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 :)

Have you noticed ArrivedOK in New York Times? It was on the front page!

Well, it was a while ago. And it was a video. Actually it was a part of a video. And the topic was “What is wrong with mobile carriers”. As asked for by David Pogue. 

He twitted asking to create a 9 second video to say what’s wrong with mobile carriers. I did 9 secs. It WAS hard. You can’t develop a meaningful line! And I wanted to mention that we have developed something to COUNTER the exuberant roaming charges that I wanted to attack. ArrivedOK.

Here is a link to New York Times’ video: The I-Hate-My-Cellphone Film Festival – What is wrong with mobile carriers

And here’s the video:

Every time when I travel I’m thinking how to save money on roaming. Now when Russian MTS charges ridiculous $4 per minute for incoming calls I tend to think about cost savings. So before you go for your next trip do the following:

1) Check with your mobile operator if they provide some special packages or discounts. For example, MTS provides some special discount for traveling to certain countries in Eurasia during the summer period  (http://www.mts.ru/news/2009-04-27-1023958) Or Rogers/Canada has special voice roaming packages for travelers to the USA.

2) Check roaming prices for GPRS/3G data. Most likely your operator has crazy pricing like AT&T’s $20 per Megabyte or MTS 512 Rubles per Megabyte (about $16). I would recommend you to turn off your GPRS roaming before the trip. On iPhone you can do this easily via Settings->Network->Data Roaming->OFF. On Nokia smart phones you can just delete the settings (because otherwise some pre-installed apps like Nokia Maps may open GPRS without you even knowing it). Another approach is to switch off GPRS right through the self service system or call center of your mobile operator. Some people think that they can enjoy monthly GPRS/3G package when traveling. Sorry, you cannot, this is available only in your home country or even home region. Your operator has to charge you when you roam with another operator. Some operators provide special data roaming packages, e.g. AT&T (http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/affordable-world-packages.jsp) for $60/month provides 50Mb in 90 countries. Check the details of the special offers from your operator before you go.

3) When you travel please note that SMSes are not as cheap as they are in your home country. For example, MTS charges about $0.05 per SMS in home network, and $0.40 when you traveling. More than this, when you are home you can enjoy SMS packages included into your tariff. BUT, when you travel your operator will charge you for any SMS sent. For US travelers: please note that US operators charge even for incoming SMS. This means that when you are home you can enjoy your SMS package, but when you travel the operator starts charging you for all incoming SMSes about $0.20 per 160 byte message. So for example, if you use twitter with mobile updates, you are not charged at home, but once you get abroad every SMS update will cost you $0.20! Don’t forget to turn off all your mobile updates on Twitter! Or maybe better just switch off your phone and leave your SIM card home;-)

4) Everybody knows that voice is expensive in roaming. The most simple thing you can do is to buy a local prepaid SIM card. For example when you arrive to Beijing, China, even before the customs and border control you can buy local China Mobile prepaid SIM. The China Mobile girls who sell SIMs are very attentive and even speak English a little;-) In Indonesia I use either Telkomsel or Indosat. Indosat provides very good quality and pricing for GPRS of around $0.10 per Mb.

5) For sure you also can use ArrivedOK to save on SMS notifications about your arrival. If you inform 5 people about your arrival you can save with ArriivedOK around $1.

6) When you are going to another country you still can enjoy posting to Twitter for free (http://c2s.me). This is available for registered ArrivedOK users. The trick works for GSM phones, and is based on the fact that the users are not charged by the operators when the call is dropped. So when you dial the ArrivedOK C2S access number +442033550595 the system drops your call and sends you an interactive text menu (USSD). Another trick used here is that operators do not charge users for USSD (basically they cannot do this). Not all networks allow USSD at all, but most of them do. So if after calling ArrivedOK C2S number you receive the menu, you can post to your twitter account which should be bound to your ArrivedOK account. To use ArrivedOK C2S you have to register on arrivedok.mobi web site from your computer before first use. It’s better to do this even before your trip begins. In this case you also can enjoy ArrivedOK trial for sending free SMS notifications to your friends.

7) To save on voice calls you also can consider using some Voice-Over-IP services like Skype or SIP. I usually use Skype for iPhone over free WiFi networks in the airports and Starbucks. Other options are pre-installed SIP clients in Nokia Symbian phones. The good SIP VoIP service is provided by SIPNET (www.sipnet.ru). It’s a bit tricky to configure it. But when you need to talk a lot it really matters to figure out how to use VoIP.

Travelphone is GSM phone which lets roamers receive unlimited free incoming calls in 65 countries.

The phone price is $199, or it can be rented for $49 a week.