WorldSIM helps South Africans cut roaming costs by 85pc

Roaming costs are a headache to any traveller. Most people usually switch their phones or buy SIM cards from their destination countries, both being of great inconvenience.

According to a recent research by Travelstart, “most South Africans travel with a smartphone, however, 92% say the international roaming charges meted out by local network providers are too expensive according to Travelstart’s ‘cellphones in travel’. ”

WorldSIM which is in 195 countries including South Africa, has options for travellers from the country to cut their roaming costs up to 85 percent. WorldSIM is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) which has roaming agreements with hundreds of international mobile operators.

WorldSIM spokesperson, Andrea Crome commented “Travellers need to get more savvy with their roaming costs as international roaming bills can easily be reduced quite considerably, with very little action required. This will enable travellers to talk, text and browse to their hearts content while they are away, without the fear of a shocking roaming bill when they get home.”

The company allows travellers to redirect their calls to a WorldSIM number hence saving their roaming costs in the 195 countries they travel in.

“It seems an increasing amount of passengers are unaware of solutions to the extortionate costs of international roaming and data roaming and so 2% switch their phone off and keep it off while, 28% switch to flight mode for the duration of the trip,” the company said.

While that has been the practice in this new age of technology, most travellers miss out on great service such as Google Maps, (important while travelling) and being able to call their travel agent and making last minute changes to their trip.

WorldSIM says that most travellers are unaware of the solutions that are available to cut roaming costs.