Source: goebel.net

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Irishman Pat Phelan, CEO of Cubic Telecom, is improving his product Maxroam. In the hype time around TechCrunch 40 competition in September 2007 we thought to see roaming prices around $0.20 in every country with this SIM card. That’s not a reality yet, but not forgotten as a longer term aim. Now Cubic Telecom announced a cooperation with the folks at Global Roaming which offer a very similar SIM card, called Celtrek. The partnership will allow both companies to offer extended geographic coverage and data roaming on their existing products. Celtrek is stronger in the US market and Maxroam here in Europe.

Phoneboy Dameon Welch-Abemathy revealed an interesting detail in his post on The VoIP Weblog:

What wasn’t announced in the press release, but slipped out on Pat’s Jaiku stream was that the MAXroam service would soon be much cheaper in the US/Canada. Right now, it’s prohibitively expensive, but Pat is saying by early 2008 the price should be about 12 cents (presuming Eurocents here). I’m not going to hold Pat to those rates, but if it’s true, it does sound a fair bit better than the 1.18 Euros it now costs to receive and make calls within the USA.

Andy Abramson explains:

While their pricing isn’t lower than buying local SIM cards, they do save you money if you are going from country to country, and you avoid a lot of unused minutes. They also give you the benefit of one number so friends and family can find you, making it a great gift for the student you know whose going to take a trip overseas.

Yes that’s right. The pricing isn’t lower than local SIM cards, but it’s super convenient for frequent travellers to always have the same number on their SIM and don’t have to worry too much for roaming prices. I am already playing around with a Cubic Phone from Pirelli and a Maxroam SIM card. The sound quality is fantastic while roaming on the German Vodafone network. I have a UK fixed line number for Maxroam and could also add a German number. They all would ring in whichever country I am.

The only thing that holds me back is that for Germany they only offer numbers from Hanover while I live in funky Berlin. He Pat, didn’t they tell you that Hanover has the fame of being Germany’s most boring city? So boring that in the 80ies and early 90ies Punks regularily gathered from all over the country to mix it up at least one time a year in their famous Chaos Days. So when I roam I will simply forward my existing Berlin number to the Maxroam UK number. As a Voipchecker I know how to do that for free, this I can save the 4.50 per month for a German Maxroam number.

Anyway, here is Cubic Telecom’s press release:

Cubic Telecom and Global Roaming align forces
Alliance will focus on joint opportunitiesCORK, Ireland 30 November, 2007 Cubic Telecom dba MAXroam and Global Roaming Inc. dba CelTrek have today announced a strategic alliance combining their marketing reach and technical know-how into a single partnership.

The partnership will allow both companies to offer extended geographic coverage and data roaming on their existing products. This is a substantial step forward for both companies in their goal to provide a single global communication platform that brings an end to the monopolistic behavior of the large cellular operators.

Pat Phelan said I am delighted that Global Roaming has decided to partner with Cubic and I look forward to a world where anyone can call anyone at anytime without worrying about the cost.

Florian Seroussi, CEO of Global Roaming Inc. said This alliance gives us an opportunity to get a footprint in Europe in order to spread our ambition of offering low-cost roaming to consumers everywhere.

Through the partnership both companies are currently actively engaged in joint proposals to large US and European enterprises and announcements on these are imminent.

ABOUT Cubic Telecom
Based in Cork, Ireland, with offices in Vancouver, Canada, 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 dont understand why they cant get value for money when making international calls while roaming.

ABOUT Global Roaming Inc.
Global Roaming, Inc, is a privately held Nevada corporation, with offices in Miami, Florida. The parent company has over 350 GSM network operator agreements covering more than 165 countries and all continents.

For further information, please contact:

Media Contact
USA
Giovanni Rodriguez,
The Conversation Group
M: +1 650 279 8415
giovanni@theconversationgroup.com

Europe
Patrick Smith, Sonus PR
T: +44 (0)20 7851 4890
M: +44 (0)7734 600553
patrick.smith@sonuspr.com

Company Contact
Cubic Telecom Limited
Pat Phelan, CEO
+353 21 425 0657
info@cubictelecom.com

Cubic Telecom Limited
Unit 1, Webworks
Eglington Street
Cork
Ireland

www.maxroam.com

Company Contact
Global Roaming Inc.
Jenny Callicott, COO
+1 305 249 3121
jenny@celtrek.com

Global Roaming Inc.
1021 Ives Dairy Road
Miami
FL, 33179
USA

www.celtrek.com

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

It looks like the always imaginative folks at Roam4Free/Cubic Telecom are making moves, inking a partnership with CelTrek.

The goal here is to lower the cost of global roaming, and that means they are aiming at the customers of WorldCell first and foremost here in the USA. While their pricing isn’t lower than buying local SIM cards, they do save you money if you are going from country to country, and you avoid a lot of unused minutes. They also give you the benefit of one number so friends and family can find you, making it a great gift for the student you know whose going to take a trip overseas.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

If you’re an international traveler and in love with you iPhone, but don’t want the big data roaming bill, AT&T is offering SOME relief with a new pricing plan that you can turn on and off.

