Some VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and mobile phone service providers are riding free when connecting to the traditional telephone network in the U.S., potentially costing carriers billions of dollars, according to testimony at a Senate hearing Wednesday.

According to Lawrence Sarjeant, vice president of federal legislative and regulatory affairs at Qwest Communications International, phantom traffic costs traditional carriers between $600 million and $2 billion a year. “Traditional telephone carriers have “made a lot of investments” in their networks and deserve to be compensated for traffic coming from outside the network”, he said.

Read the rest of this article at Telecom Carriers: ‘Phantom’ Voice Traffic Costing Billions.

Hey global travelers! I know a couple a days ago I made a post regarding Europe approving cell phone usage on airplanes but now the U.S. is jumping on the bandwagon but in a different way.

A L. A. Times article reports that some foreign carriers are enacting plans to offer in-flight cell use. The U.S. prohibits calls, but using phones to enter the Net is another matter.

The article goes on to say:

In a recent Forrester survey, 54% of leisure travelers said they would be interested in accessing the Internet on four-hour-plus flights. Several U.S. airlines are moving forward to offer that service…

U.S. airlines that are considering the possibility of offering Wi-Fi in the air are teaming up with Aircell, a Colorado-based company that in 2006 won an FCC auction for air-to-ground broadband frequencies. Aircell’s air-to-ground broadband system will provide customers with an Internet connection, virtual private network access (allowing workers to ply their trade by connecting them to their organization’s systems) and e-mail capabilities through Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and portable gaming devices.

For the entire article visit Using cellphones and Internet on airliners.

Hmm… this sounds pretty cool. Happy Travels! Don’t forget to bring your Yackie Mobile SIM card, the Prepaid SIM Card that lets you stay in with everyone, everywhere.

Today I visited Yackie Mobile’s World Traveller’s site: http://www.yackieworldtraveller.com, it’s a travel based website that promotes all the diverse ways in which we can see this earth.

Yackie’s World Traveller Team, Owen Bowling and Jaime Kohleis, are embarking on a global adventure. With the help of Yackie Mobile, they hope to share their exciting journey with the rest of the world. They will fly, drive, sail, train, camel, horse and elephant ride, bike and bus their way through the different landscapes that welcome them.

The list of countries they will see are:

Malaysia, India, Nepal, England, Canada, Alaska and the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, much of the Caribbean and possibly on to South America, Africa and Europe.

Right now they’re in London. Their sightseeing has included Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Hyde Park and of course shopping on Oxford street!

The duo says that through their affiliation with Yackie Mobile they hope to inspire thousands of would be or existing travelers to stop talking and start doing! Yeah, that’s exactly what I would love to be doing at this moment. I’d love to switch places with either one of the lucky adventurers right now. I’m sure they won’t have any trouble communicating with the world with the help of Yackie Mobile.

To keep up with where their journey will take them next check them out at http://www.yackieworldtraveller.com.

    Today I found myself thinking about my trip to South Africa last year. For the first 2 weeks in Japan I found myself constantly homesick and I used my roommates cell phone to call home every chance that I got. I didn’t think the bill would be that much and when it finally arrived I saw her mouth drop and her eyes seemed to have popped out of their sockets. The girl looked as if she’d seen a ghost! She looked at the total and then looked back at me shaking her head. I asked her how much I owed her; she laughed and said a number too far into the triple digits. I didn’t have the money, so I asked my parents. They said that as much as they loved talking to me they didn’t think it was worth the price. After doing some math, if I had known about Yackie Mobile’s SIM card I would have saved about $340 bucks!

    For most college students that’s a lot of money to spend on just a phone bill. Whether students are making calls to their home country or calling their new friends in their host country, it is important for students to find a low-cost means of communication. That’s why the Yackie Mobile SIM card is perfect for students who are abroad and need an affordable way to keep in touch.

    The Yackie Mobile SIM card is an advanced international roaming SIM card with the ability to roam globally at discounted rates in over 200 countries. Incoming calls are only ¢29/minute and outgoing calls in most countries are ¢39/minute. * Yackie Mobile does not require a contract and is simply pay as you go. Students can even assign a local number of their destination to the SIM card. For example, if a student was traveling to France from the United States they could assign a France phone number to their SIM card and have the added benefit of no roaming charges for calls made to the United States. The next time I decide to travel, before I start yakking it up I’ll make sure to use the Yackie Mobile SIM card for all my communicating needs.

*Check with your service provider on the rates they provide for international roaming calls. If your compare their rates with ours you will see that Yackie Mobile really does save you a lot of money. For example to receive and make calls in South Africa,  AT&T charges $2.49 a minute!!

    I recently got a email from Malina Lipa, a backpacking enthusiast whose next adventure will take her to explore the historic wonders of Rome. I met Malina while completing a study abroad semester in Madrid. She found out that I’m doing an internship with Yackie Mobile and wanted to know if I could provide her with more information on the services of my company. She told me that she’s had problems on her previous journeys with finding a smart affordable way of keeping in contact with her friends and family.

    I told her that Yackie Mobile will provide her with peace of mind by keeping her in contact with loved ones, and that she would save money no matter how far she might be from them. Yackie Mobile never locks you into a contract and you pre-pay, so there will be no surprise bills. Malina will save up to 80% on world wide roaming cost and be able to make and receive calls in over 200 countries!

    I told her to go to Yackie Mobile’s website www.yackiemobile.com for more information on our rates and SIM card.

I‘m so excited to be working with Yackie Mobile. Today is my first day on the job and I’ve decided to keep a blog of this awesome internship experience which they’ve offered me. I just got done with all my background training and I’m amazed with all the fantastic services Yackie Mobile has to offer!

I want to go out and shout to the world that finally there is a telecommunications company that will help world travelers stay in touch with others and save money while managing their calls around the world. I can empathize with the frustration travelers face when they can’t find affordable technology to keeping in contact with loved ones and friends while traveling abroad. I recently completed two consecutive study abroad semesters, one in Madrid, Spain and another in South Africa, and trust me, I know the feeling of shock when it came to realizing how much I spent monthly on making international calls back home and to friends who were studying in other countries. I spent way too much money when I could have been saving had I known about Yackie Mobile.

Yackie Mobile is one of the first telecommunications companies to introduce a merger of their Mobile International Roaming SIM card and their Yakie VoIP service. This means, that with your Yackie personal phone number you can save money by making calls over the internet for FREE! NO other SIM card provider offers this!

All Yackie Mobile users need is access to a computer, with that they can save airtime and money on their SIM by making internet phone calls. All they would have to do is download an applicable program and start yacking. It is almost like stretching the minutes. To find out more go to www.yackiemobile.com.