Sure, the world is getting increasingly wired and a wifi Internet connection is becoming as common and taken-for-granted as water, but such luxuries aren’t always readily available in most countries.

Even in shiny, high-tech Singapore, there are spots in town where the free wifi connection is wonky, or inaccessible because it needs a password.

So, how does a driven, power suit wearing entrepreneur ensure that she closes that sale or troubleshoot an urgent, looming crisis that threatens her business?

Flexiroam offers a possible answer. Founded by Jef Ong in 1st April 2011, Flexiroam is a Malaysia-based company that offers travelers unlimited calls at over 200 countries for a flat rate. So, if I’m a Singaporean on a business trip in Jakarta, I can make calls to Singapore and receive incoming calls — both unlimited — at S$10 (US$7.70) a day, saving me from extravagant roaming charges.

To use Flexiroam, I’ll need to purchase an overseas SIM. I’ll then be given instructions on how to connect my number with the Flexiroam gateway. After I switch to the overseas SIM upon arrival at my destination country, I’ll need to send a text to tell Flexiroam to direct all calls to my mobile phone.

Such a scheme has the added convenience of allowing you to retain your existing phone number while overseas.

While the service was initially available only to Malaysians, it has since launched in Singapore the past November, with plans to establish a physical presence at Changi Airport soon. According to Nicholas Yeap, Flexiroam’s marketing chief, they expanded to Singapore because “on average every Singaporean travel out of their country at least twice a year — four times more than an average Malaysian.”

India will be their next stop. Already, they have two offices there — one in Delhi, the other at Indore. “They have the largest airport in the world and are growing more than ten percent yearly in terms of international outbound passengers. We foresee that more Indians will be traveling out of their country for work or holiday.”

So far, reception towards Flexiroam has been promising. Jef Ong, the founder, has received much press coverage and recently auditioned for DEMO Asia. He told Malaysia Entrepreneurs in November that the company has saved businesses over 700,000 Malaysian Ringgit (S$290,000) and served over 2,000 customers.

Nicholas told SGE that 400 corporate customers have used Flexiroam at least twice in eight months. They’re partnering with 500 travel agencies to bundle Flexiroam with their travel packages from February 2012. An agreement has also been signed with Malaysian Airlines to offer special packages to their 20,000 staff. Altogether, they’re registering a 30 percent month-on-month growth in terms of sales and subscribers.

In Jan 2012, they will be launched Flexiroam Infinity SIM, which is a SIM card bundled with a Flexiroam pass. This product caters to power users who don’t want to waste time buying a local SIM and would rather have a card that works in 121 countries, including South Korea and Japan. A data plan for travelers to Europe can be included.

Jef has been bootstrapping his business all the way, and they have sufficient resources to roll out their operations in Malaysia and Singapore for the next twelve months. Nonetheless, they are already talking to several venture capitalists to go regional, although nothing is concrete yet.

The office will provide customer support to PayPal’s growing user base in Southeast Asia. Their services will be provided in English, with local Asian languages to be added soon.

PayPal senior vice president of global operations, John McCabe, said: “People are the most important asset and we are making a significant investment here in terms of hiring local talent, and providing them extensive training to better serve our customers around the world.”

The new center is located near PayPal’s international office in Singapore. The company also has another operations center in Shanghai. Their increased presence in Asia signals a growth in the mobile e-commerce sector in the region.

It also indicates that Malaysia is becoming a popular destination for tech companies as well, given that Google has also quite recently set up an office in the country.

The Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB) is a vanguard in this effort. Set up four years ago, they have since attracted more than 150 new events with 74,444 delegates and garnered international awards for their destination marketing campaigns. Their bid success rate is around 64 percent, reaching a high of 80 percent in 2010.

Some of their upcoming headliners include the ‘42th Annual Scientific Meeting of Malaysian Orthopaedic As­sociation 2012’, ‘9th Combined Pediatric and Spine Congress 2013’ and the ‘9th World Con­gress of Chinese Medicine 2012’.