Even so, the new plan isn’t as good as a Blackberry plan which for about $20.00 a month just about makes it a no brain decision if you are a heavy email and web browsing user.

That said, when a 3G iPhone comes out (likely February or March) this is where it gets interesting for Truphone, whose future release of an iPhone application that was announced at DEMO in September could mean you would save a fortune, as long as you minded your minutes and didn’t chew up all your bytes. To get an idea of what the value is, check out Alec Saunders’ post of yesterday.

Source: goebel.net

Many commentators didn’t realize that the 3Skypephone doesn’t really do mobile VoIP. Even my friends at Areamobile thought at first that a 3G data flatrate would be necessary to use it. It was quite easy to get this false impression as the press release only said:

29th October 2007 Skype, the global Internet communications company and 3, the mobile operator, have launched a new affordable handset that lets you make free Skype to Skype calls and send free Skype instant messages from your mobile phone to other Skype users no matter where they are.

The 3 Skypephone is a fully-featured 3G Internet phone with Skype built-in. In addition to Skype calls the phone makes conventional calls and can be used to access 3s broad range of other internet services.

3 customers using the 3 Skypephone will be able to make Skype calls and send instant messages on the move with the push of a button. This is the first time an operator has offered a mass market device which is tailor-made for free calling over the internet from a mobile. Now, all of Skypes 246 million registered can be reached for free with the 3 Skypephone. …

No more technical details were given. But the mobile Skype calls on the 3Skypephone are basically GSM phone calls, since it’s the iSkoot service which is powering them. The day after the launch iSkoot could send out their own press release:

CAMBRIDGE, MA October 30, 2007 iSkoot today announced that it has been selected by Skype to help power the 3 Skypephone the first ever mass-market Skype-enabled mobile handset. …"

This means that Skype calls from the 3Skypephone aren’t 3G VoIP calls. They are GSM calls from the phone to the 3-iSkoot server, which then cannels them over the fixed line internet to Skype. The data connection is only used to show the presence of the Skype buddies.

The 3Skypephone doesnt really do any mobile VoIP, since it uses Skype only in the fixed line part of the call. The bad voice quality, that for instance Luca critizes, is not because of unreliable 3G coverage. Possible causes are the low sound quality of the GSM codecs or transcoding issues at a gateway level. Yet still iSkoot is a nifty solution to guarantee Skype coverage nearly everywhere.

That’s also why their FAQ list says:

Q: Will it work on 2G, 2.5G& 3G networks?
A: Wherever you have coverage in the UK, Skype will work. If you can make a normal voice call, you will be able to make a Skype Call.

Now it’s also obvious why the technology doesn’t work outside of the 3 network: It relies on free on net calls from the 3Skypephone to the 3-iSkoot server. Luca said that "if you are roaming (in Italy in some places you are under Tim coverage and not 3) Skype calls dont work".

The 3Skypephone is no new invention but just another marketing skin for iSkoot. Take that TIME magazine if you want to elect your next "Invention Of the Year".

Source: goebel.net

Skype’s founding investor Morten Lund is investing in the international mobile network operator United Mobile. That’s an international cell phone company, comparable to Roam4Free, GoSIM, BlueSIM, Che Mobil, GlobalSIM, SunSIM, TouristMobile or others, which allows outgoing calls at low rates in over 80 countries and to receive free incoming calls whithout roaming charges.

Morten Lund seems to brim over with enthusiasm for United Mobiles business strategy of combining its services with so called Web 2.0 functionality and says:

The business rationale behind United Mobiles decision to integrate Web 2.0 features into its service offering is compelling. The organisations key objective is to transfer the Skype model to the mobile phone for average Joe who is travelling. United Mobile will deliver a combination of Truphone, Jajah and Skype on a One SIM card Service. The company will be a leader in delivering free mobile telephony worldwide. This pioneering new business model will be widely adopted in the worlds leading mobile markets in the near future.

Free mobile telephony worldwide? That’s what we want! At least me and all the VoIP telephony tweakers out there who are always looking for the cheapest way to call.

But what about "Truphone, Jajah and Skype on one SIM card"? Is there something going on between these companies? As far as I know from my professional life, United Mobile would need an authorization to mention the other companies’ names in a press release. So where Truphone, Jajah and Skype involved in the press release? Or is United Mobile just name dropping them?

Is there something going on behind the courtain? A dark power forging a new VoIP empire out of these four companies?

As far as I see, United Mobile should have the best rates to terminate international cell phone calls. Truphone, Jajah and Skype could envy them. Also United Mobile has its own SIM cards. It would be very convenient for Truphone, Jajah and Skype if they could start their services from a SIM card, instead from their rather slowly phone client or mobile web page. Also it’s obvious that these three minute stealers cannot expect support from mobile incumbents. So it would make sense to cooperate with a worldwide mobile MVNO.

