http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/Sep 17th 2007 3:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/
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.]]>Sep 17th 2007 3:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/I think this interesting idea might be buried by tomorrows Apple announcement....]]>Sep 17th 2007 3:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/Sep 17th 2007 3:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/Sep 17th 2007 4:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/Sep 17th 2007 4:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/Sep 17th 2007 4:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/
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. ]]>Sep 17th 2007 5:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/
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.]]>Sep 17th 2007 5:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/
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)
]]>Sep 17th 2007 5:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/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.]]>Sep 17th 2007 6:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/Sep 17th 2007 7:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/Sep 17th 2007 8:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/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.]]>Sep 20th 2007 1:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/17/cubic-telecom-hopes-to-make-global-roaming-reasonable/Sep 19th 2007 9:03PM