Cubic Telecom hopes to make global roaming reasonable

Employing a variety of creative techniques, Ireland's Cubic Telecom is looking to take the bank-breaking sting out of carrying your phone abroad. Announced at TechCrunch40 today, the centerpiece of Cubic's strategy is its "virtual PBX" -- up to 50 local numbers of the user's choosing can be linked to a single SIM, making it affordable for callers to get in touch no matter where they may be. Also invloved is the "MAXroam" SIM itself -- toting aggressively discounted roaming rates that are the "result of years of negotiations with GSM carriers around the world" -- designed to be used everywhere a subscriber may be. Finally, Cubic is taking a hybrid GSM / WiFi approach; its handsets will support both traditional calls and VoIP services, with all VoIP calls on its own network coming free of charge. The MAXroam SIM card will be available separately for $40 starting September 24 or you'll be able to get it with one of the company's own handsets, a basic model for $135 (pictured) and a Windows Mobile device for $219; both phones launch October 1 with a MAXroam card included along with $8 in calling credit.

[R1cebrner @ Sep 17th 2007 3:23PM]

What about data plan?

[JHosche @ Sep 17th 2007 3:38PM]

From the looks of their website - they only offer basic text and talk...the WiFi is for VOIP only...

Overall for traveling in Europe I could see the appeal of this as you cross country to country, but if you're fairly stationary, you might be better off with a regular plan with a different provider.

[Lee Thompson @ Sep 17th 2007 3:38PM]

Yeah, because of all the weeks in the year, *this* is the week to announce a new phone...
I think this interesting idea might be buried by tomorrows Apple announcement....

[keith @ Sep 17th 2007 3:42PM]

Wait and watch for the iPhone, this is coming near... As an incentive for GSM carriers Apple has been in negotiations with GSM carriers around the world to design such a global calling plan reversed enginered in sorts. Instead of a global calling plan based around a company, this will be based around a phone the iPhone. As Europeon countries get signed up, watch the global network form. Now this will be another incentive not to hack the iPhone and use it on a different network. Notice the keynotes during the upcoming Apple Expo :) shhhhhhh

[ScOObyDoo @ Sep 17th 2007 4:47PM]

This all sounds too good to be true.

[Eliot @ Sep 17th 2007 4:48PM]

I'm guessing the WinMo "business phone" lets you do data over WiFi. I think they still charge you if you're calling using VoIP, it's just a reduced rate. Can anyone identify the phone models?

[p-k-r @ Sep 17th 2007 4:54PM]

Actually their rates are almost too good to be true they say its .0131 euro (assuming per minute)for the USA which means I can buy 1000 minutes in the US for 13.10 euro. Thats alot cheaper than signing up to any US plan... Prepaid or otherwise.

[JHosche @ Sep 17th 2007 5:14PM]

Well I suspect that's their "lowest rate" which is when you're in a Hotspot.

I'm basing that off this in their Product Description page:
Take your Cubic Mobile phone when you travel internationally and wander into a Wi-Fi hotspot and you'll be making international calls for as low as 1 cent a minute (or even free in some circumstances). Walk out of a hotspot and onto the street and you can make and receive calls to anywhere in the world for as low as 15 cents a minute on any GSM network.

[Damien Mulley @ Sep 17th 2007 5:06PM]

As a journalist and blogger in Ireland they allowed me to play with these phones. The Wifi is free calls to other Cubic phones. You are charged if the call terminates on a phone network, naturally enough as they have to pay the mobile company for that. Think of this as a mobile phone and Skype phone hybrid but also with the ability to add as many local country numbers to the phone as you want. In Spain for a week to meet Spanish business contacts? Reg the sim in the States, get a local number, then go onto the site, add a Spanish number too. Let the office in the States ring you in Spain for the cost of a local call and let the guys in Spain ring you while in Spain for the price of a local call.

When you get back to the states, they still ring you on the local Spanish number. It's like those Skypeout numbers but all going to one account. Handy for those who want to have "local offices" in many countries but don't want a physical office there.

The caller ID on it is slick too.

[JHosche @ Sep 17th 2007 5:18PM]

More on this from their FAQ (doesn't address local calls though - only international calls while traveling)

Can you give me an example of how much your service costs and how much your customers save?
As an example, let's say a US T-Mobile customer was traveling to Australia and wanted to call internationally from there to the USA from his mobile phone for 12 minutes;, these would be the comparative costs:

Using his T-Mobile USA SIM: Roaming connection: US $1.49 per minute; International connection to USA: US $0.34 (this assumes he is on a plan and calling a landline); Total cost: US ($1.49 + $0.34) * 12 = US $21.96 (€16.10)

Using his Cubic Mobile on GSM: Roaming connection: $0.29 per minute; International connection to USA: US $0.42; Total cost: US ($0.29 + $0.42 * 12) = US $9.23 (€6.25)

Using his Cubic Mobile on Wi-Fi: Roaming connection: $0.00 per minute; International connection to USA: US $0.012; Total cost: US ($0.012 * 12) = US $0.14 (€0.10)

[Ian @ Sep 17th 2007 6:02PM]

So it's basically a prepaid phone with decent roaming rates.
Nowhere do I see details on whether is a quadband phoone though.
Pity it's WM 5.0 and not 6.0
As such I would think that the hackers would have a field day and quickly be able to put skype on the "business" phone. Wouldn't this lose cubic business quite quickly?
The other features are very line GrandCentral though the ability to have multiple phone numbers overseas is interesting, I cannot see what the charges are for this...
One also wonders if the phone could be "unlocked" and local SIMS placed in. If that is possible Cubic could bcome a phone supplier with a sssmall cadre of international roamers using the service while others use local sims and skype on the phones.

[Jamar @ Sep 17th 2007 7:57PM]

Well, looks like someone's beat out China Mobile for cheapest roaming.

[Sean O'Mahony @ Sep 17th 2007 8:49PM]

This is like nothing you've used before! That's quite a claim on my part so anyone who is interested just e-mail me at sean(dot)omahony(at)cubictelecom(dot)com and I'll send you a free MAXroam SIM and you can see for yourself whether it's a cool item or not.

[Roy Nkansah @ Sep 20th 2007 1:48PM]

Hi Sean,
I very much want to try this sim card. I live in the US and I make a lot of overseas calls. Hope this will reduce my cost.

[Sean O\\\'Mahony @ Sep 19th 2007 9:03PM]

Hey you lot... I'm going to have to cap this as the response has been overwhelming. The next 10 people who ask will get and then I'll have to cut it off. From there on in I'll send anyone who is interested a discount code.