Click below to
find interesting
information from our
August 2009
newsletter
relating to:
For the first
time ever,
Australian
travellers can
save by using a
single post-paid
vSIM world-wide
and avoid
roaming costs.
Without
losing contact
on your
Australian
number, you can
save by taking
advantage of the
pay-as-you-go
cost of vSIM
Trip. vSIM Trip
is just $1.50
per day of your
trip*.
When your
trip is
finished, you
can return the
vSIM Trip (in
the supplied
pre-paid
envelope) to
have the deposit
returned or else
contact vRoam
and convert to
vSIM Frequent
(at a cost of $9
per month) for
your future
trips.
For road
warriors who are
on the road (or
plane...) often,
vSIM Frequent is
available at a
fixed rental of
only $9 per
month* with a
six-month
minimum
commitment.
Click
here to
enquire about vSIM.
Experienced
travellers
know a few
tricks for
making their
life easier
when you
travel
internationally.
We continue
on from
previous
months'
newsletter
with a few
more tips
for the
savvy modern
traveller.
SMS
overseas
SMS text
messages are
point-to-point
and cannot be
forwarded. They
also expire if
not delivered
within a certain
period. Usually
if a text cannot
be delivered
immediately then
it is retried a
short while
later, then
perhaps a few
more times (up
to perhaps a
week - depends
on your handset
and network
settings).
One
suggestion if
delivery of SMS
is critical for
you is to set
your handset to
enable "delivery
receipts" (not
all handsets can
do this). Then
you can
definitively
tell if the SMS
has been
delivered.
vRoam's vSIM
improves SMS
reliability by
using only major
foreign networks
that have
established
proper bilateral
SMS exchange
arrangements
with the major
Australian
carriers.
Mobile phones
Smartphones and
data usage
The biggest
trend in mobile
handsets today
is smartphones.
These are
devices (often
with miniature
keyboards) that
contain the
equivalent
processing power
of a PC of a few
years ago, and
have "real"
operating
systems that can
usually add on
new programs or
applications -
often mobile
versions of PC
programs, or
innovative
mobile services
such as GPS
tracking. Common
models include
Apple's iPhone,
RIM's
BlackBerry,
Nokia's E-series
but many others
are available or
being developed.
Given that
these devices
use data, and
that roaming
rates for data
using your
Australian
SIMcard overseas
can be
exorbitant, many
travellers are
asking "how much
data does my
smartphone use"?
This can be a
rather hard
question to
answer, as each
smartphone
varies, and each
of the
individual
applications on
a smartphone can
use data. If we
assume that only
basic e-mail
usage is
attempted, then
our opinions
are:
·
BlackBerries are the most frugal (they have their heritage in the 2G
era); typically
a roaming bill
with a
BlackBerry will
be mostly voice
and less than
20% data cost
·
Mid-range data consumers include Nokia, Samsung, LG and similar
models
·
Profligate smartphones are the iPhone and Android models, generally
for roaming a
sensible idea
would be to
disable data
completely
unless needed
for a specific
purpose
As a very
rough guide,
browsing a
non-graphical
webpage takes
2kB to perhaps
10kB or more, a
typical
graphical
webpage could be
around 300kB,
synchronising 10
e-mails without
attachments
takes around
60kB (text-only)
or 120kB
(html-format) or
300kB (html with
images), viewing
a short 2-minute
YouTube video is
perhaps 16MB.
vRoam of
course will help
make your trip
cheaper and more
effective with a
vSIM before
you leave (all
our SIMs are
data-enabled),
lower costs and
staying in touch
on your normal
Australian
number.
