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.

We at Arrivedok.mobi deployed an experimental mobile Twitter add-on application that lets you tweet from your cell phone FOR FREE even from abroad, avoiding charges for SMS, voice or data transfer.

It is available for ArrivedOK registered users only.

How to use it and save money on text and data traffic:

• First, login to your ArrivedOK account or sign-up and authorize your mobile phone to use with ArrivedOK.
• Second, make sure your ArrivedOK account is bound with Twitter in your Profile:My Blogs settings.
• Third, dial +442033550595 FREE of charge from the phone you registered with ArrivedOK and follow the instructions on your phone’s display. See below how it works.

Dial +442033550595. You won’t hear a voice reply. Your call just evokes the interactive menu you’ll see next.	You’ll see the numbered menu. Press OK, enter “1″ (no quote marks) for Twitter, and send it back.	Likewise, choose between the options that appear: (1) tweet whatever you want, (2) preview & tweet a random quotation, (3) tweet your followers about that mobile tool, “0″ to return.
For example, you choose “1> Type & tweet”. You see the usual “What are you doing?” Twitter prompt. Press OK and start typing…	… like that. Then press OK to send it. That’s it.	You’ll get a confirmation that your tweet has been sent. You can just hang up now.

WARNING: It may not work in all mobile networks. For support inquiries, please visit our Support page or email to our techsupport@.

If you want to learn more about the underlying Call2Service and USSD technologies – check out that page.

- A good point made by Shashank Nigam at SimpliFlying on Richard Branson’s interview about Virgin America.

Watch ArrivedOK video tutorial in English. Learn how it looks like from the inside and how to use it – in only 3 minutes.

In the last two days we’ve got a lot of good responses to ArrivedOK Beta. Here are some of them. Thanks to everyone who took a look at the service, your feedback is very inspiring! And hurry up to sign-up – the tester quotas are limited!

Tweet your followers about ArrivedOK. Just click here to be taken to your Twitter account with the ‘tweet’ already to go. Thank you.

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

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

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.”

“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.

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

“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.

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.