We all know that calling and sending SMSes while in roaming is expensive. But just how expensive is it? Whenever I travel, I instinctively call or SMS home or office on my mobile phone, simply not registering the fact that call charges are quite different when one is not on home soil. Its only when I get back to Singapore and receive my monthly bill do I get a heart attack at the cost.

A good example would be my husband’s recent trip to Thailand. He made a few calls and sent several SMSes to me during the three weeks he was away. I am still reeling from the SGD1,400 bill he received and I am yet to recover from the shock and make payment for it, even though I have already received one reminder in the mail so far. Since then, I no longer freely use my mobile phone while in roaming, unless it is a matter of life and death, really.

I first heard about ArrivedOK from my friend who travels several times a month. She insisted that this service was a fantastic way to inform ones loved ones when overseas without busting the bank. Not being an early adaptor of new technology I was a bit skeptical, but after the shocking bill I received from Singtel, I decided to explore just how much I can save on roaming charges by switching to ArrivedOK.

First of all it is important to understand what ArrivedOK is and how it works. ArrivedOK is a flight arrival tracker and not an alternative sms service. What’s unique about ArrivedOK is that it tracks you as an individual, so its only when you reach your destination airport that your messages are sent out to your family and friends. You can check out their website at www.arrivedok.mobi for more info. Even for a technologically inept person such as myself, using the service was not a problem. It involves just three basic steps. Log onto the ArrivedOk site and register, enter the mobile numbers or address of your recipients, type out your message, switch off your phone, fly and when you switch it back on upon landing, ArrivedOK tracks your number, verifies that you have in fact landed at your destination, and sends out your messages to your list of family and friends. Its as simple as that.

With an initial investment of USD 9.90, you can start off with ArrivedOK’s Economy Class Package which would give you 30 credits, making each credit USD 0.33. With this package, I would receive free blog posts, free emails and 29 arrivals or text messages, which is honestly a huge saving.

Now if we were to do a brief price comparison, it would cost me SGD 0.61 to send an SMS when roaming using Singtel from Thailand, and if I was on a Thai SIM (AIS Thailand) SMS messaging while roaming would cost me Baht 10.77 or SGD 0.46 per message. But if I was subscribed to ArrivedOK’s Economy Class Package, it would only cost me SGD 14.00 to send out 29 SMS messages and free emails and blog posts!

I could go on and on comparing the outrageous roaming rates that many of us end up paying without realizing. This is why, from now on, whenever I do travel, I am most definitely going to sign up with ArrivedOK and save myself a bundle on roaming charges!

The best news is that currently, if you display a link to ArrivedOk on your website or blog, and direct your friends and other travel loving people to register for the service, you will earn credits. These credits can be used like currency to pay for your ArrivedOK smses, so all in all, you save a 100% when you use ArrivedOK if you have adequate credits, so invite your friends to register for the service (www.arrivedok.mobi) and fan page (www.facebook.com/arrivedok) and stay tuned for more interesting travel tips and tricks :)

AUSTIN, Texas, November 30 /PRNewswire/ –

- www.arrivedOK.mobi Offers Monetization to Travel Social Networks, Provides Air Companies With New Ancillary Revenue Service and Customer Loyalty Tool.

ArrivedOK (http://www.arrivedok.mobi/hello), the personal flight arrival tracker finishes the phase of public beta and goes commercial now. ArrivedOK tracks air travelers’ cell phones in a mobile network when it is turned on after landing and instantly sends those tailored ‘Arrived OK’ messages to the designated recipients via SMS, email, and social media.

Logo: http://www.arrivedok.mobi/img/logo_arrivedok_full_01.png

The automated flight plan systems do not provide accurate reporting about flight arrivals all the time, which was demonstrated on November 19, 2009 when the glitch in US air traffic control network caused flight delays across the nation. Unlike other tracking services that use centralized flight status data, ArrivedOK tracks one’s actual appearance in the destination airport using individual mobile phone status.

