I love to travel to different countries and continents. Cloud and mobile technology makes it less of an effort for digital nomads to pack a bag, find cheap flights and lodging. Thanks to travel brands like Google Flight, Kayak, Expedia, Airbnb, Hotels.com or Hotels Tonight we can research, plan and confirm our travel itinerary and logistics in a matter of minutes.
"One thing remains unchanged, staying connected for work or personal communications while in a different country or continent is debilitating from costly network roaming fees."
The Roaming Monster Is Out To Get You
A friend was not too happy after receiving her her wireless phone bill from an international trip that lasted for less than two weeks. The phone bill was $1,000 more than what she usually pays each month. AT&T charged her with a ludicrous amount for roaming voice, text and data. Instead of talking about her adventure, we spent most of the hour discussing the financially debilitating phone bill she received a few weeks after returning home.
A few weeks later, a client from a global enterprise shared how their C-levels are concerned over the costs of roaming fees. I quickly learned, that Fortune 500 and large enterprise companies have telecom teams who are in-charge of negotiating their wireline and wireless phone bills. As a member of the telecom team, part of the role requires that they remind users to manage their international voice, data and text consumption. Unfortunately, the reminders fall on deaf ears. The company saw their roaming cost rise to millions.
“We have contracts with ten different telecom companies to ensure that our employees are always connected regardless of where they are in the world. This can be costly.” — TEM Lead, Social NetworkThe roaming problem is real. Individuals, small businesses and the enterprise who do business abroad are aware of their limitations to control what seems to be an unnecessary cost. At the moment, there is no easy and simple solution that just works.
Our goal at Dial IQ is to change the international traveler’s relationship with their device. We want our users to connect freely with their love ones back home, friends they travel with and friends who are locals in the country they are visiting without worrying about the cost of their telephone bills.
Introducing Dial IQ
We’re building a seriously simple way to avoid roaming charges while you travel abroad. We have the ability to know when a device is roaming. And when a device is roaming, we present you with cheaper option for calls and text. We’re giving international travelers control and choice on how to connect, communicate while crafting their travel context in the country they are visiting or when they are back home.
A friend was not too happy after receiving her her wireless phone bill from an international trip that lasted for less than two weeks. The phone bill was $1,000 more than what she usually pays each month. AT&T charged her with a ludicrous amount for roaming voice, text and data. Instead of talking about her adventure, we spent most of the hour discussing the financially debilitating phone bill she received a few weeks after returning home.
A few weeks later, a client from a global enterprise shared how their C-levels are concerned over the costs of roaming fees. I quickly learned, that Fortune 500 and large enterprise companies have telecom teams who are in-charge of negotiating their wireline and wireless phone bills. As a member of the telecom team, part of the role requires that they remind users to manage their international voice, data and text consumption. Unfortunately, the reminders fall on deaf ears. The company saw their roaming cost rise to millions.
“We have contracts with ten different telecom companies to ensure that our employees are always connected regardless of where they are in the world. This can be costly.” — TEM Lead, Social NetworkThe roaming problem is real. Individuals, small businesses and the enterprise who do business abroad are aware of their limitations to control what seems to be an unnecessary cost. At the moment, there is no easy and simple solution that just works.
Our goal at Dial IQ is to change the international traveler’s relationship with their device. We want our users to connect freely with their love ones back home, friends they travel with and friends who are locals in the country they are visiting without worrying about the cost of their telephone bills.
Introducing Dial IQ
We’re building a seriously simple way to avoid roaming charges while you travel abroad. We have the ability to know when a device is roaming. And when a device is roaming, we present you with cheaper option for calls and text. We’re giving international travelers control and choice on how to connect, communicate while crafting their travel context in the country they are visiting or when they are back home.
Roaming FactsThe most common comment from roaming victims, “I didn’t know I was roaming.” According to Teresa Corbin, Chief Executive, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
“Smartphone users are regularly “stung” with high bills for using phones overseas as mistakes are easy to make. Even tech-savvy people are also being caught out. People could be in a wi-fi hotspot and then walk to the other side of the (hotel) lobby and it reverts back to the mobile network without them realizing.”At least 28% of international travelers turn off their devices when abroad. While 26% switch data off. The more tech savvy travelers manage to replace their SIM cards, even so only 10% do so. There were three billion international travelers in 2014 who may have at one point or another paid for debilitating roaming fees. Did you know that a Chinese traveler pay US$6.23 per minute when calling home while in Russia? In addition, Chinese travelers pay US$2.10 per minute when calling from Maldives and US$3.20 per minute from India. The same problem persists in Australia, South East Asia and Eastern Europe.
Building For Growth and Performance
At the heart of our design and engineering is a genuine care and compassion for global business and leisure travelers. We’re hyper focused on delivering a level of transparency so our users can make better choices in any international call scenario with ease and confidence.
Our international distributed, talented engineering and design team with telco and satellite domain expertise are working hard to ship the commercial version for iOS and Android by late Fall 2015. Sign-up for updates and reserve your front-row access when we announce the beta release in late Fall 2015.
About Dial IQ
Doing business globally means being connected. But making calls, checking emails and downloading documents while abroad — can rack up huge data roaming costs. With the mobile technologies available today, you can roam smarter, saving tons of money on your telecom expenses.
Dial IQ is like Whats App for international business travelers. We know when your device is roaming. And when your device is roaming Dial IQ helps you find free wi-fi, cheaper options for international calls and text messages and craft a travel context especially for you.
This post was originally published on Dial IQ's blog.
“Smartphone users are regularly “stung” with high bills for using phones overseas as mistakes are easy to make. Even tech-savvy people are also being caught out. People could be in a wi-fi hotspot and then walk to the other side of the (hotel) lobby and it reverts back to the mobile network without them realizing.”At least 28% of international travelers turn off their devices when abroad. While 26% switch data off. The more tech savvy travelers manage to replace their SIM cards, even so only 10% do so. There were three billion international travelers in 2014 who may have at one point or another paid for debilitating roaming fees. Did you know that a Chinese traveler pay US$6.23 per minute when calling home while in Russia? In addition, Chinese travelers pay US$2.10 per minute when calling from Maldives and US$3.20 per minute from India. The same problem persists in Australia, South East Asia and Eastern Europe.
Building For Growth and Performance
At the heart of our design and engineering is a genuine care and compassion for global business and leisure travelers. We’re hyper focused on delivering a level of transparency so our users can make better choices in any international call scenario with ease and confidence.
Our international distributed, talented engineering and design team with telco and satellite domain expertise are working hard to ship the commercial version for iOS and Android by late Fall 2015. Sign-up for updates and reserve your front-row access when we announce the beta release in late Fall 2015.
About Dial IQ
Doing business globally means being connected. But making calls, checking emails and downloading documents while abroad — can rack up huge data roaming costs. With the mobile technologies available today, you can roam smarter, saving tons of money on your telecom expenses.
Dial IQ is like Whats App for international business travelers. We know when your device is roaming. And when your device is roaming Dial IQ helps you find free wi-fi, cheaper options for international calls and text messages and craft a travel context especially for you.
This post was originally published on Dial IQ's blog.
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