Click below to
find interesting
information from our
October 2010
newsletter
relating to:
Roaming
Travel
Mobile phones
Roaming
Cheaper
roaming
in the
USA
vRoam Global
has just
enhanced its
vSIM
product, by
dropping the
costs in the
USA.
Now
the cost to
receive calls
has been slashed
by 86%, to just
30 cents per
minute. And that
applies no
matter how you
receive calls -
direct to the
vSIM
or via our
FollowMe service
that allows you
to be
contactable on
your normal
Australian
number.
You also get
a US local
number, so that
people you meet
can call you
cheaply. To take
advantage of the
cheaper pricing
and get a local
US number,
simply tick the
"Travelling to
the USA" option
on your
order!
Travel
Zombie
WiFi
networks
Many
travellers
take
advantage
of WiFi
networks
to
browse
the
internet.
Some of
these
are free
(generally
associated
with
coffee
shops
and food
outlets
such as
Starbucks
or
McDonalds,
or
sometimes
airports
or
libraries.
So if you saw
a WiFi network
called "Free
Public WiFi"
when you were
travelling,
wouldn't you be
tempted to
connect and give
it a try?
Don't.
Despite its
enticing name,
and it being
available in
many thousands
of locations, it
doesn't provide
internet access
and may
compromise your
laptop's
security.
It's due to a
bug in Windows
XP (fixed in
SP3, but many
users will not
have installed
that upgrade).
When a
non-upgraded
computer can't
find any of its
"favourite"
networks, it
automatically
creates an
"ad-hoc" network
(meaning one not
connected to the
internet, just
ready to connect
to any other
computer) with
the same name as
the last network
it connected to.
Many people
can't resist the
lure of
something free,
so they connect
up (and the next
time they turn
on their laptop,
it becomes the
originator of
the "Free Public
WiFi").
So they
unwittingly
become spreaders
of the zombie
network. There
are others,
going by names
such as "linksys",
"hpsetup",
"default" or "tmobile".
Whilst
connecting to
zombie networks
isn't harmful by
itself, it won't
get you
connected to the
internet. Worse,
it is an ideal
way for hackers
to gain access
to almost
anything on your
laptop. Some
things are too
good to be
free...
Courtesy NPR.
Mobile phones
Developing-country
networks
In many
less-developed
countries mobile
networks have
transformed the
lives of the
local
population. In
many cases,
mobile
subscribers
vastly outnumber
the fixed-line
phones in use.
In India, for
example, there
are ten times as
many mobile
phones as
fixed-line. For
most of the
population,
telecommunications
means using a
mobile phone.
In
countries such
as these, low
call costs has
been a big cause
of this take-up.
In India,
average
advertised call
rates are 1
paisa per second
(the equivalent
of 1.3 cents per
minute).
As a result,
demand is huge
and networks are
often running at
or even
over-capacity.
Many areas can
have poor
service quality,
showing up as
inability to
place a call (or
even register on
the network in
the first
place), dropouts
during the call,
or poor voice
quality.
Short of your
Australian
mobile network
deciding to
build an entire
network in the
country you are
travelling to,
travellers
(roamers) have
to share the
same network as
the locals, and
will experience
the same
problems.
vSIM
roamers have one
advantage,
however, which
is that often
they can switch
to another
network, which
may have less
problems (the
locals are stuck
with the network
they subscribe
to).
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