I've been chatting with Pat Phelan about Cubic Telecom's MaxRoam SIM and phones, which which were launched yesterday at TC40, for a while. Pat says "it's a game changer", and I tend to believe him. The offer is pretty compelling.
The phones are 99 euros (or 159 euros for the Windows Mobile version), with all the usual accessories – headsets, chargers, synch cables and so on. Dual mode WiFi / GSM phones, they can be used in any of thousands of hotspots worldwide, and Cubic has been busily cutting access deals everywhere in order to ensure that you have access everywhere. Calls from one Cubic subscriber to another are free when used in a hotspot. They also come with a MaxRoam SIM with 5 euros of credit. That's the kicker, frankly. The MaxRoam LD rates will make anyone turn their head sharply… for instance, calls in Canada cost .0063 euros. In the US, .0131 euros. In the UK… .011 euros. In addition, you can get a local number wherever you're going, so that when you travel others can call you cheaply as well. Each MaxRoam SIM can be provisioned with up to 50 numbers.
As Pat said to me last Friday: "All we want is a world where anyone, anywhere can use a mobile phone to call anyone in any country for as long as he or she wants without worrying about the price."
I can hardly wait to try it out.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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Distribution will be tricky, but this is such a good idea – people will actually seek it out so it shouldn't matter. Most impressive.
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