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Subscribe to RSSHOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- For any international traveler who's ever been surprised by a whopping cell phone bill upon their return home, global mobile carrier Tru has a solution.
“Our innovation is aimed at one goal: to serve the communication needs of the international traveler,” said Gary Cohen, senior vice president and general manager for the Americas for Truphone.
Tru's approach is called "least cost roaming," which helps companies save on roaming charges abroad by using local numbers. Tru offers multiple local numbers on one SIM card, allowing customers and contacts to reach one another -- without paying high charges for international calls, texting or uploading data.
Too often, travelers abroad turn off their devices, which harms productivity, or bite the bullet and pay exorbitant roaming charges, said Cohen. He estimates that with Tru, companies can save 30 to 90 percent on roaming charges.
Tru’s service currently works in more than 200 countries, including the United Kingdom, and will be available in the United States in 2012.
Rod Cuthbert, founder and chairman emeritus for Viator Inc., and one of the members of the critics circle at the PhoCusWright conference, said he uses the service and loves it.
“Your corporate strategy to me makes sense,” said Sophie Forest, managing partner for the venture capital company Brightspark Ventures, who is also one of this year's critics. However, she pointed out that Wi-Fi is everywhere these days, so Tru's solution might make more sense for the business traveler than the leisure traveler.
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Joy Jernigan is a senior travel editor for msnbc.com and is reporting from The PhoCusWright Conference 2011. Follow her on Twitter.
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Cell phones and all these gadgets are ridiculous. We didn't have them before and we got along fantastically well. All you people complain about making corporations rich and CEO's multimillionaires and can't give up your toys. Hell I was taught as a kid that a phone was not a toy and a necessary part of the house to be used in emergencies and to contact friends and relatives on special occasions. Today it is a fuc*ing toy and everyone has to walk around with something growing out of their ears or some sq metal comic book to play with as they walk, eat or especially rude be with other people. What the hell is so damn important that the answering machine can't pick up the freaking call and you can answer the messages when you get home or to work? And with these charges one for the computer, one for the cell phone one for the satellite dish, one for the movies, one for tablets??? cell phones for every member of the family, don't ask yourselves why you don't have a pension or have to keep working when your 65,66, 76,68,69,70. You are spending yourselves into the poor house and you deserve for being so unintelligent!
Ok, so following your train of thought then anyone driving a car should stop because for almost all of human history we did not have cars or shoes for that matter.
Do you have a retirement plan? Is it fully funded? Are your toys necessary? Are you one of the people who complain about the profits of the big companies and the huge salaries of the CEO'S? You accept people yelling into little boxes while you are on a bus, subway or in a supermarket? Are all these toys necessary to live in today's society? Add up the costs of your toys, the monthly subscription plans and how many years until your retirement and stand back!
When I hear New Yorkers complain about how difficult it is to make ends meet on $250,000 a year, then I know people are living well beyond their means and just have to have the latest toys, and gadgets and listen to their kids whine and yell they have to have them too. I retired 5 years ago at 59 and don't have any of those toys. Can you or will you be able to say that?