Monday, September 17, 2007

Cubic Telecom presents Maxroam at TechCrunch 40

OK, the embargo is over. For one and a half hours I already had the press release but wasn't allow to tell. But now, finally, Roam4Free's Pat Phelan has revealed at TechCrunch 40 his new product Maxroam. TechCrunch is blogging live from the presentation:
Cubic Telecom is creating a global Mobile Virtual Network (MVNO). The company aims to drastically reduce international calling rates by lowering mobile roaming and call charges. Founder Pat Phelan “wants a world in which anyone can pick up their mobile phone wherever they are and call anyone in any country for as long as they like without worrying about the price.” Product launch is today. “Maxroam” allows you to add numbers to the SIM. Essentially calls are routed from one number in each place. Every call on the mobile becomes a local call.
Later you can find the per minute prices here. Up to now the web page still says "Rates published later today" or "HTTP/1.1 500 Server Error". Sometimes a price shows up, but this is just a place holder. They are obviously working on it.


EMBARGO – 20:00 Irish/UK Time (19:00UTC / 12:00 PST), Monday 17th September 2007

IRISH STARTUP INTRODUCES THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MOBILE PHONE SERVICE THAT ELIMINATES EXTORTIONATE ROAMING CHARGES

• “All Global Calls Are Local Calls” with Cubic Telecom’s Mobile Phone Solution
• Company Unveils Both Product and Vision at First Annual TechCrunch40

CORK, Ireland, and SAN FRANCISCO, California. – (TechCrunch40) – September 17, 2007 – Cubic Telecom today unveiled what many industry watchers are calling the world’s first true global phone. Presenting at TechCrunch40 in San Francisco before an 800-plus crowd of hi-tech entrepreneurs, journalists and other industry influencers, the company announced Cubic Mobile, a mobile phone package that effectively turns ‘global calls into local calls’. Cubic Mobile dramatically reduces costs for both callers and recipients of mobile phone calls when roaming internationally.

Cubic designed the product for several large markets of consumers who are looking for ways to reduce the cost of international telephony: (1) the growing population of émigrés who buy pre-paid calling cards to call friends and family overseas; (2) travellers who are looking for ways to reduce the costs of roaming on traditional packages; and (3) globally distributed teams – commercial, not-for-profit, and governmental organisations – that are all seeking better ways to manage the cost of global calls.

“You often hear that the world is flat, so why not telephony,” said Cubic CEO and co-founder Pat Phelan. “We are living in a world where more and more people need to make phone calls across borders and while travelling. Our mantra is ‘all global calls should be local calls’, and we have built a product that can do that.”

Pat Phelan said “It’s great to be at TechCrunch40. Seven hundred companies from around the world applied to launch their products at this event. We were one of forty chosen, and are the only Irish company presenting. For us, this is an exceptional opportunity”.

Cubic Mobile is a dual-band GSM/Wi-Fi phone that comes with several major innovations enabling callers to make and receive low-cost calls around the planet, wherever they roam:

• MAXroam: the world’s first universal SIM card, offering consumers the best country-to-country phone rates anywhere. The MAXroam SIM, which can also be purchased separately, is a major breakthrough, and the result of years of negotiations with GSM carriers around the world.

• As many phone numbers as you like: full PBX functionality on the handset. Consumers get a single phone number, but can create multiple permanent local numbers for themselves - up to 50 - anywhere around the globe. All calls are forwarded to their Cubic Mobile phone, no matter where the calls originate, at the best rates for the callers.

• All Voice over IP (VoIP) calls within the Cubic network are free. All Cubic Mobile customers get a short code that they can use to make free VoIP calls to any other customer on the Cubic network. This is an especially attractive feature to families who live across borders and globally distributed companies and workgroups.

Cubic Mobile has been designed by a team with extensive experience in consumer and wireless technologies. It also has the ability to route a call to the lowest cost network available, whether it is GSM or Wi-Fi. “It’s consumer friendly in many ways, said Pat Phelan. “It is friendly in its utter simplicity, but also friendly in its ability to also ensure that you and your callers are always getting the lowest rates”.

