Industry Wireless Services Founded 1999 | Key people Ken Grunski, Founder Area served United States of America | |
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Headquarters Boston, Massachusetts, United States Parent organizations JT Group Limited, ekit.com Inc. Profiles | ||
Telestial is a mobile virtual network operator headquartered in Boston with a large share of North America’s international cell phone market. Telestial also has operations in Australia, the UK and Europe. Telestial works with over 300 companies in the travel industry. Telestial is a provider of international cell phones and SIM cards.
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History
Telestial began operations in September 1999 and was founded by former telecommunications consultant Ken Grunski. By establishing dealerships with wireless carriers overseas, Telestial was able to offer travelers a local cell phone service at local rates with a local cell phone number as an alternative to an expensive phone rental and later, convenient but expensive international roaming. Telestial became incorporated in February 2000 and launched telestial.com in June 2000, offering two dual-band GSM 900/1800 handset and local prepaid sim cards from seven countries including Germany, France, UK, and South Africa. This is the first time that local SIM cards were available to consumers in the US and around the world, for purchase outside their respective host countries.
In 2003, Telestial introduced the HopAbroad service for North American travelers. This is the first international prepaid roaming SIM that offered a single flat rate for coverage in 70 countries. Subscribers pay one low rate for outgoing calls of $.95 USD per minute (incoming calls $.35 USD per minute) with a single SIM card.
In March 2007, with local prepaid SIM cards and dealerships covering over 70 countries from New Zealand and Fiji to Tanzania, Sweden and Brazil, as well as the Explorer and Passport international roaming SIM cards, Telestial agreed to merge operations ekit.com Pty Ltd, retaining all brands and services.
In 2010, JT Global, of the Channel Islands, acquired ekit becoming the new parent company of Telestial.
Services and products
Telestial sells GSM cell phones that work in countries in Europe and Asia, as well as phones that will work both in these countries and in the United States and Canada. The company also sells prepaid cell phone service packages for countries in Europe and Asia. This includes a subscriber identification module (SIM) card, the component that identifies your phone to the service network. The SIM card also stores your phone number and your security codes. Telestial sells the phones and services online.
In May 2009, Telestial became the first company to offer a dual-number SIM, the Passport SIM, with U.S. and U.K. global cell phone service all in one. The Passport retails for $29 (including $10 of airtime). Incoming calls to the U.S. number cost $0.19 per minute, while incoming calls to the U.K. number are free regardless of where the call originated. With the Passport SIM, Telestial also offers an optional 800 number that can be linked to the SIM, so contacts in the U.S. can avoid long distance or international charges (though calls will cost you $0.35 per minute). The Passport SIM also offers prepaid data plans that give travelers total control of expenses for mobile data and online activity from a wireless device.
The Passport SIM also gives travelers the Telestial Travel Journal, an online travel journal that scans the Telestial phone and automatically keeps track of where the travelers are on a Google map. Users can add photos and journal entries and family and friends can keep track of the trip by checking the Telestial website.