AVO and other alternatives to roaming
Almost every time we talk about a project, whether it is an investor, a potential client or a partner, a question arises about competitors. We are often asked how our solution differs from a particular application and in which we are better. Therefore, we decided to make a small review of the existing roaming solutions.
We classified them according to the principle of work and the problem to be solved.
Messengers and VoIP applications
We decided to start with this category, since it is with them that we are most often compared. In this category we ranked applications and services that allow you to call phone numbers all over the world at lower prices than telephone companies offer. In addition to cheap outgoing calls, most applications in this category allow you to freely communicate between users with voice and text messages.
To summarize, this category includes applications that have two functions: free communication between users and paid outgoing calls to regular phone numbers.
These applications are very popular, and it’s quite difficult to find a person who does not have an account in at least one of them.
Unlike AVO, applications in this category do not have the ability to receive incoming calls from users who do not use the application. This limits their use as an alternative to roaming, because during a trip with an incoming call, the user will still have to pay for the incoming call or even miss the call if the user decides to use a local SIM card for cheap Internet.
Below is a list of the most popular applications in this category:
Local number providers
The next category of applications, in addition to outgoing calls, also allows you to receive incoming calls from telephone networks. But for this, the user needs to rent a room, the cost of which ranges from 3 to 5 dollars a month. At the same time, the user loses the ability to use his home mobile number. And if for incoming calls you can still set up call forwarding, then for outgoing calls, at best, the leased number will be determined. The advantage of AVO over this category of applications is that users do not need to buy an additional number to receive incoming calls and when calling from the application, the user's home mobile number will be determined.
We have added Skype to this category, since for a number of countries it provides the service of renting and binding a real phone number.
Data roaming
There are quite a few such companies on the market. Our list is just a few of them. They provide special SIM cards or 3G modems with international coverage for internet roaming. These companies are not our competitors, but most likely potential partners, as they provide inexpensive data roaming, and we are an inexpensive solution for voice roaming. A user using a combination of our offers will have a full range of mobile services while traveling at prices well below roaming prices. Now we are working on the possibility of creating common products with some players in this niche.
Direct competitors
For dessert, we left direct competitors. These are applications that, from a user point of view, provide the same functionality as AVO . The differences are invisible to users and consist in a different approach to solving technical problems.
Roamerapp
Pluses: very beautiful and nice interface; the ability to make and receive calls not only via the Internet, but also to a local SIM card without the need to have an Internet connection; provides its own data roaming solution.
Disadvantages: the need to set up call forwarding every time before the trip, and turn it off after returning. In addition, there are no free calls between users and for incoming calls you need to pay a monthly fee.
Youroam
Advantages: free calls and messages between users; unlimited number of outgoing and incoming calls (USA) for a monthly fee.
Disadvantages: available only to US users.
You need to understand that each of the above solutions has its own market and its users. For some users, it’s enough to have inexpensive access to the Internet and maintaining the number is not critical. Other users, however, need to be able to receive and make calls with their home number, but they are not ready to pay for roaming. As a rule, for voice communications during trips, the last group of users selects AVOor any of our direct competitors. This does not mean that they will not use Viber or Skype while abroad. These applications are great for communicating with other users of the same applications, while AVO allows you to keep in touch with any subscriber of the telephone network. This means that both owners of old phones (not smartphones) and landline phone subscribers will be able to contact you.
www.avoapp.com