightroam, a Canadian company that sells SIM cards and rents mobile phones to travellers heading to 163 countries. The study suggests international roaming fees cost U.S. businesses US$693.50 per trip for every global traveller — 12 times more than the average monthly wireless bill.
“The study shows 15 per cent of employees make at least one international trip per year, which translates into costs of more than $950,000 annually per 10,000 employees,” said Jeff Wilson, general manager of Brightroam in Toronto. “If you consider that many large businesses in the U.S. employ more than 30,000 employees, it is easy to see how roaming costs can take a big bite out of operating costs.”
GSM, CDMA or both?
So what to do when summer travel plans call for a trip to Europe or the United States and you can’t leave the mobile at home? The answers vary. If you have a GSM phone — GSM is the Global System for Mobile, the standard used by more than 80 per cent of the world’s cell carriers but only by Rogers in Canada — you can simply change the SIM card, the little white plastic-and-gold chip that slots into your phone and programs it with your number.
For those with Telus or Bell Mobile accounts, however, the news isn’t as good, since neither use GSM technology as their standard. Telus users can buy one of two special “world phones” that will switch from the Telus cell protocol (called CDMA) to GSM, but connections are still expensive: rates start at $2 per minute and go up to $8 per minute for international calls, 60 cents to send an SMS and 20 cents to receive one, and a nickel per kilobyte for e-mail.
Bell customers have the option to buy a specially configured BlackBerry 8830, which has a SIM slot and will switch modes to allow foreign SIM cards for voice but not data, or they can opt for the new Samsung Ace, which can also switch hit. (See the Tek Gadget section for more on the Ace.)
For those with a regular Bell or Telus handset, renting a phone before leaving is the only other option, said John Hendriks, owner of Hello Anywhere, which rents phones in Canada and around the world from its Toronto base.
“We charge $39.99 for the first week and $10 a week after that for a basic phone, and you don’t have to worry about topping up (adding more minutes) which can be a hassle if you’ve never done it before or don’t speak the local language,” Hendriks said. “If you’re in France, say, it would be 49 cents a minute locally or 99 cents a minute back to Canada. Italy would be 75 cents a minute locally and 99 cents a minute back to Canada.”
Consumer and business options
Like Brightroam, Montreal-based Simphonee has been operating for about three years and spokesman Oren Vered said the entrenchment of the mobile is driving the niche. “It’s split between the consumer market and business users fairly evenly,” Vered said, noting consumers are more interested in saving money while businesses similarly want to contain costs but also need itemized billing.
Simphonee also offers dual SIMs — essentially two SIMs on one chip — which allows users to toggle back and forth and is useful for those with both business and personal numbers. A triple SIM version is also in the works for those who travel constantly between geographic areas.
Both Brightroam and Simphonee can configure your regular phone number to forward calls to the number you’re assigned in the country of travel.
And back to GSM phones again: one caveat is that the phone must be unlocked — not tied to Rogers. This is a simple firmware adjustment. A check of the phone book or Google can locate someone to do the job for approximately $15 to $45. And finally, the unlocked GSM phone must be compatible with the frequency your destination uses. For example, the U.S. and Canada use the 1900 MHz and 850 MHz spectrum, while most of Africa, Europe and Asia uses 900 MHz and 1800 MHz. However, many phones are built for the world market and work on multiple frequencies. Check online to see which frequency your mobile handset uses and what the destination employs.
Go local
Acquiring a SIM card at your destination is the simplest way to cut costs. For example, I picked up a local Pay-As-You-Go card when I went to Thailand in 2005. I was able to e-mail my local number back to family in Toronto from a cybercafe. The only issues were that I had to keep topping up the phone during my three week trip and there was no itemized bill.
Last fall we toured northern Italy for two weeks to visit my daughter. Before I left I hooked up with a SIM card through Brightroam, getting myself a local Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) number. Now this was vacation time and I wasn’t expecting a flurry of calls, but it was useful to monitor my e-mail account. We also got lost a couple of times and the phone was a lifeline to call the next bed and breakfast to get directions, and in the case of Genoa, a guided narrative directing us to the world’s hardest-to-find piazza and our lodgings in a former 15th-century convent.
The card, couriered to my door in Toronto, cost $70 and included a $50 airtime credit. Between texting and calling over two weeks I used about 105 minutes at a rate that was generally about 45 cents a minute, though it hit 59 cents on a couple of calls back to Canada. Incoming calls from my daughter were free.
Brightroam’s tab was $29.21 but had I used Rogers it would have been about $117.60. After paying for the card I was nearly $50 ahead and would have saved more money if I used the phone more often.
Changing SIM cards is a great option for vacations and business travel alike, but obviously you’ve got to be away long enough to make the purchase viable. The best thing is that you’re able to use your mobile without feeling guilty or rushing conversations; and for businesses it’s a way to cut costs and improve efficiency on the road, and that’s always a bonus to the bottom line.
SIDEBAR
International roaming fees cost U.S. businesses US$693.50 per trip for every global traveller — 12 times more than the average monthly wireless bill. — Brightroam
ExecutiveOverview Archive
|
|
|
| Top 300 Issue |
 
|
| Gadget of the Week (Canadian) |
|
Boost your cell
ARC Wireless Freedom Blade
Mobile data and voice are great, as long as the signal is strong. And while mobile networks are pretty good these days, road warriors quickly discover that dead zones still exist.
more>>
|
| Gadget of the Week (Japanese) |
Sounds of Japan
Why record just the visual when you can capture the sounds as well.
more>> |
| Backblog RSS feed |
Click to subscribe  |
|
sponsored by 
