In the last century (that is, the 1990’s) when my little brother Jeremy was studying abroad, he had to make do without a mobile phone. He kept saying there must some sort of solution for tourists to stay in touch. I didn’t think there was a need for such a product – after all, wasn’t the point of going abroad to get away from everything? But he kept insisting – by mail – that phone service for international travellers made sense… and he convinced me.

Travellers in the late nineties and early 2000’s had no choices. Travelling abroad meant being out of touch. Mobile phones simply would not work outside of your area. Roaming wasn’t introduced for many years, and once it did exist, per-minute prices would quickly add up to the price of your airfare.

So Jeremy and I formed our first partnership. Since he’s my younger brother, I still like to tell people it was my idea in the first place.

At first we invested a lot of money, bought a lot of phones, and we were renting handsets for foreign students. Business boomed, and we expanded to tourists and tour groups. We served many different countries, and eventually moved to providing more SIM cards than phones.

In 2005 , Telaway started offering data plans. You do NOT want to know how slow it was – GPRS data… tiny little mobile browsers… waiting minutes for pages to load. Good times, eh?

But still, travellers could email while travelling, and the world began to change….

It’s been a long time since then. Now most of us are glued to our SMARTPHONES: iPhones and Blackberry models, plus all sorts of Android phones, like the Samsung Galaxy. We check our email, schedules, Facebook, and more. Now, there’s no such thing as leaving your phone at home.

We know you want to stay in touch, you want to research where to go and what to do. You want to share pictures, post updates, and not worry about outrageous roaming prices. And of course, you still want to do that old-fashioned task, make telephone calls.

For years, Jeremy and I searched for the perfect solution for visitors to the USA, and about two years ago we found it: One USA SIM card that gives you great service and peace of mind. That's what the modern Telaway SIM card offers: