VoIP meets travelers Unlike a regular 9-to-5er, I travel a lot for my work. As I travel from country to country over the years, I’m finding this statement to be more and more true: the world is flat. What I’m feeling is beyond the tangible – I can expect the same taste of my Starbucks™ macchiato in Beijing or in Sydney, Australia. On the emotional level, though, I do feel connected with my circle even when I’m physically far away, thanks to the modern technology which makes communication so easy and affordable.That means, I could be taking a business trip in Singapore for two weeks, and still not miss a beat on Chicago home base. There’s the email, Facebook™, IM, and for those preferring phone conversation, the great invention of VoIP.
Alternative communication tool
If you’re like most travelers I know, you try to stay away from mobile roaming when traveling abroad. The smarter choice is VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol, which costs only a fraction of your mobile provider’s roaming services. Free broadband phone services are being offered left and right these days, so why pay hundreds making international calls? All you need is Internet connection fast enough for the voice to travel without delay. Typically, most VoIP providers recommend at least 512kbps connection to have good reception.
OneSuite also provides VoIP services, SuiteAdvantage. What sets it apart from other VoIP services is that, it’s a completely pay as you go, commitment-free service. Most services have plans with minutes on a monthly basis. The catch is if you don’t consume all the minutes, they’re wasted, but if you go over the limit, you pay a higher per-minute rate. If you‘re like me who don’t make VoIP calls on regular basis, SuiteAdvantage is the perfect choice for you. You may not use the service for a whole month and pay nothing, or use it intermittently and just pay for the actual minutes you use.
VoIP on the go
If you’re still not familiar with VoIP, you at least need to know it’s the cheapest way to make international calls, and will soon be built into mobile phone and become part of the standard specification. For now, blogging in a local tea house in Taipei downtown, when my PC picks up a call from my buddy Josh, who only makes a local call to chitchat about fantasy golf, I feel I've never left Chicago.
