This series looks at technologies that will be game-changers for small business, particularly firms whose staffs are highly mobile and where travel is part of the game.
Though they didn’t grow up in Canada, South African cousins Gregory Gundelfinger and Mathew Stein quickly came to understand the frustrations associated with roaming charges that are seemingly a Canadian birthright, along with the inevitable billing shock that occurs when you return to these shores.
The pair, now living in Toronto, decided there must be an alternative to hefty roaming fees, so in 2012 they launched KnowRoaming Ltd. For $35, the company sells a flexible printed circuit board that simply sticks to your phone’s SIM card and allows users to avoid costly roaming while out of the country, an obvious boon for companies that do business overseas.
“When we started this company 2 1/2 years ago we took a very in-depth look at this problem, particularly from a business perspective, because those are the users that really incur a huge amount of telecommunications costs related to roaming,” says Mr. Gundelfinger. “So when we analyzed the market and some of the alternative solutions that existed and we didn’t find anything that was as convenient as just roaming, and we came to the conclusion that the reason that high roaming prices have persisted is because there weren’t any viable alternatives.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... e19380518/
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Larry