MINO Wireless, a Sunnyvale, CA-based mobile services company, announced a campaign to promote its International Call from Mobile Phone service through Chinese media in the US. MINO service makes international calls easy and affordable by using Internet (or VoIP) call technology. With MINO, users can call from the US to China from their mobile phones at 2.2 cents per minute. MINO’s ads are planned to appear in Chinese language print media Singtao and World Journal, on local TV station KTSF, which broadcasts ethnic programming, and on SVC and Singtao Radio. The print ads started running on June 1, 2006 and have drawn a large number of calls both in English and Chinese.

"MINO has a very compelling product for people who are calling from the US to China. The convenience and price of our product is unmatched in the market," said Jing Liu, the CEO of MINO Wireless. "Making overseas Internet calls from the PC has become very popular, and we are bringing these calls to mobile phones".

Although MINO has added paying customers in over 43 countries since launching its service in January 2006, majority of its users are in the US. "Internet (VoIP) calling has become extremely popular but it’s still a new service and the customer acquisition costs are very high," said Mukesh Ahuja, VP of Sales and Marketing at MINO. "By moving to ethnic media, we can reach users without competing with the big advertisers in the US media. In the coming months, we have campaigns planned in the US to target people who call the Philippines, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates."

Traditionally the most popular way to call overseas has been to use Calling Cards, even though they have high hidden costs, provide no call logs and require users to dial access and PIN numbers. But recently users have moved to calling from PC-to-PC or PC-to-Phone calling services, which are much cheaper.

According to Cassimir Medford, Senior Editor of Red Herring, "The substantial immigrant population in the U.S. has joined the rest of the country in shying away from making ultra expensive international mobile phone calls that can cost upward of a dollar per minute."