Anyone who travels abroad is aware of those astronomical international roaming rates, particularly for mobile data. To combat the issue, Truphone has launched shared international mobile service plans for data, text and voice, available via its channel partners. The plans allow businesses with employees based abroad and with employees traveling internationally to share local minutes, messages and megabytes from a single bundle when in the “Truphone Zone.”
Business customers can share mobile usage between the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Germany, Poland and Spain will be added later this year.
According to research from CCMI, 40 percent of large enterprises either require their employees to curtail their voice and data usage while traveling or forbid it altogether due to the extraordinarily high costs of international roaming.
“When business people are on the road, they need to stay connected. And it shouldn’t matter whether you’re in Los Angeles or London – you just need to make the call, send the file – get things done, and done quickly. These road warriors are powering the U.S. economy, and it’s up to network providers to help them make it happen,” said Pascal de Hesselle, vice president of marketing at Truphone. “Truphone’s international shared plans keep business people productive, affordably connecting them with their colleagues and customers around the world. We’re proud of this industry first.”
Truphone offers a single voice and SMS mailbox, and a single bill to manage users across territories. Business customers also can take advantage of local numbers in multiple countries on a single SIM or device, so contacts can get in touch on a number that’s familiar to them. These additional numbers are always on and routed automatically for a unified calling experience. If the user is anywhere in the “Truphone Zone,” the calls are local calls.
The company is focused on international service, and has its own GSM backbone linking six countries. It also has MVNO arrangements and roaming deals to provide global coverage.
