Road Warriers Need Not be Road Worriers Over Roaming Charges

BrightCom hits out at high roaming charges - and provides a solution.

(PRWEB) February 8, 2006 -- Ofcom's recent publication, "Using your mobile abroad", provided some useful advice for UK consumers, but according to UK telecoms specialist, BrightCom, its recommendations did not go far enough for the business community and is urging companies where staff undertake international travel to look closely at their phone bills.

According to David Green, Director, BrightCom, the report fails to address international calling where there are equally, if not more, excessive rates Businesses are affected more than consumers because they tend to be heavier users of Roaming and International calls (they typically represent between 30% and 80% of a corporation’s total call charges) .

Whilst domestic tariffs are very competitive, roaming rates vary +/- 15% between the operators – a simple switch in operator can save money. Tariffs for large businesses can often be more expensive than published rates for individuals.

“Recent efforts to reduce and simplify roaming rates, such as Vodafone Passport, are targeted at the consumer market which is perceived to be less able to afford roaming charges,” said Green. “Roaming and International users are often the most senior staff in an organisation and will not tend to use lower cost alternatives if they require any change in behaviour or additional effort, so it’s easy for the operators to remain complacent. Indeed Arun Sarin acknowledged in a Sunday Times feature last year that that about 60% of group profits (and 40% of revenues) come from businesses, which are less price-sensitive and less likely to complain about the cost of international roaming calls.”

BrightCom is bringing a new technology, developed in Scandinavia, to the UK. Telepo’s Business Communication Server can help the business reduce roaming and international call spend by 40 - 60% without having to change mobile provider or the end user changing their behaviour in any way.

Part of the Telepo offering is a small programme that runs on the mobile phone, monitoring every call made and selecting the lowest cost way to route each call.

Notes to editors:

About Telepo

Telepo is a fast-growing Swedish software company providing efficient convergence solutions for large and medium sized enterprises and service providers. Telepo’s Business Communication Server integrates mobile, fixed and IP-based communication networks, enabling same services in any network and on any device. Telepo’s solutions enable organisations to quickly capture control of their communication spend and deliver measurable savings, with no need to change user behaviour. Telepo customers include many FORTUNE 500® companies and partners, among others, Nokia, Cisco, IBM, Symbian, Getronics and Fujitsu. More information is available at www.telepo.com.

Media contacts:

UK:

David Green, CEO

BrightCom

Tel: +44 (0)7836 228 822

Claire Thompson

Zed PR

+44 (0)118 969 8966

For more information, please visit www.telepo.com or www.brightcom.co.uk.

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