eKit.com international mobile review from Madame BOOT

At PhoCusWright last year I managed to snag a photo with fellow Australian's John Diamond CEO eKit and Rod Cuthbert Executive Chairman of destination services company Viator. Now Madame BOOT has had a chance to try out eKit's overseas mobile product. Here is her review...

So you are going overseas for business and pleasure, visiting a few countries, seeing old friends, and leaving small kiddies at home whom you want to reach quickly and easily at any time and vice versa. How to keep in telephonic reach? The Frugal Traveler from The New York Times this week explored the following options Skype, Google Voice, GizmoCall, OneSIMCard, and Voxox . One he hasn't talked about, and which offers a comprehensive solution is ekit.com.

WHY USE IT
Madame BOOT used it recently and has positive reports*. The main benefit was calling and texting to and from family in Australia, making and receiving calls and texts from friends and family in the UK and in Italy by using a SIM card, purchased through eKit.com before she left OZ, which she popped into her network-unlocked mobile phone when she landed in London. If your regular moby is locked ekit will provide you with phone and SIM. The highlight of global mobility was reaching friends from Australia who were holidaying in London by calling their Cypriot based mobile number (don't ask) with her UK-number SIM card, from an Australian-bought phone.

Texting was instantaneous to all mobiles, be they Italian, Australian, UK, or Cypriot. It only delayed once when it took 2 days to deliver an SMS and I suspect that was the fault of Mother's dodgy Telstra service. The beauty of landing at 6pm in Gatwick, turning on mobile, and having text message awaiting about dinner invitation for 8pm, was the epitome of ease-of-travel. The other moment that made her feel that it was a worthy service was turning her phone on while waiting for the Heathrow Express to reach Paddington, and immediately speaking to the BOOT and BOOTies who were on some farm in NSW with no landline.

HOW TO USE IT
ekit scores highly on ease of use. After you insert your SIM card you enter a PIN, dial the required number as per normal and within 10 seconds your phone rings and you are connected. Texting is as per normal: enter destination number and text and press send. You can set up automatic recharge so you don't run out of credit.

THE PRICE?
Their Global Premium Service cost AUD39.99 and then texts and calls were charged as per usage, with a bunch of benefits thrown in. I leave it to you to decide if you consider it value for money as it is relative to your needs and what other services you can access. There is a 'passport' product for long-term travellers.

DOWNSIDES?
You need to allow time for delivery, in this case 48hrs. So plan a little ahead. You need to memorise a new number and PIN or carry it with you.

(*She has NO links to the company, was not asked to review the product and paid her way)

Australians at PhoCusWright - ekit and viator

Photograph of an Australian group at the recent PhoCusWright Conference in LA. From left to right John Diamond CEO of international mobile phone card, SIM and geo-location services company eKit, Tim Hughes (me) and Rod Cuthbert Executive Chairman of destination services company Viator. Am grateful to Rod as it was through his introduction of me to Philip Wolf of PhoCusWright that I managed to get a blogger ticket to PhoCusWright.

PhoCusWright: Trying to sort out the mobile options - TripChill, ekit, iM@, WorldMate

In my first post from PhoCusWright I highlighted a lot of the different approaches companies from the Travel Innovation Summit (and elsewhere) were taking. A slightly different story emerged when the conference turned to the companies focused on mobile tools. Four mobile focused companies have presented so far TripChill, WorldMate, iM@ and ekit.

Two groups emerged.

The Assistant: TripChill, WorldMate and to a lesser extent iM@ focus on giving consumers real time local information. TripChill and WorldMate impressed me with the real time ability to check the latest travel information associated with an itinerary around flight changes, hotel reservations and support information (weather, parking, driving options). Looking at these tools in action, I can finally see delivery on the promise that mobile has been making to online travel for ten years. The ability for a traveller to be able to seamlessly update and change trips based on conditions that can only be known through real-time connections is what we have all be wanting from mobile.

The locator and sharer: iM@ and ekit focus on the destination - what to do when you are there. iM@ is an adverting and offer driven business. Focused on pitching activities to travellers driven by destination and advertiser promotion. ekit is something else entirely. This (Australian based) company made it's start in international phone-cards and global SIMs. The product they displayed here was an innovative (and at times unsettling) travel journal product where GPS technology linked a SIM purchased from ekit. This SIM can be linked to an online travel journal (think blog). The travel journal can be instantly updated as to where to you are every time you make a phone call. That's right you make a call, the phone registers where you are and then posts to the travel journal your location and time of call. Posts can be enhanced with SMS text content, photos and more. This is the ultimate trip blog tool as it knows were you are but is also very scary because...well..it knows exactly where you are and what you are doing. I love the idea but feel very uncomfortable using it.

Looking at these four companies I feel like we finally getting somewhere with mobile in online travel.

thanks to William Hook on flickr for the photo