The dawning of November isn't just about the annual onslaught of shoppers that will hit businesses looking for the perfect gift for upcoming holidays, but also about just who those gifts are for. Yes, this is the time of year when the presence of absent friends and family living abroad most weighs on the heart, and that in turn has prompted some to consider other ways of contact. Others, however, aren't so readily in touch, and a new study explains surprising reasons why.
A new study from Ringo.com, a popular calling app, showed that a majority of Brits knew someone who no longer lived in the purview of Great Britain. Indeed, fully 57 percent of surveyed respondents claimed at least one friend or family member who was living abroad. However, for those surveyed, just 34 percent could say that regular contact was maintained between the family or friend abroad and those left behind. Most of the emigrants went to Australia, at 22 percent, but followed close behind were the United States at 19 percent, Canada at 13 percent, and New Zealand at 9 percent.
While this might sound callous in the extreme, there's a key point behind such a development: time zones. Difficulty in negotiating time zones made for reason enough for 26 percent of respondents not to even try, for fear of getting the potential caller at an odd hour or in just failing to reach said target altogether. It wasn't just time zones, of course; the costs of international calling came in 18 percent of the time, and unavailability of said expatriates, or expats, played in 14 percent of the time. However, many seemed aware there were ways to save. After all, fully 35 percent of respondents turned to voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services, a service widely acknowledged in terms of offering international calling at impressively low prices. Immediately behind that at 34 percent was the standard landline, while 32 percent turned to the text message instead.
Interestingly, Brits turned to old-fashioned paper mail in 14 percent of cases, which beat out Twitter (News - Alert) almost double, as it came in at just eight percent. In perhaps an even odder development, older Brits age 55 and up were almost half as like as younger counterparts age 18 – 34 to turn to paper mail.
But despite these numbers, it was quite clear to most—and particularly to Ringo.com—that there was clear demand for a low-cost way to get in touch with relatives and friends abroad. While indeed, no solution short of e-mail or paper-based mail can handle the time zone variants with any kind of reliability—high noon in London is seven in the morning in Philadelphia, and 11 PM in Sydney—VoIP can certainly handle the issues of expense well. Ringo.com, for its part, not only added live time zone information so users can tell at a glance just what hour said user will be calling into, but also billing information that changes to reflect the area called.
So while it may not always be easy to keep in touch with those absent friends and expat relatives, it's still worth doing. New technology allows for a much easier and less expensive time of it as well, so with the holidays getting near, now is a good time to figure out how to make that all-important contact and close out the year on a proper high note of keeping in touch with those who make all the difference.
Edited by Alisen Downey