Skip to main content

Knowroaming

Many months ago, a Canadian company announced that they had a gizmo that would cut your roaming charges (both voice and data) by between 80% and 90%.  Granted since then the big boys (Bell/Rogers etc) were forced to be more reasonable, mainly because they were concerned that ATT was about to come in and add real competition.

Anyway, the Knowroaming system rates are higher than owning a "local" phone, but then when you travel you don't want to have number of sim cards where you remembered to pay you monthly bill (it can add up).  Well the Knowroaming device arrived a few days ago, just in time for a week of finance conference in Mexico City, where being reached in real time is essential.  There's a physical part (which is a sticker you install on your sim card), and software that is installed on your phone.

Now my potential Mexican clients have a local number to call, all my current client can call me on my usual number and I have relatively inexpensive data in Mexico -- 30c a MB which is about three times what the locals pay.  I also have a US and a UK number and can acquire other country number for a reasonable fee.

So I installed this little device and off to the races with the software installation!

The installation  process was less than intuitive, especially since some things can only be done on the road, and I got up this morning to catch my flight at 4:30 AM... its been a long day.  Turns out there's an complex (but elegant) way of installing the software and a quick and "nerd" way -- frankly, the nerd way is easier.  But now I'm at the race.  and my phone works.

I think I am one of the first one to have this device installed, they shipped it priority when I said I was leaving for a week in mid March (started shipping at the very end of February).  This is really a breakthrough, also because all my usage is pre-paid no insane phone bills in a few weeks when I get back home.  I've loaded $50 for the week, the guys say that with reasonable data usage and limited international calling (by me) it should be more than enough.

A game changer.  Check them out www.knowroaming.com

P.S.  The Knowroaming system is now in its second day on the road, last night I was able to check my emails (not on wifi) and make some calls (ok so I am lying there a bit).  But bottom line since I've pre-paid a $50 credit, and I've only used up $2.00 I feel safe with the idea that I will not have a huge bill.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

what people get wrong about tariffs

 The issue is simple. What percentage of the economy is dependent on tariff goods? The truth, is that the US economy is far more closed than people understand. People genuinely believe that all manufacturing has ceased to exist in the United States all given to China on the altar of woke policy the truth can be further from That statement. Only about 15% of US GDP is related to foreign trade. Of that amount, slightly more than half is from Canada in Mexico. And half of that is energy. What that means, is that about 7% of US GDP is tariff dependent. The proof in the pudding, is how little money tariff generates. People think that 30 or 50 billion is a lot it’s not in an economy that has $3 trillion. The impact on the US economy will be less visible but not absent. Inflation hasn’t occurred yet first because tests have hardly started to bite, but more importantly it’s such a small percent of the economy. Now certain things are critical. The rare earth metals from China were critical....
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump and Venezuela...

The US now owns Venezuela…and not in a good way.  America is not known for its nation building skills, and yet it now owns the disaster that is Venezuela.   Starvation and exodus are the natural progression.   In addition it will become a haven for narco-terrorists, more so than it already was. I am sure that Trump and his friends really thought that little attack very well…I guess that he will now attack Iran now.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Demographics

 I am preparing a kind of family tree for our children so that they know where they came from.  In my family I am the only survivor, although my brother and sister died recently they were both in their seventies (a story I told already).    It was a fun process, but it provided more than that.  First, I married relatively young I was 26 when I married and nearly 30 when our first child was born.   I was looking at my ancestors.  On my mother's side, she had 6 siblings, Four died before the age of 30, two in war, and two from illnesses.  Only she and a single sister survived.   The two boys had a child each but they died in WWII, and the other sister died as an infant.   what is interesting is that every one of my mother's siblings had children in their early 20s.   I know that my mom was hardly 20 when my brother was born.    What is remarkable is that among our friends, we are the only ones to have fou...
Post a Comment
Read more