The Utility Blog

Business travel might seem glamorous, but connectivity problems can cause some very un-glamorous headaches

It’s late at night, you’re far from home, it’s hot and steamy. You need to send an urgent e-mail to the office – but there’s no wifi available and you can’t find a 3G signal.

Even if you could, as a lean mean startup you’re worried you might need to sell the office furniture to pay the bill.

This is a situation familiar to anyone who travels – whether on business or simply on holiday.

The rise of the smartphone and our increasing reliance on laptops and tablets, not to mention cloud-based software applications that need an internet connection to work, means many of us find ourselves hostages to high wifi and roaming charges.

In the EU, the European Commission has announced plans to extend the price cap on roaming costs to include data for the first time, with a lower cap on calls received and texts. Despite this charges are likely to remain high.

So what can you do to keep yourself connected – while keeping costs down?

Geneva-based Carole Vivien has worked in IT sales for around 15 years, for some of the biggest companies in the telecoms sector, including BT and AT&T. She now works for US firm Hunt Big Sales, and travels regularly around the world on business.

“I would say that my bill is 95% roaming. Always. Even when I was working for AT&T or whoever,” she says.

“They give you a limit. Let’s say they let you spend £500 to £700 a month for your mobile, but because you’re roaming all the time you’re more likely to spend £2,000 on voice and data.”

About six months ago she ended up stranded at London’s Heathrow Airport after a mix-up with her flights.

While sorting out a hotel room for the night she saw an advert for a new device that provided a pocket wifi hotspot for a flat rate of £4.95 a day by a company called Tep.

“For me after being in telecoms for 15 years, when I saw this sign advertising it I said, ‘Ah finally, someone’s doing that’,” she says.

Personal wifi devices are not new – various network operators offer them for domestic use – but this is aimed at those travelling overseas, allowing you to connect up to five devices in any of the countries supported by the company for the same flat rate. They also provide prepaid smartphones.

Tomas Mendoza is the founder of Tep. He says he got the idea while travelling around south east Asia with his girlfriend, after leaving the hedge fund industry.

“Throughout the trip we realised how difficult it was to remain connected, and how being connected was very, very valuable.

“My mother, she’s 50, she doesn’t know where the sim card is in the phone. Going to another country, finding a sim card, unlocking the phone, it’s something she’ll never do.”

According to research commissioned by the company, the average smartphone data consumption is 10MB a day. Over the course of a 10-day business trip in Europe this could cost around £210 ($338; 240 euros).

When business travellers work on the internet from their phones, that can go up to as much as 40 to 60MB a day, costing between £80 and £120 a day, or between £800 and £1,200 for a 10-day trip.

This is unlikely to change in the near future, according to Juniper Research’s Nitin Bhas.

“Roaming has traditionally provided network operators with an opportunity to gain additional revenues above and beyond regular access fees.

“The ability to stay connected even while roaming across international networks is a key requirement, particularly within the enterprise sector, and operators have traditionally levied a significant surcharge for this privilege, particularly in the case of data services.”

This isn’t the only technology out there that could help you cut your costs. ABroadband.com offer 3G access for 59 cents (84 US cents; 52p) per megabyte in over 50 countries – although you have to factor in the additional cost of buying either a dongle or a sim card.

Onevoice Anywhere is BT’s voip service aimed at business travellers

And some of the big operators are also trying to find solutions for their business customers. BT is due to launch Onevoice Anywhere – a voip (voice over internet protocol) phone service that lets business customers make calls over wifi connected devices.

Steve Masters, BT’s global head of unified communications, says testing has gone very well.”It provides flexibility and functionality for global travellers and will help to significantly reduce global roaming charges,” he says.

There are also apps that claim to help you save money. Onavo is available for iPhone, and will compress the data being received by your phone. Less data means smaller charges – but your data will have to travel through their servers.

Do it yourself

Taking an old handset, or dongle or even Mifi (personal wifi device) and buying a local sim is a possibility – but may only be practicable for longer trips, says Tom Otley of Business Traveller magazine.

Customers may object to calling you on a different, overseas number, and the handset must be unlocked.

Many people rely on the fact that that their hotel will have wifi. Mr Otley says despite the expectations of some travellers, they will often have to pay for it.

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Scottish and Southern Energy will cut its gas bills for domestic customers by 4% from 29 March, the company has announced.

The average annual household bill will drop by £30 as a result, the energy provider said.

The move comes a month after British Gas cut its standard household gas prices by an average of 7%, and others are expected to follow suit.

The changes come after a period of lower wholesale costs.

The company said that its average dual fuel standard credit bill would stand at £1,162, although prices alter depending on where people live in the country.

‘Challenging business’

Scottish and Southern has 3.5 million gas customers but nearly 10 million customers across the UK who use gas or electricity or both. Electricity prices will remain unchanged.

It supplies gas & electricity as Southern Electric, SWALEC, Scottish Hydro & Atlantic.

Those customers who have relatively low gas usage will not see the full effect of the price cuts. Fixed charges – the initial charge for the first tranche of gas used – will increase from £53 to £98. Prices will be cut for gas used above this level, leaving a net effect of a 4% cut for the average customer.

“Energy supply is still a challenging business, with significant upward price pressures which run counter to reductions in wholesale costs,” said Alistair Phillips-Davies, the company’s energy supply director.

“We will do everything we can to make sure customers get value for money from energy supply, with energy efficiency and customer service continuing to be top priorities.”

The company has also followed demands from the regulator and consumer groups by removing the price differential for pre-payment gas meters.

Pre-payment meter customers will see their annual bill fall by 9%, or £70 a year on average.

“This is a great day for social justice and means that almost 300,000 people, many of whom are on lower incomes, will now find it easier to pay for their energy and heat their homes,” said David Orr, of chief executive of the National Housing Federation.

Single fuel gas rates will fall by 7%, or £56 a year on average, moving single fuel gas prices in line with dual fuel.

Other suppliers

Gas providers have come under pressure to cut bills after prices that they pay on the wholesale markets fell.

The latest moves by Scottish and Southern and British Gas should push the others in the “big six” energy suppliers into cutting prices, according to Tom Lyon, energy expert at price comparison website Uswitch.

“Hopefully the other four will follow shortly, which can only be good for customers,” he said.

“But we will never get back down to levels enjoyed a few years ago.”

The falling prices were still relatively small compared with the increases across the market in 2008, he said, and there was little likelihood of any drop in electricity prices.

Robert Hammond, energy expert at watchdog Consumer Focus said: “This is good news and hopefully will spark the price war that has been conspicuous by its absence since British Gas cut its gas bills last month.

“Wholesale gas and electricity prices have been falling for months and we believe price cuts for both should have been passed on before the winter started.”

But Mark Todd, director of website energyhelpline.com, criticised the delay on the price changes, as British Gas had announced its cut with immediate effect.

He also warned that “some [energy] companies may not cut prices at all even though wholesaleprices  have fallen as much as they have”. People in Pubs all over Britain will no doubt be talking about the rip off prices many companies charge and HUGE profits the fat cats are making whilst the rest of the economy struggles along.