For those who travel abroad often, and hate to buy a new
country-specific SIM each time in order to save on international
roaming charges -- stop juggling around with multiple SIM cards. Here's
a new option wherein you can buy a SIM just once and then use it as a
local card in most of the countries you travel to for your entire
lifetime.
Dhanus Technologies has launched its V-Tel Mobile service that
allows users to buy a SIM for Rs 999 in activation fees, and use it for
a lifetime by paying only so much that a local person in that country
would pay to make a call.
his service is a step ahead of other calling
card services such as Matrix, where users have to rent a SIM for Rs 25
a day plus pay the local calling charges every time they go abroad,
which again is rendered useless once you leave that country. In case of
V-Tel, the card can be used for an entire lifetime and in any country,
provided it is recharged once in every six months to keep it active.
Users can check their usage and bill amounts online.
However, the glitch here is that the card cannot be used in India
as some regulations do not support usage of such a service in the
country. The card also doesn't work on Blackberry devices, not yet. The
company says that something will be done towards fixing that problem
since majority of those who frequently travel abroad also happen to be
Blackberry users.
During the occasion, A D Sudhindhra, executive chairman of Dhanus
Technologies, said, "With the Indian telecommunications market booming
and with about 10 million Indians traveling abroad every year, it is
estimated that one in every four of the next billion subscribers will
be an Indian; and this provides immense potential to offer V-Tel mobile
services to Indians who travel abroad frequently."
The V-Tel mobile service can be used in around 229 countries with
more than 250 mobile service providers. The card can be purchased and
recharged online. However, the recharge will be in dollars or euros or pounds depending on where the top-up is being requested.
moneyptc posted on May 24, 2008
| views: 151
