Space-benders

Three days into my new job, I am already made aware of services that bend time and space. I am not talking about the stuff that I do here. It will be a loooong time before my personal doings start having such an impact (if ever). But I can’t wait to tell you about this super cool thing that Orbitel has just recently launched and I have already tested and loved.

The service is BGnomer (BG = Bulgarian; nomer = number, for the uninitiated). It targets Bulgarians living abroad (or other interested individuals) and looking for cheap and simple ways to talk to people within Bulgaria over the phone. The operative word here being CHEAP. What Orbitel has done is so simple and sweet, that you won’t even believe it. A Bulgarian living abroad creates an account and gets assigned a Bulgarian line phone number. Incoming calls to that number get automatically transferred to a foreign-based telephone but the person making the call only gets charged the cost of one local phone call. Ta-daaaa! And that’s it.

There are some country differences. For example, you can transfer your BGnomer to a cell-phone only in some countries like the United States and Canada. Even still, the service is remarkably convenient. I got to experience it in person last night and must admit that the first 5 minutes of the conversation were composed of mostly gasps and exclamations about how unbelievably awesome the whole thing is. On top of that, because the service is still brand new, it’s completely free to sign up. They start charging people in September but the monthly fee is only 20 bucks. So…like I said…it’s still very affordable.

Many of you might not be able to understand my excitement. But all of you who live abroad are probably pretty psyched about this. Being away from the ones you love is hard enough and not being able to talk with them often because of ridiculously expensive international calls makes it even worse. For the very same reason, however, nifty little things such as BGnomer, for example, can make all the difference in the world. Nothing can beat a call from your mom who just wants to tell you that your high-school friend just had a baby. Oh, and that she loves you, too!