If you’ve ever used your mobile phone on a trip abroad, you’ve encountered “roaming shock.” Charges for cell phone calls on between two countries can be quite expensive; data charges for routine tasks like email or web browsing can be even more pricey.

United Mobile is tackling the international roaming market with a set of services that can redefine international mobile costs. The startup, based near  Zurich, is offering international mobile voice calls at up to 80 percent less than many carriers. It also offers pre-paid data service, something few regular telecom carriers will provide.

At one level, United Mobile is an MVNO, a so-called mobile virtual network operator, a company that buys bandwidth wholesale and resells it to mobile customers under its own name. However, United Mobile also offers a white-label service that can be branded by other companies.

United Mobile is able to offer lower costs, says CEO Charles Frankl (photo), because it operates its own telecommunications infrastructure.  Mr. Frankl, a former CEO of  AOL Germany and long-time executive at Vodafone,  is aiming for the international travel market, especially business travelers who need both voice and data. Subscribers obtain a SIM card from United Mobile, pre-pay a certain amount and they’re off and running. Customers can easily recharge their SIM cards over the phone.

Users can call 140 countries using United Mobile, but right now they are limited to phones numbers for  423 (Lichtenstein), 49 (Germany) and 44 (UK). Mr. Frankl says the company is rapidly expanding its list of countries from which calls can originate. He hopes to add U.S. numbers very shortly.  (The company’s site is at www.united-mobile.com)

 Mobile calls between most EU countries start at €0.29 ($0.40) per minute, with incoming costs free.  Data costs as little as 99 Euro cents per megabyte, compared to an average of €5.24 in the European Union.

United Mobile has raised €9 million from venture capital firms including Silicon Valley's Accel Partners and Stuttgart, Germany’s Grazia Equities. If they can bring my roaming costs down, they'll  have plenty of grateful customers.