Roaming abroad for Christmas

With Christmas and New Year holidays upon us, Ofcom have reminded us of the importance of taking care when using phones abroad. Whilst costs for using phones within the EU have fallen in past years, thanks to the intervention of the EU council, calling abroad can still be a tricky business. For example, those planning to rely on the Eurotariff and Euro-SMS tariff are advised to check with their Phone company first to ensure that they are on a contract which allows them to benefit from these tariffs. Whilst Eurotariffs put a cap on the price of calls and texts they don’t work in countries such as Turkey, Croatia and Switzerland whilst those planning to travel further afield won’t be covered at all.

Again, whilst agreements have limited or put caps on the cost of internet use within Europe it is another matter entirely when you leave the shelter of EU zones. Those planning to surf the net or download video abroad are well advised to use local Wi-Fi hotspots or change to a travel Sim card to avoid facing roaming bills which could add up to £thousands.

One item not covered by the Ofcom warning is that of ensuring the safety of Office telephone systems over the holiday period. It is a sad fact that when offices are empty, phone system hackers make merry with our phone bills. There are a few simple ways in which companies can restrict their exposure to Dial-Through Fraud. The first is to make sure that passwords and Pins are secure and are changed on a regular basis. As the recent hacking scandal has shown, many telephone access pins are simply left as default 1111 or similar and this is an open invitation for the fraudsters.

The second way of keeping your telephone system safe is to restrict use. So, businesses which have no need to call abroad or call premium rate numbers can block these types of call. So, for example, the Callagenix Pin Entry service can be used to restrict access to certain types of calls or to the main virtual switchboard itself. Alternately using a supervisor function would allow the logging off of certain extensions which are not expected to be in use over the holiday period.

Finally, it is worth nominating an individual to keep an eye on call statistics over the holiday period. Simply by logging into your account enables you to track calls and spot any anomalies. Early detection could save £thousands in fraudulent call costs and the beauty of the internet is that you can log in from your holiday base. Just watch those roaming charges though.