Month: December 2009

Our mission at Cellhire is to provide the best mobile solutions, anywhere. But what does “mobile” mean? For Cellhire, it means connected through technology. Whatever connected means to you is what we want to do well! It could be two-way radios, it could be satellite technology, it could be a phone that rings or a phone that gets your e-mails and text messages, or it could mean all out data transfer and keeping your computer tied to the internet. Read on to see all the technology Cellhire provides.

World Wide Voice Solutions

Cellhire can provide phone service almost anywhere in the world. We have various globe trotting solutions or we can pinpoint service to the country you are visiting at up to a 60% savings over your US carrier rates. With free incoming calls and a number local to that region, why look anywhere else? But don’t let the international dialing scare you off. We thought of that too and offer FollowMe® service that allows you to use your domestic phone number while on another country’s network.

Can’t live without your email and internet

Cellhire offers both domestic and international data solutions. Leveraging our relationships with many global carriers, there are not many places on a map that is out of our reach. Whether your need is just a Blackberry® to keep up with e-mail or a full blown USB or MiFi® data link for your laptop, we can provide the solution that truly fits your needs. The best part is, you don’t have to buy the equipment and you don’t have to sign up for any long-term contracts, just send it back when you no longer need the service. This is the perfect solution for projects and travel needs, business or leisure.

2 Way Radios and Push-To-Talk Programmed Services

Along with our Nextel and Verizon push-to-talk solutions, we are certain to have what you need. And best of all, we do the programming for you. Whether you need voice activated for a few on your team or everyone or no one and/or group paging set up for all the groups you need, we send you the equipment ready for your team to turn on and get busy! Want something simpler than that? Cellhire is proud to have recently partnered with DC Rentals (official communications providers for the Boston Marathon and many other events) for two-way communications. We offer the full spectrum of equipment including repeaters and base stations.

Where cell phones don’t work

Cellhire has been a provider for many non-profit groups over the years for satellite phone services. We have partnered with Iridium and Thurya as well as BGAN to ensure that disaster recovery teams have the communications support they need. Our equipment and services have seen hurricane, tornado and flood hit regions all over the world. This service also expands to our cruise and safari crowds and other mission and high adventure organizations have used these devices to stay connected or simply be in touch with emergency response teams.

Added Value

What more could there be? Many of our services can be paired with value added services. Our customers present us with a need and we respond. The FollowMe® mentioned above can be linked to many services. To answer the needs of our anxious parents with children traveling aboard in exchange groups, Cellhire created FindMe® which allows the parents to log-in and see where their child is on the globe. For the chaperones and events marketing, we are now offering Broadcast SMS® services allowing a single text message to be delivered to entire groups of people. With reasonable Theft and Lost insurance, peace of mind is assured if our equipment is damaged, lost or stolen. Credit Alert® services are a standard with Cellhire alerting you of high usage to help you control your costs. We offer these many customized programs for corporations and are open to partnerships that make it easy for our consumers to do business.

As always, we are at your service. Contact Cellhire for more information.

The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver, Canada and is right around the corner with the Olympic Cauldron being lit on February 12th. Cellhire is proud to be providing the US Olympic Committee over 800 voice and data connections while in Canada along with many main stream media outlets who will be covering the games.

“This is really something we do well! For 20 years we have been providing dynamic and innovative solutions designed to save money”, shared Kirk Samuels, International Events Manager. “Our ability to land individuals on the appropriate network and customize packages that include data, MiFi®, BlackBerry® and standard phones is unmatched in the industry.”

If you plan to go, you can get in on the deal too! We are extending this special offer to our customers! Click here for details.

Cellhire USA wishes the US Olympic Team and all Olympians world wide the best of luck! We are proud to be of service in the great event!

The challenge

When a software development company hit the road to demo a new product to other offices across the country, they needed a solution that would allow them all to connect.

The solution

Cellhire introduced this ‘on-the-go’ team of four to MiFi. This wireless hub allows up to five connections which was ideal for this team during their 6 week tour to 14 offices coast to coast.

The results

This allowed them to collaborate and set up their ‘war-room’ from the airport to the hotel to the office without everyone having to find and connect to several networks. Coverage was assured in even the most remote locations where their own carrier coverage was sometimes weak.

Congrats to the team by the way, the software demos were a huge success and the company’s sales team is well on their way to selling this product! Cellhire is happy to be part of their success.

For a lot of us, data usage is a mystery. With some people reporting iPhone bills ranging in the thousands of dollars, it’s important to understand how your iPhone uses data and how to avoid the billing. Because of privacy rules, they cannot tell you exactly where you went or what you did. We are told that we must have downloaded “large” files, run several “updates” or visited “data intensive” web sites. Just what does that mean anyhow? Kilobytes (KB), Megabytes (MB), Gigabytes (GB); how can we get a grip?

Be careful not to take iPhone capabilities for granted

Different phones use data in different ways. The difference in settings could easily increase your data use astronomically and cost you big, especially when traveling outside your coverage area or on international networks. iPhones are more data intensive because of their full HTML email feature, automatic check settings, enhanced internet experience and all those really great applications we cannot seem to live without.

International roaming and data usage are not included in the standard data plans you get with your iPhone. It’s important to understand how much data different applications and downloads use. A good rule of thumb is that if it is digital or it is video related, uses Flash or moves around the screen or uses GPS (like google maps), it uses a lot of data. For example, a standard digital cameral takes a 5 megapixel picture. Opening an email with a 5 megapixel picture or downloading a 3 minute video on YouTube will use about 2-3MB on your iPhone. On an international network, that would be a charge of around $40 for each of those activities.

Turn it off

You can typically disable browsing on any phone. iPhones have a default setting for international data roaming to be “OFF”. In the settings area, this can be found under Settings>General>Network>Data Roaming. This will block email, browsing, and visual voicemail as well as other internet downloads, but it will not block text or picture/video messages (SMS or MMS). You will be charged for text and picture/video messages which we now know can be as much as $40 each.

You can also turn “Fetch New Data” off. This will disable your email and calendar syncs. Although you will have to do those things manually, it will put you in control of the data flow. If you just have to have it, consider using Wi-Fi spots which are available at many international airports, hotels and restaurants. This can save you big.

Package deals

When traveling overseas, there are global add-ons you can purchase that will allow you a limited bundle of service in 90 countries. A good idea would be to run your iPhone with the counter on before your trip to see if your bundle will be enough. Also, verify that the iPhone network will work in the country you are traveling to.

You may want to price these packages against other companies that rent such equipment on the actual network of the country you are traveling. Companies like Cellhire (www.cellhire.com) have network relationships in over 180 countries. They are competitively priced and you have the peace of mind in knowing that because you are on that country’s network, your device will work.

Use your counters

When you arrive overseas set the usage tracker to zero (Settings>General>Usage>Reset Statistics). You can then monitor your usage and prevent overages. All trackers are estimated usage only and should not be used to calculate your bill. It will keep you in the ballpark and help you to avoid high usage bills.

Remember the magic number: 1024

When tracking your usage against a MB or GB bundle or when reviewing your bill, remember the number 1024. It takes 1024 KB’s to make 1 MB. So when you see your bill and it has, for example, 9600 KB, that is 9.375 MB. It also takes 1024 MB to make a GB.
1 GB equals 1024 MB and 1 MB equals 1024 KB.
A 5GB bundle = 5,120 MB or 5,242,880 KB.
A 200MB bundle = 204,800 KB.

Ready, set, get me to my destination

AT&T and Apple both offer more details on how to manage your data while traveling overseas. Do your homework and be proactive. Now that you have the information, enjoy your trip.