Singapore travellers will now find staying in touch while overseas more affordable, with the launch of the Ready-2-Go Travel Kit by Trusling Communications.

It is an alternative cost-effective solution to paying the high roaming charges of local network operators.

Each kit consists of a country-specific overseas prepaid SIM card, where users pay only the local rates at their destination with free incoming calls in many countries, and a Link Card, an International Call Forwarding Service, to forward Singapore calls to their overseas number.

Trusling Communications says that users can achieve savings of up to 85 per cent, compared to local network operator Singtel's normal roaming charges.

This is the first time that overseas prepaid SIM cards from eight major travel destinations can be purchased in Singapore.

These include Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, with more additions to follow.

In an interview with AsiaOne, Ms Jenny Yiu, the director of Trusling Communications said, "Since its launch in March 2009, the sales of the Ready-2-Go travel kits have been very promising.

"Current sales have been increasing exponentially each month as more customers learn about the product. We target to sell 40,000 Ready-2-Go Travel Kits this year."

When asked how this novel idea came about, she revealed that members of her team previously worked in MNCs and were frequent travellers.

Their phone bills could go up to a jaw-dropping $2000 a month. Although their bills were paid by their companies, they recognised the need for a more affordable solution.

"To save costs, we would purchase a prepaid SIM card every time we travel. The minute we arrive at our destination we would have to start looking around for a SIM card, sometimes being overcharged because we looked like tourists."

But this only solves half the problem as most travellers would need to receive calls on their local mobile phone lines as well.

This is where Ready-2-Go comes in as a convenient solution for this problem.

Ms Yiu says, "With the Link Card, all calls are forwarded to the new overseas number, so that travellers can receive calls on their Singapore number, without having to pay a cent of roaming!"

Travellers who like to be well-prepared for their trips will definitely find this service useful as they will have an overseas mobile phone number that can be given out in advance to receive calls and SMSes from the friends and family they will be visiting.

They can also enjoy immediate connectivity on arrival and not miss any calls on their Singapore number.

Distributed through money changers islandwide, the Ready-2-Go Travel Kits retail between S$18.90 and S$31.90. Travellers can top-up the credit of their Link Card conveniently online.

The SIM cards can be topped up at convenience stores, phone shops and other e-channels across their respective countries of stay.