A while back, we received this amazing testimonial from one of our customers and had to share it with all of you.

You have one of the best kept secrets. When we were told about the features of your service, we have to admit, it seemed too good to be true. We are glad we took the chance. This phone is perfect for travelers. We used it on three occasions on our last trip to Europe and the phone worked splendidly. Thank you for creating a phone that is both economical and functional as well as easy to use. Get your message out so others can benefit from this phone.

Thanks,
Tony & Dixie W.

Reading this kind of testimonial makes us smile from ear to ear.  We’re reminded why we started this company in the first place.  It’s to help everybody deal with the frustration and price gouging of international roaming charges.  Here at Roam Mobility, we believe that keeping in touch is a right, not a privilege.

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This summer has been great for international travel, which means that you’ve all been enjoying your holidays visiting out of town family or going to that special country with your friends and loved ones.  We’ve also been enjoying the summer providing you all with great savings and helping you stay in touch with people back home.

Unfortunately, this also means that our beloved Sightseer and Voyager bundles are now totally sold out through our online store.

If you’re keen on picking up either one of these models, then head to your local retailer right away.

For the rest of you, we’ve got a stock of new phones coming soon.  We don’t want to spill the beans until the ink has dried, but word has it that these new phones have more features and accessories than the previous models.  Stay tuned.

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We’ve been working hard to place Roam mobility products in more retail stores across Canada.  Now you can find our phones and SIM cards in at Jet-Setter in Montreal, Quebec as well as at Adventure Clothing in Victoria, British Columbia.

Soon we will be announcing more retailers in both Canada and the USA.  Keep an eye on our Where to Buy page for details.

If you want to see Roam Mobility products in your area, just drop us a line and let us know why you think your favourite travel store should be carrying our products.

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Have you ever wondered what actually happens when you make a call on your cell phone? What do things like cell phone towers, frequencies and 3G all mean, and how do they affect our ability to make calls?

Well the folks over at Cellphones.org have published a great infographic  to explain everything to us. Enjoy!

Via: Cell Phones

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For the past few days, Roam Mobility has been at the 2010 LLHA show in Toronto.

The show covers luggage, leather goods, handbags and fashion accessories and takes place over three days at the Toronto Convention Centre.  On Monday morning, attendees were treated to an informative session from NPD Group’s Marshal Cohen titled “Beyond the Data:  Accessory Review 2010″.  Marshal Cohen is also the author a book titled “Buy Me!  Ways To Get Customers To Buy Your Product and Ignore the Rest.”

This talk was of particular interest to the team at Roam Mobility, as many of our retail partners sell our products as part of their travel accessory product offering.

The bulk of the message was that the retail landscape has changed and now is the time for retailers to start innovating. While other industries are moving quickly to adapt to the new economic reality, the accessories market seems to be lagging behind.  In fact, as Marshal pointed out, the accessory business has been using the same tactics and messages for over a hundred years.

We were shown a number of different ways in which retailers can innovate:

• The Message: Retailers need to embrace the rising use of Social Media by customers.  We saw that 73% of customers who commented on purchases did so regardless of whether or not the message was positive or negative.   The key point being that customer are talking and as a retailer, you need to be aware of the conversation and what is being said.
• The Product: Accessories are now becoming increasingly linked with technology and aren’t simply secondary items but primary drivers of image.
• The Measures of Success: Retailers need to think about new ways of measuring the success of their business.  Gone are the days of 8% growth in sales… we are currently seeing growth in the 2 to 3% range.  Retailers need to think in terms of “better” and not “bigger”.
• Pricing: People aren’t shopping during the week unless they have a specific reason, they are shopping on weekends and with family.  Retailers can use innovative pricing strategies such as weekday sales in order to stimulate mid-week demand.

We were also shown some emerging trends in the accessories category:

