The 'Powered by AwayPhone' initiative provides users with better service abroad and gives customer-focused mobile service providers (both operators and virtual network operators, or MVNOs) more ways to differentiate their product than are possible with conventional roaming.Initial alliances, co-developed with AwayPhone's software development partner N-Tel, include Cable & Wireless (Caribbean), Gars Telecom (Russia), Next Telecom (Denmark) and TeleTalk (Bangladesh).AwayPhone has signed an additional agreement with Call4Care (US and Netherlands) and already covers Hong Kong.
"Visionary mobile service providers signing up to the 'Powered by AwayPhone' network gain a competitive edge because they get unprecedented control over their international roaming services and pricing," explains AwayPhone CEO, Sherry Madera. "Their customers can save on average 70 percent per minute when making and receiving calls."
The network provides operators with new, more controllable revenue streams. Madera asserts that today most mobile service providers lose customers when they leave the home country: When customers step abroad they tend to switch off their mobile phone for long periods because they don't want to pay for unnecessary inbound calls.In an era of ubiquitous mobile phone ownership, this is really inconvenient for users and it represents a 'lost customer' for the operator.
AwayPhone has developed the 'Powered by AwayPhone' network in recognition of the huge opportunity that exists to expand the volume of calls made when roaming by reducing prices and enabling mobile network companies to offer unique products and tariffs.
AwayPhone was launched in 2005 to provide international services denied by the major telecoms operators.It offers an alternative to the GSMA industry roaming system that was originally devised over 20 years ago to guarantee a phone worked anywhere in the world but has not developed to reflect the vast increase in mobile phone use.In contrast, AwayPhone's approach seamlessly integrates cutting-edge SIM card and routing technologies that deliver lower roaming prices and more features for users when they use their mobile phone abroad.An AwayPhone-enabled SIM card is either integrated as the 'Powered by AwayPhone' operator's standard SIM or is provided to customers planning to roam.
Madera concludes: We want mobile service providers to offer outstanding service to their customers and maximise their revenues as a result.Becoming 'Powered by AwayPhone' is a key step in achieving that goal.