May 26, 2022

“‘Vivian Chung and her children had just returned to their California home from Vietnam, where they were celebrating her mother’s 84th birthday, when they received a bill from T-Mobile for $13,470 in roaming and internet charges. When she saw it, Chung said she “almost fainted.”  Source: ABC News

‘’Three has today reintroduced daily mobile roaming charges for customers holidaying in dozens of European destinations. It means users of the telecoms giant face paying £2 per day to use their UK text, calls and data allowance when in the EU.” Source: The Mirror UK

 It’s one thing to worry about how much you spent on vacation; but it’s something else entirely when your roaming fees look like a downpayment on a house.

With the cost of living on the rise and wages not increasing in tandem, making calls while travelling has become quite expensive.

Source: FreePik

The top two reasons for roaming being expensive are: lack of transparency and complicated telecoms arrangements.

Lack of Transparency

Your network provider can only keep you connected to networks that they support- however the plans will remain expensive. The cost structure for roaming is arbitrarily set by both your home provider and the new network that you are visiting.

Complicated Telecoms Arrangements

 In addition to no transparency, your rate is determined mainly by the relationship between telecoms. If your home provider has established carrier relations with the country you are visiting, you will only have to pay a reasonable premium. In extreme cases, you will have no roaming coverage at all.

If you connect (accidentally or intentionally) to a network that is not covered by your provider’s roaming pass, it can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Telecommunications providers are able to charge exponentially higher rates because they know their customers need their services and that they have no other option.

Source: FreePik

What if there was another option that offered zero roaming fees no matter where you travelled to?

The BeMobile App is an app that offers cheap international calling without charging roaming fees.

Once the app is installed, users will be required to purchase a virtual phone number to make calls and to send/receive text messages. The amount paid will be charged to the user on a monthly basis. For Android users, it will be $2.99 monthly and for iOS users it will be $3.49 monthly. The subscription plans are available on a 1-month, 3-month and 12-month basis.

Source: BeMobile

In order to make calls, users will need to purchase airtime in-app. The payment methods include: debit/credit card, Apple Pay and MPESA Express.

The best part: You do not need to get an extra sim card to get a virtual number.

In fact, users will be able to have as many as four (4) virtual numbers connected to the app!

There will be no roaming fees paid on any of these numbers.

Source: BeMobile

The virtual phone numbers on the app are from the US, UK and Canada. All of these numbers sharea a universal calling rate. This means that no matter which country is being called, the rates remain the same. This is great news for frequent travellers who usually have to resort to purchasing local SIM cards with limited talk time.

Often times, the cost of calling home from a foreign country is still extremely high-even with a local SIM card. With BeMobile, you can enjoy friendly rates such as:

Mexico- 90 minutes for $1

USA- 560 minutes for $1

India- 45 minutes for $1

Call anywhere in the world, at any time with BeMobile and forget about roaming fees.

You should be able to make as many calls as you want when you’re on the go.

Join the conversation and start talking with BeMobile

Further Information:

Download the app today: https://www.bemobile.app/download

Available on Play Store and the App Store

Sources:

ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/US/family-racks-13000-iphone-data-roaming-fees-overseas/story?id=57444864

The Mirror UK:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/millions-brits-face-extra-mobile-27038115