Many of us now may find ourselves in a ‘Global Family’: families travelling for Ramadan, relatives moving abroad and long-term job commitments taking us from city to city means that we are now relying on technology more than ever to keep our families together. We can’t depend on seeing each other once a day, week or even from month to month: we’re now having our own adventures, either together or apart and we’re having them across the world.
To stay connected, family conversations are happening across oceans rather than at dinner tables. But unfortunately, talk isn’t always cheap. With international call charges, the thirty-minute catch-up with your roving relative can end up costing more than a family’s weekly grocery shopping. People want more affordable services that allow them to make quality and frequent international calls and texts from their mobile phones.
Families often keep in daily contact with loved ones around the world but resent the inconvenience of being tethered to their landlines and webcams or having to fumble for international calling cards that can provide spotty connections. Horror stories of astronomical international call charges are putting regular family contact at risk. For example, a 30-minute call from UK to Pakistan can cost as much as £1.54 per minute on some mobile networks.
Therefore, it is no wonder that more and more international families are turning to Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) which specialise in cheap international calls from mobiles. Incredibly popular with expatriate customers contacting their loved ones, these pay-as-you-go models have become staple tools for families and communities to maintain close relationships despite living across continents.
Lycamobile, the global leader for low-cost international mobile calls is the largest provider of this service and has been committed to keeping friends and families together at a low cost since its launch in 2006. It now operates with a team of 4,000 staff over 15 countries and is expected to reach a turnover target of €1billion by the end of 2012.
“This is a lifeline service”, explains Lycamobile CEO, Milind Kangle. “Relationships aren’t maintained across continents with scheduled calls from a landline or an internet service; they are instant and focus on the now, the gossip you just discovered, the news you can’t wait to share and the advice on which shoes to pack in an already overfilled suitcase.”
Lycamobile was founded by Chairman Subaskaran Allirajah and Milind Kangle from their joint passion to keep our growing international community talking.
The company is committed to its role in maintaining family values, holding several events such as Lycamobile International day last summer and Festi Ramazan in Dortmund. In addition, Allirajah’s Gnanam Foundation supports families without any income by providing them with the necessary equipment or tools to start their own businesses. The Gnanam Foundation works closely with rural women’s forums to provide essential support to a vast number of widows so they can care for their families.
“The business is deep-rooted with strong family connections,” said Allirajah. “As a proud father of three boys and the chairman of an international company, it’s more important than ever that I get to speak to my family regularly. This is why we developed Lycamobile.”
Both Allirajah and Kangle have led the brand to success as Europe’s largest international calling MVNO enabling 20 million customers across Europe and Australia make affordable international and national calls and SMS to their families.
The key is in its simplicity: no long access codes or PIN numbers to baffle your overseas adventurers, making staying in touch easier and cheaper.
“We know that keeping large families talking is sometimes a difficult task” says Kangle, “our job is to make it as easy as possible for everyone to pick up the phone and share their lives with the ones they love and cherish.”
That is why the Lycaworld global on-net service provides a substantially reduced tariff offering Lycamobile to Lycamobile calls to keep everyone within the Lycamobile world connected. Pre-paid top-up vouchers are available in over 750,000 points of sale across the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Australia, France, Germany, Poland, Ireland and Portugal.
“At Lycamobile, we provide something beyond cheap international phone calls; we give people the chance to stay in touch with their near and dear ones. We don’t provide calls, we provide the tools to build and maintain close networks of friends and families across the world.”