• Distinctive Conformity: Everybody wants products that are similar yet distinctive to their generation.  Mothers and daughters want similar goods that have been customized and targeted towards their specific demographic.
• Widening Gender Gap: The way in which men and women shop is growing increasingly different.  Women are slower and more methodical.  Men are quicker and “laser focused”.  Perhaps more important though are that woman affect close to 76% of all household purchases… even if they aren’t doing the actual purchase transaction.
• “Act Now” is Big: Retailers need to be aware of the need to encourage the conversion from considering to purchasing.  Prompt consumers to make a purchase today instead of waiting for tomorrow.  We are starting to come out of a few years of careful purchasing.  It’s time to take the training wheels off retailing and promotion and encourage sales.
• The Definition of Value has Changed: Value isn’t just a simple cost benefit analysis for the consumer, it is a careful considering of all of the product attributes.  Retailers need to think about and auxiliary services built around products as part of the product itself.
• Sunset on Discounts: Retailers are realizing that they can start to ween consumers off discounted products.  As the economy starts to come back (and it will slowly) consumers should be weened off purchasing products at steep discounts.  My personal input on this: instead of discounting, think about bundling products together.
• Choice, to a Degree: Consumers need to be given choice, but not too much.  Retailers should have the ability to offer a selection of products but keep the layout simple.  For example, display only a few units of each product instead of large quantities.  You are still showing that you have selection without overloading the consumer’s senses.

Final Impressions: I have to say that this was a great presentation.  It was well paced and delivered in an informative way with many supporting data points.

Other News: Congratulations to Journey’s Travel Gear, our retail partner in Winnipeg on being named Retailer of the Year at the LLHA awards show last night.   I had the pleasure of spending some time with the Journey’s team today and couldn’t be happier for them.   Read more on their blog.

Here are a few pictures from my day on the floor.

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We’re proud to announce that Roam Mobility products are now available at Journeys Travel & Leisure SuperCentre in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Journeys is carrying our Sightseer Package, which includes an unlocked Motorola V196 flip phone, a Roam Mobility SIM card, and $10 in calling credit to get you started.

You can also follow Journey on Twitter as @travelgear, and follow the That Travel Guy Blog for the travel tips and the latest travel gear.

Journeys Travel & Leisure SuperCentre

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With new carriers, Canadians were expecting lower rates, right? Well unfortunately not even the newcomer WIND can provide affordable roaming rates – especially when traveling overseas.

Today WIND announced their international roaming rates and even to our surprise there isn’t much difference in their voice rates when compared with Telus, Rogers and Bell.

It’s only when you compare WIND against Roam Mobility that you’ll find a shocking difference. Calls to your phone in Brazil? WIND, $3.00, Roam Mobilily FREE. How about incoming calls while in the EU (Western Europe)? WIND, $1.00, Roam Mobility, FREE. Calls from the EU to Canada? WIND, $2.00, Roam Mobility, $0.40.

With all of the fuss created by Rogers, Telus and Bell to prevent WIND from joining the competition, we’re disappointed (well, not really) that they decided to also join the boys club when it came to international roaming rates.

Learn about WIND’s International Roaming Rates

Learn about Roam Mobility’s International Roaming Rates

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The Calgary Herald has published an story about Roam Mobility, titled “Groaning over roaming fees? Travellers have a new option.”  In the article, Liza Monforton discusses the common pains of international travellers and their roaming fees, including her own hardships in Paris last summer.

It saves travellers the hassle of buying a phone in the country they are visiting and dealing with a potential language barrier. They can also avoid hassles like the one I experienced last summer while I was travelling in Paris — having the salesperson fail to “unlock” the phone and having to return the same store halfway across the city to fix the problem. Hours wasted.

Roam Mobility phone packages are now available at Pipestone Travel Stores, in three locations around Calgary.

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The Globe and Mail just published an article on new roaming services that help Canadians reduce the costs of roaming, with Roam Mobility getting top marks for excellent value and low roaming rates.

Unfortunately, the AT&T network that Roam Mobility uses to cover roaming in Miami had technical problems that day, which meant that reviewer Bert Archer experienced issues such as calls that didn’t go through or that were accidentally dropped.  However, despite these inconveniences, he was enthusiastic about the significant savings that Roam Mobility offers travellers.

Archer said, “For many corporate travellers, cost is the real issue, and here Roam is already doing well. Five days of travel with an ordinary volume of calls (something I would never have considered with regular roaming charges), including several hour-long calls in and out, ended up costing me about $14.”

Roam Mobility is continuing to optimize performance throughout our global network to ensure that we offer smooth, reliable service at the guaranteed lowest roaming rates.

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Interesting article over at IntoMobile about Nokia’s announcement that they could be releasing a dual SIM phone in 2010.  You can even listen to an audio clip as well.

To summarize, Nokia is saying that in 2010, they could be including dual SIM functionality in their Series 40 phones.  This is an important development because although Nokia does not dominate handset sales in North America, they are the #1 selling phone brand worldwide and according to Nokia, the Series 40 is “the world’s most widely used mobile device platform.” [...]

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