Taking the Pain out of International Mobile Calling

Travelers rejoice: The days of high international roaming charges or struggles with local mobile providers is almost over.

The phone situation as it exists currently is a choice between high international roaming charges with an existing mobile operator or the purchase of a local SIM card.

Many opt for the local SIM since it is far less expensive, but this option comes along with a new number that must be given to contacts, and the complexity and confusion of having to learn a new mobile provider in a foreign country. Foreign SIM cards work, but they are a hassle.

OneSimCard wants to change that equation.

The company has partnered with mobile providers the world over to enable its SIM card to work in more than 200 countries. This makes the mobile game easy when traveling, and allows businesses to continue using their existing phone number.

“We become their carrier during time of travel," Alex Filippov told MobilityTechzone recently. “It's a single phone number that works everywhere, with voice, SMS and data."

The SIM card comes ready for the mobile experience, too.

For example, OneSimCard has a VoIP option on the same phone number, so customers with Wi-Fi access or 3G data plans can place and receive calls for almost nothing.

Even more helpful, potentially, is the company’s auto-correct option. One of the major challenges of calling in a foreign country is getting the dialing right, and OneSimCard has developed a mobile app that takes the pain out of this process.

“Our smartphone apps allow users to easily configure our services and auto-correct misdialed calls,” Filippov told us.

This can be a huge advantage.

“Approximately 50 percent of calls people make when traveling internationally are misdialed,” he said. “The reason is simple: you have to know the country code, the exit code, etc. We have an app that automatically corrects misdialed calls, which makes a best guess based on the customer home country and location what number the customer was trying to dial."

The days of painful international calling are nearing an end.