South African SIM card producer GlobalSIM is aiming to reduce the cost of mobile roaming globally and eliminate the need for switching SIMs based on location, chief executive officer (CEO) Chris Edeh has said.
Speaking at the MVNOs Summit in Sandton, Johannesburg, Edeh said GlobalSIM intends to “reduce the pain” of communicating while travelling.
“What we help our clients do is reduce their cost of roaming,” Edeh said, adding the average business traveller spends between US$1,000 and US$2,000 per year on roaming costs.
According to Edeh, GlobalSIM predicts there will be 3.3 billion air travellers in 2014 – excluding domestic flights – and by 2019 there will be a potential 150 million mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) clients “up for grabs”.
“We’re preparing for this opportunity,” Edeh said, noting there are a number of challenges to overcome, such as regulatory difficulties, a hostile competitor environment, and host networks curtailing traffic.
The boom in smart device uptake as well as cloud services is increasing the problem of roaming costs, Edeh said.
“In Africa, the game is changing, everyone is scrambling to get on the cloud,” he said.
“Using data on roaming is very expensive, we’re trying to cater for this need.”
GlobalSIM customers receive a SIM card which automatically has three international phone numbers assigned to it, and calls to any of the three GlobalSIM numbers will be recognised and will go through to the phone user regardless of location, greatly reducing roaming costs.
The SIM card does not recognise calls going to any other number – such as a traditional phone number of an operator produced SIM card – however.
GlobalSIM is currently focusing largely on Africa, where the company already holds 25 per cent of the roaming revenue market, but has some operations in Asia too.
“We don’t have the capacity to market well in Europe or the US, but we are focusing on Asia,” Edeh said.
The company strives to keep down its costs by making use of alternative solutions in its operations and offerings.
“We do our best to eliminate big costs by using alternative solutions,” Edeh said.
“For example, most of our switching is run of solar,” he said, adding that the company cuts costs by being as “green” as possible.
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