I’m heading to holiday in Asia in a few days. My mobile provider costs are really expensive for roaming. How do you recommend keeping in touch?
It would be great if mobile providers provided easy, cheap roaming packages, wouldn’t it? They all promise they do, but when you look at the costs involved it can actually get ridiculously expensive. Luckily this is where the Internet comes in and brings in some great tools to help. I’m talking specifically about VOIP services. Voice Over IP is a set of technologies that lets people talk across the Internet, share ideas and keep in touch. I won’t go into the technicalities of how it works but there are many different flavours and applications you can use.
As an example, here’s an infographic that shows a selection of VOIP providers, together with prices and reviews:
As you can see, there are many options but a lot of people prefer to use apps that use VOIP without going into the intricacies of signing up for contracts and needing to set up systems. I tend to use Whatsapp for example, a mobile app that runs on multiple platforms and lets you speak to people on the other side of the world without paying a cent. There are a variety of other providers, but the upside is that you don’t need to use your mobile contract, all you need is a data connection, off a local SIM, internet cafe or hotel wifi. They all work 🙂