According to SCB CEO Jill Henry, MICE is a major part of the state government’s agenda to turn Sarawak into a developed state by 2020, double its population by 2030, create 1.6 million more jobs and increasing its GDP fivefold.

After the initial auditions, selected top contestants will pitch to a panel of potential investors in a recording studio. Entrepreneurs with viable ideas will be offered a marketing task and seed money to publicize their idea. After that, they will be invited back to the studio for another round of pitching, where they could finally receive the full investment amount requested, in exchange for equity in their company.

The competition is open to Malaysians above 18 who have a registered company in their name. NGOs, Societies, and Associations are also welcome to submit their innovative ideas. Auditions have already closed in July. Finalists are slated to appear for a recording session that will be held in September.

So far, the listed judges and investors include: Dato Dr Norraesah Binti Haji Mohamad, executive chairman of MyEG Services, Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, CEO of the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), and Nazrin Hassan, CEO of the Cradle Fund.

The company is wholly owned by PKNS Holdings, and a licensee of the Plug & Play Techcenter, a thriving global community of over 300 startups. Real Plug & Play was set up by PKNS to address local startups’ lack of expertise in pushing themselves to the technology market and lack of access to funding for commercialization of their product towards regional success.

Lack of funding is also another concern. “Most of the venture capital providers in Malaysia are government agencies that are adverse to big risks. But startups cannot afford to go global themselves, due to the high cost involved,” explained Radha Nadarajah, head of special projects at PKNS.

He added that while local venture capitalists are around, they are usually housed within large corporations and fund innovations within the company.

Training sessions will also be held to coach startup founders on how to pitch their technologies to investors.

“HTC is proud to provide a richer experience for our users by incorporating Chalkboard – a service that works with thousands of local businesses – on our innovative handhelds,” says SK Wong, country manager at HTC, Malaysia.

Chalkboard reaches out to over 4,000 business customers in Malaysia alone. Businesses can send updates to consumers for less than RM1 (S$0.40) per day. In addition to special deals, the app also displays the businesses’ address and contact information, all within a five -kilometer radius from the user. A map also enables potential customers to find their way to the shop.

Besides major mobile platforms iOS and Android, Chalkboard is also available on Internet browsers like Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.

Chalkboard, which operates in Singapore, Malaysia, and the US, was founded in February 2010 by CEO Saumil Nanavati and CTO Bernard Leong with investment from Neoteny Labs. They have plans to enter the Indonesia market.

Communications provider, YTL Communications envisions a modern broadband nation enhanced by the Internet and supports technological innovation. In 2009, it created the YTL 4G Innovation Network and opened a testing centre at Sentul Park near Kuala Lumpur that will help to make the mobile Internet a reality throughout Malaysia. In November 2010, the network is to be to be commercially launched.

Submission and Evaluation

Ideas will be judged based on criteria such as the originality of the concept and its commercial potential. Finalists will be invited to demonstrate their products in person to a panel of expert and community judges.

Ideas will be evaluated by a panel of top judges from Google (Ishi Singh from Google Singapore), Head of New Business Development, Associate Director of MIT MediaLabs, Partner of Crosslink Ventures, a Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist, Senior Consultant of Light Reading & Dato’ Badlisham, CEO of MDEC.

Winning entries may be developed for mass deployment to customers upon launch of YTL Communications’ nationwide 4G network in Malaysia in the second half of 2010.

Registration & Submission Closing Date: 30 November 2010

Hosted in each ASEAN country on a rotating basis, this event provides an opportunity for participants to visit ASEAN countries to learn about their economy and entrepreneurial culture. The comprehensive programme exposes participants to the entrepreneurial environment in each country and will feature seminars, workshops, and activities that will hone the participants’ entrepreneurial skills.

The recent AYLE 2009 was held in Jakarta, Indonesia between 7th to 13th December 2009 and was a huge sucess. It exposed participants to the creative industry in Indonesia and the possibilities and potential for entrepreneurship in this industry on an individual level. There were 45 participants in AYLE 2009.

Apply here.

From This Week in Asia