Kill bill, or, is there anyone who can help me get my message across?
It's frustrating really, to find that with internet, the world is indeed without frontiers, but that the providers of mobile telephone subscriptions don't operate accordingly. Within the European Union people are free to live and work wherever they want, but as soon as you cross the border from one country to another you pay ridiculously high fees. You can't get more international then the big providers. Companies like T-Mobile and Vodafone are present in almost every country in Europe, but their services are national. Travelers are the milk cows of their business, and no exceptions can be made for people who are constantly abroad.
In my case it is even worse. Before I ever came up with the idea of twalking through Europe, I changed my subscription from Vodafone to T-Mobile, because I wanted an iPhone. There are now some serious competitors that I wouldn't mind trying out instead - although I am still happy with my iPhone - but at that time I wanted that phone so badly that I decided on a two year contract. My subscription will run for at least another year, but the minutes and SMS bundle are only valid in the Netherlands. This means I pay 40 Euro's a month for something I cannot use, and I pay the when-you-are-on-holiday-we-want-a-piece-of-the-action-fee for every minute and kb I do use. Hello? T-Mobile? Can we work something out? I am not national, not international, but extranational. I am never in my country... No one home. My first bill amounted to 260 Euro's.
Unfortunately I don't have the time right now to write articles and seek relevant magazines to get them published so I can earn some money. I am walking as fast as I can to stay ahead of winter - I already failed miserably at staying ahead of the autumn showers! In the evening most of my time goes into getting to know my hosts. A gratifying activity to say the least, but time consuming nonetheless. This means I am highly dependent on the donations of people who sympathize with my cause and others who appreciate my posts or my pictures. But I don't even have the time to thank them properly with an email or some other message. All this could change if I were to find someone or some company that could help me solve my connection problems during the day.
To cut a long story short, I am badly in need of a cheaper solution or a company that can support me and kill my bills. Are you such a company, do you work for one, or do you know someone that does, it would mean a lot to me if you could help me out with this. On my end I can insure a lot of attention in the press while I'm on my way. As I am about to enter Spain I have already had articles and interviews covering my project in major newspapers in the Netherlands, Germany and France. I've been on Dutch and German radio and television channel ARTE (broadcasting in all of Europe) wants to film me for three days when I'm nearing Santiago de Compostela. On the internet there is a long list of bloggers who have written about me and the number of followers I have grows larger every day. I'm sure that there are many meaningful partnerships to think of, but I simply don't have the time right now to actively seek them out. For this I ask your help.
Who will kill my bill?