Ninety-five percent saving?

Such a company is Telewise International, which claims it can cut your roaming costs by 80 percent. As a fairly extreme example, the company says that a British mobile phone user roaming in France, Germany and Italy and receiving calls for one hour a day over 14 days would be hit by a bill from the biggest three UK mobile operators averaging about $7800. Telewise International would provide roaming over the same period for $344, a saving of 95 percent and would also save 68 percent on outgoing calls from the same traveler.

That’s the theory, anyway. But if you try to check out the cost of roaming through mobile operators, you meet the first law of telecom pricing which is, whatever happens don’t let customers make a fair comparison of price and quality. Tariffs are complex, multi-tiered and for large volume users, negotiable. Still, Telewise International does offer an extremely competitive sta

ndard tariff for roaming.

This month, Telewise International is launching its roaming service in 85 countries, including Hong Kong. Anyone with a GSM phone can use it by plugging in Telewise International’s SIM (Subscriber Identity Module, the microchip that stores your details and the network you use), purchased under the brand name ‘King of SIM’. Wherever the users roam in the world, the numbers they dial will be connected at low cost through Telewise International’s virtual network. After each call, the user will receive a text message confirming its duration and cost.

Although you can buy many SIM roaming cards for individual countries, to use them you will need t register on a different network in every country you visit, and the number that other people must use to contact you will also change in every country. “In contrast, the King of SIM card enables the traveler to make all the calls through the same Telewise International network, and also be called form anywhere using the same number, whatever country you visit,” says Norman Lao, Telewise International’s CEO.

Telewise International customers currently call a UK number to reach the company’s network, but soon they will be able to use local numbers in many cities, including Hong Kong. Roaming travelers will then be able to access Telewise International’s global network through a convenient local number, and other people will be able to call them form most place using a local number.