Pricing and Availability
• Cubic Mobile, which comes in two models, will be available from October 1st at www.cubictelecom.com. The basic model will sell for EUR99.95 and a Windows Mobile version at EUR159.95 (both handsets come with a MAXroam SIM included and an initial EUR5 calling credit).

• MAXroam, which operates on any unlocked GSM phone, can be purchased separately for EUR29.99 (with an initial EUR5 calling credit) and is available on September 24th at www.maxroam.com.

-ENDS-


ABOUT Cubic Telecom
Based in Cork, Ireland, with offices in Vancouver, Cubic Telecom is an innovative global communications company focused on introducing simple, high quality and high value telecommunications services. Its core target market is aggrieved customers across the globe who don’t understand why they can’t get value for money when making international calls and roaming. Renowned global telecommunications entrepreneur and thought-leader Pat Phelan founded Cubic Telecom in 2005. Pat wants a world in which anyone can pick up their mobile phone wherever they are and call anyone in any country for as long as they like without worrying about the price.

Cubic Telecom is working towards free speech.
www.cubictelecom.com

ABOUT TechCrunch40
TechCrunch40 features forty of the hottest new startups from around the world, who will announce and demo their products over a two day period. And they don’t pay a cent to do this. They are selected to participate based on merit alone. In fact, the organisers offer a $50,000 cash prize for the best product and line up other in-kind services and awards from a group of corporate sponsors. The selected companies are decided by an amazing group of experts who help recommend the final startups to present at TechCrunch40. And they will also participate at the conference - they’ll watch company presentations and discuss the merits of each with robust audience participation. Confirmed industry experts include Marc Andreessen (Co-founder, Ning), Chris Anderson (Editor-In-Chief, Wired Magazine), Ryan Block (Editor-In-Chief, Engadget), Roelof Botha (Partner, Sequoia Capital), Ron Conway (angel investor and advisor), Mark Cuban (Founder, HDNet), Caterina Fake (Co-founder, Flickr), Brad Garlinghouse (SVP,Communications & Communities, Yahoo!), MC Hammer (Musical Artist and Advisor, DanceJam), Sarah Lacy (reporter and author), Loïc Le Meur (entrepreneur, LeWeb organizer and blogger), Om Malik (Founder, GigaOm), Marissa Mayer (VP, Search Products & User Experience, Google), Rajeev Motwani (Professor, Stanford University), Robert Scoble (Scobleizer and Podtech), and Dave Winer (Scripting News).

Photography:
Pictured are Sean O'Mahony (left), Chief Commercial Officer, and Pat Phelan, Chief Operating Officer, of Cubic Telecom, which today announced its plans to dramatically reduce international global roaming charges.

For further information, please contact:

Media Contact (Europe)
Comit Communications & Marketing
Keith Martin
Tel. +353 1 215 7675
kmartin@comitmarketing.com
www.comitmarketing.com

Media Contact (North America)
The Conversation Group
Giovanni Rodriguez
Tel. +1-650-279-8415
Giovanni@theconversationgroup.com
www.theconversationgroup.com

Company Contact
Cubic Telecom Limited
Pat Phelan, CEO
Tel. +353 21 425 0657
info@cubictelecom.com
Cubic Telecom Limited
Unit 1, Webworks
Eglinton Street
Cork
Ireland
Tel: +353 21 425 0657
Website: www.cubictelecom.com
Pat Phelan’s Blog: blog.roam4free.ie

2 comments:

  1. There we go!Time's up telcos, revolution is on the road...Big up to Pat for that great product!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I still don't get it. So people call you on a local landline and the call is forwarded to your mobile phone which is roaming anywhere in the world? Rates are not yet published but I can only assume that you will have to pay for receiving calls.

    ReplyDelete

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