However advanced technology gets, a phone call is often the most effective way to communicate. This is perfectly illustrated by the couple from London who became trapped in a remote ravine in the Amazon jungle.

The pair, aged in their 60s, became trapped after their motor home left the road 200 miles from the nearest city in Brazil. Completely isolated (the pair had not seen another vehicle for two days), they used their satellite phone to contact a relative in Sussex and passed on exact GPS coordinates of their location.

The relative contacted Dover Coastguard who in turn contacted Falmouth Coastguard, which is the international liaison station. Falmouth Coastguard then contacted the Brazilian Coastguard who sent a helicopter out to rescue the couple.

Falmouth Coastguard, which is 5,000 miles from Brazil, said the couple were shaken but not injured.

Given the amount of online and non-verbal communication that goes on nowadays, this story shows that phoning a friend is still one of the best ways to get the result you need.

Clearly, here at 08Direct, we’d like to think that our advanced call management services help you to direct the calls you receive to the right person more efficiently than dialling thousands of miles and passing messages around, but the couple in Brazil must be thankful that however the message got through, it did get through in the end. And they have the phone to thank for that.