executiveGEEK

When traveling internationally it is always difficult to make long distance calls. Do you add one zero or two zeros? Should I add a 1 or not? Even when travelling in your own country some numbers are long distance when called from your home location, but if you travel to the owner of that number, it becomes a local call. How can you keep all this straight and make calling all these number far more easier?

It is simple. Just add a + symbol to the front of the phone number and then the country code. In North America the country code is 1. Most people think that 1 is what you are dialing for long distance, but in reality it is the country code. So for all North American numbers you would add +1 then the phone number with area code. You will no longer have to worry about whether the number is local or long distance as the carrier will figure it out for you. If you have international phone numbers for the UK, then you would add +44 then the phone number.

Wherever you travel you no longer have to figure out what to dial. You just select the person and choose dial. The carrier will figure out whether the call is local or long distance and dial the call accordingly.

I have been in the Middle East for just over a year and it has been eye opening. Apart from the cultural adjustments, one of the things that has become a peeve is how Western companies do not recognize some of the differences that will impact their devices or their software outside of Western countries.

It is no secret that I am a big fan of RIM’s (Research In Motion) Blackberry. However, there are some things that should be considered when selling this product in the rest of the world. For example, the work week is different in the Middle East. Muslim religion dominates in the region and therefore Friday is the day of worship. Depending on the country, your other day off is either Thursday or Saturday. In some countries, they also work a half day on the Thursday. None of these can be accommodated by the Blackberry.

Although I can set Saturday as the first day of the week, there is no way for me to tell the Blackberry that Thursday and Friday are the weekends (or Friday and Saturday). This presents some minor annoyances such as viewing the month and the Blackberry shades the Saturday and Sunday. To some aggravating issues when it comes to having the alarm only active on weekdays.

It would be a simple change, as a screen that simply asks you to fill in some check boxes for weekend or weekdays.

Blackberry sales in the Middle East are growing rapidly. I have read that this is one of RIM’s fastest growing regions. There is both a status and fashion aspect to the Blackberry in the Middle East. Hopefully this will push RIM towards accommodating the the nuances of the region.