“Even as a paid service, ArrivedOK SMS alerts allow the subscribers bypassing the heavy international roaming charges.” – says Andrey Deriabin, Director Business Development at arrivedOK.mobi Inc. “However, we’d like to make it completely free for the end users. So we are working on B2B partnerships that would allow subsidizing the mobile traffic generated by our subscribers. During the public beta phase we received very promising responses from air companies, which look for new opportunities in a time of economic hardship. While discount airlines primarily see ArrivedOK as a source of ancillary revenue, “majors” also consider it as customer loyalty tool, willing to subsidize the service to their frequent flyers.”

ArrivedOK also provides monetization opportunity to travel websites and startups. “There are a lot of travel-related social networking projects seeking monetization.” – says Andrey Deriabin. “ArrivedOK perfectly matches their audience. We’re currently doing test integration with selected sites, and will make ArrivedOK API publicly available until the end of the year via http://partners.arrivedok.mobi”

ArrivedOK has been selected as a Webby Awards 2009 Official Honoree in two categories: Best Use of GPS or Location Technology and Experimental & Innovation. The service is currently available worldwide except for the subscribers of the US and Chinese mobile networks.

    Contact: Andrey Deriabin
    arrivedOK.mobi Inc.
    Tel: +73833630139
    Cell: +79139859722
    Email: andrey.deriabin @ arrivedok.mobi
    Web http://arrivedok.mobi
    Mobile http://m.arrivedok.mobi

Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of arrivedOK.mobi Inc.

209 – 215 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8NL
Tel : +44 (0)20 7490 8111
Fax : +44 (0)20 7490 1255
E-mail : info@prnewswire.co.uk

Watch ArrivedOK video tutorial in English updated with female character and voice-over. Learn how ArrivedOK looks like from the inside and how to use it – in only 3 minutes.

We keep on receiving responses about ArrivedOK. Here are some of them. Thanks to everyone who took a look at the service, your feedback is very inspiring!

“Simple, clear, and straightforward,.. convenient service” – KillerStartups.com

“This is a brilliant concept! Bravo!” – Dr. Jessie Voigts from Wanderingeducators.com

“I am definitely going to use this next time we fly somewhere!” – Sandy Nielsen, Sleeps5.com

“I can see a pretty nice potential to something like this. I will be traveling in a few months throughout the states as well as Europe, and could really use something like this.” – Nick via blackberrycool.com

“Thank you thank  you thank you. You are one of the few sites that care about all people not just the ones with out disabilities. I commend you guys for that and might feature you on a podcast I do for this purpose. Check it out at feeds2.feedburner.com/funfilled – Sarah Alawami.

“Very cool!” – @Hdueitt, New York, NY.

“Neat!” – Emmanuel Marot, Seattle, WA

“Brilliant.” – Travelbuzz NY

“What a nice idea!” – Joe Distefano, Melbourne.

“Excellent traveler’s essential” – Frans-Jozef, Manchester, UK.

“Do you have a mother like mine? Neurotic? She always wants to know when my plane has landed.” – Suzanne Dowling, San Francisco, CA.

“Ah hah. Another neat idea that came flying into my inbox this afternoon… It’s called ArrivedOK. Peace of mind. Especially for mum.” – Mobile Industry Review.

“If you’ve ever flown, you know what’s like to call and tell everyone you made it.” – @JasonClough, Raleigh, NC.

“Seems like ArrivedOK idea is pretty neat.” – @feebeyer, Berlin.

“ArrivedOK is a great idea.” – @jaketay, Australia.

“Wow. arrivedok.mobi is ridiculously clever little thing for anyone who travels. Sends predefined texts when you switch your phone back on.” – @Ana Nelson, Dublin, Ireland.

“Definitely cool use of technology.” by Craig Agranoff from Scommerce.com

“I #arrivedOK to London. Beta testing ArrivedOK. If you see this then I just arrived at London LHR and it works!..” – Jonathan Clark, Amsterdam.

“When it seemed that everything was invented!..” – @nicolasariza, Medellín – Here comes ArrivedOK [A.D].

“ArrivedOK: now there’s a piece of clever telecoms technology. Sometimes there arrives a perfect solution to a real problem.” – Pat Phelan, Ireland.

Andy Abramson, Del Mar, CA: “A very imaginative service… As a global nomad this kind of service is ideal for me, especially with my family and colleagues. I regularly text the word “landed” when I touch down using either SMS or the built in Blackberry Messenger to those on my Messenger Buddy List internally… I imagine the service will be very useful to the frequent flier types who have to be working anywhere at any time. From my perspective, ArrivedOk will cut down on a task that for some can be time consuming or just challenging. They smartly have also included email as a notification mechanism.”

“You’re really a bit surprised nobody thought of this before.” – David Sims, TMCnet, at his article about ArrivedOK.

“See, this way, your personal arrival is noted instead of flight status in general, so when you oversleep your nine-hour Dubai layover, or miss your connecting flight in Heathrow, you don’t have anybody tapping their toes at the airport for hours while you’re still over the Atlantic Ocean. Not that that’s happened to this reporter either, no siree. No personal experience there, spending two hours traveling out to the Istanbul Airport, waiting three hours and returning home empty-handed only to have to go back later that night.”

“If you’re tired of picking up the phone and calling half a dozen people every time you land in a new city to let them know you arrived OK, you might want to check out a new service called… ArrivedOK.” – Downloadsquad.com

“As passengers, once we’ve safely arrived at our destination, we power up our Blackberries and iPhones to let our loved ones know that the flight is over… Whether we make a call, send a text, update our Facebook status or “tweet” it on Twitter, we feel compelled to let our friends and family know we arrived OK… But the next time I fly, I won’t be calling my mom, boyfriend or roommate to let them know I’m safely sitting on the tarmac waiting to access the overhead compartment. Because next time I’m going to use ArrivedOK.”- Vacationplanning.net: Flight Tracker Cleared for Takeoff.

“ArrivedOK is a clever service that texts loved ones when you land at your destination and turn on your phone. It would be quite useful as an everyday shorter-journey service too. My mother-in-law-to-be always forgets to text us when she arrives home in Carlow from Waterford.” – Paul M. Watson, Waterford, Ireland.

“Touch down in another country, and it’s likely the first thing you’ll want to do is let friends and famly know you’ve reached your destination safe and sound. But dialing direct means those dastardly international roaming rates kick in… This kind of traveler dilemma is what makes us especially intrigued by ArrivedOK… Along with the convenience of being able to alert multiple people at once, the app means you’re bypassing the hefty international charges you’d incur for voice, text and email services via your cell phone while traveling abroad.” – lorraine @ travelpost.com: Skip International Roaming Rates with ArrivedOK Phone App.

“Interesting new service called ArrivedOK. It works in a unique way…” – Ronen Halevy via berryreview.com

A thorough article about ArrivedOK at Springwise.com:

Travelling by air is fraught with uncertainties, from delays to cancellations to lost bags. Savvy travellers can already use Delaycast to assess their chances of having to wait longer than they’d planned, and now another brand-new service helps them notify the people who matter to them once they finally land safely on the ground.

ArrivedOK, a new service from Texas-based Eyeline Communications, lets air travellers automatically alert others that they’ve arrived at their destination. Users of the service, which just entered public beta, begin by scheduling their flight with the destination airport and expected arrival time, along with the phone numbers or emails of the contacts they’d like to be notified once they arrive. They can also compose personalized messages to be sent to different groups of recipients. They turn off their mobile phone during the trip, as generally required; then, when their plane lands and they turn it back on, ArrivedOK tracks their cell phone in the mobile network and instantly sends those tailored ‘Arrived OK’ messages to the designated recipients via SMS, email, Twitter or the user’s blog. (Recipients must subscribe to a GSM/UMTS network for phone notification.) ArriveOK’s technology is even smart enough to discern when a user turns on their phone much earlier than expected—indicating a problem—or when they turn it on in a country other than the one that was planned; in both cases, recipients are not notified, and the user receives an error message instead. The overall result? Not just a simpler and easier process on the traveller’s part, but also a much less expensive one, since ArrivedOK alerts are three to eight times cheaper than calling or texting from abroad, Eyeline says.

ArrivedOK is being beta-tested in 10 countries—Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, South Africa and Spain—through the end of May, and is free during that time. One to try out, partner with, or otherwise get involved in?

Website: www.arrivedok.mobi/hello

Spotted by: Judy McRae

One remark: ArrivedOK now available in all countries except US and China.

One more article: Free 1 year beta test of travel notification service