International calling

The Easter Holidays signal the start of the holiday season with many heading to Europe or wider afield. To mark this Ofcom have issued a short video reminding people of the cost of using their mobile and internet abroad.

In June 2010, a Europe wide mobile bill cut off of 50 Euros (£40 approximately) per month was imposed to try and stop people falling into the trap of running up massive mobile and roaming bills. Although there is an opt-out option, people should ignore it at their peril as once opted out the bill can continue to grow without warning. Some operators offer differing levels of cut off as alternatives.

With 60% of people travelling to Europe using their mobiles the Ofcom warning is timely. However, those who regularly travel abroad for work purposes may not have the luxury of keeping calls to a minimum. For them and for those holidaymakers who regularly travel to the same destination Ofcom has some handy hints. Firstly, Ofcom suggests considering buying a local SIM card or dongle. If all your calls are likely to be within the one country this measure can save pounds per call. Secondly consider buying a bundle of roaming minutes and thirdly check out the prices charged in local Wi-fi hotspots.

For those companies who operate internationally, there is no longer an excuse for running up huge telephone bills. The advent of internet telephoning or VoIP has revolutionised telephone costs for international firms. Companies can now allocate local numbers anywhere in the world with those numbers all diverting to a designated office via a web based keyboard.

So, for example, customers in Spain can call a Spanish number, those in France can call a French number whilst UK clients can phone a UK number. All three numbers can be routed via automatic switchboard to whichever office is “on call” at that time. So, if the Spanish office is closed for training all calls can be routed to the UK or France.

This flexibility means that even small companies can trade internationally and still give their customers the impression of a local service. Businesses don’t even have to have an office within a country to benefit from a local number. For example the China toll free number offered by Callagenix opens up business to 1.3 billion potential customers in China.

Whilst the Ofcom warning is timely for holidaymakers, those businesses who are making the best use of internet calling can make calls abroad with confidence that the cost won’t be too high.