Truphone has just presented their new Multi-SIM capability, which supports travellers who take international SIM cards with them abroad. Calls to their Truphone number will reach them whichever SIM they’re using at the time. That’s nice, but could be even more convenient. Who wants to always change his SIM card whenever he or she arrives at the Airport? Maybe soon it’s not necessary anymore to change the SIM card? When will we see a real TruSIM? When a JajahSIM or a SkypeSIM?

Get out of the closet!

Fellow blogger Moshe Maeir already explained here and here how Jajah’s access to Intel’s patent portfolio helps them to embed Jajah’s telephony functions at the chip level of mobile phones. All these developments explain how VoIP companies drool over more speed on mobile phones. Their applications start pretty slow on often feeble and battery sucking cell phones. It takes a minute until you are connected to Wifi and have established a call with one of their softwares.

I guess: Either the four companies are developing secretly something together, to make their mobile VoIP applications start faster from a SIM card. Or United Mobile is developing an application to blow them all away. In this case they have just used the brand names of Truphone, Jajah and Skype for press release name dropping.

At least I’m sure that United Mobile’s next press release can be even more interesting. What do you think?

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Sprint has walked into a minefield and things are exploding all around the web and blogosphere.

In what could go down as the start of likely a customer backlash, law suits and even action by the various states consumer protection groups, Sprint is severing customers for roaming too much and calling customer service too often.

Granted one call a day to Customer Service may be excessive, but as a person whom in the past had to contact Sprint half a dozen times to update credit card information when a bank card expired, and who had to fax in the same form six times and finally call the PR department for help, I’m not convinced the customers issues are unfounded.

So here’s a business that should spring up. The Sprint Customer Service Barter Site. If you don’t call Sprint in any month offer up your unused call(s) to them for barter to someone else. Think about it, for the 1000 or so people who were affected there are likely millions who never were. So if they can bater off calls to Customer Service, where’s the harm as those who haven’t called never will.

Seriously, for those who need support, and for those who don’t receive any satisfaction, the next call they make will likely be to their Public Utility Commission. As for Sprint cutting of American GI Heroes, I don’t see that going over too well with someone in Department of Defense purchasing, especially if the purchasing agent ends up being a military veteran. That incident has bad PR all over it.

Updated–It seems the Captain of Crunch, Mike Arrington agrees.

This is unfortunately becoming the rule, not the exception. A month or so ago my 86 year old mother found calls to Mexico and Jamaica on her local phone bill’s long distance portion totaling over 100 dollars. Calls to the customer service number yielded only "pay the bill." I intervened and called some sharp folks at the telco’s PR department. Fortunately, they don’t outsource PR and after a short chat with one person in New York City, a call with his counterpart in Philadelphia and then a call the next morning with someone in Pittsburgh all was cleared up with nothing but professionalism, courtesy and yes, an apology, with a request that if any issues like this arose, to contact the person directly in the future.

Why did the person in Pittsburgh accomplish what regular customer service didn’t? Beats me? As she said on the phone "your mother calls only one person long distance and has for years. That’s you." The issue is empowerment, or lack of it.

Too much is outsourced and too much is offshored. I’m all for streamlining operations, but there needs to be accountability and ownership. That starts with empowerment. Too much "service" has been taken out of the equation. Instead of "servicing" the customer, the entire process is built around defending the company’s asset, money already paid.

In the case of the Sprint matter, what’s ironic here is most times you prepay in advance and then settle up and pre-pay the next month on your cell bill in the USA.

As for all the calls to customer service? Sometime people just need someone to talk to, I guess.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

I just saw this on Jo-itos site and my jaw dropped because I am always roaming (well most of the time!). But I am on a different network.
The story is of a traveler from Europe who happened to travel by ship and made a call from LA. All his voicemail was counted as roaming and ended up with a bill for $3000. So if you are roaming and on T-Mobile watch out. Read more at Jo’s site.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

When the European Roaming Rate regulation, currently in published draft stage finally becomes law in the EU, consumers and transborder type who hop-scotch around the European continent will finally become happier.

This is a measure that will clearly make life easier, but I fully expect the USA based GSM carriers to lag behind the EU’s own in embracing the concept of cheaper roaming. Why? Because they can and will want to continue to squeeze out every penny that can from USA customers who roam internationally.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

The value of a Boingo account just got bigger as they are combining with SBC to offer each other’s customers roaming between both networks hotspots.

While the agreement opens up many of the hotspots that SBC built out (i.e. UPS Stores) it excludes the McDonalds restaurant locations as those are Wayport built out properties.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Information Week > VoIP > New VoIP-Enabled Roaming Client > February 2, 2005

Just as Bridgeport Networks does things inside the network, this works at the handset level as a piece of software. I see the convergence of WiFi, VoIP and Wireless coming…and you wonder why SBC bought AT&T. While I’m sure there are more reasons, I’ll leave that to the Om Malik’s of the world who are far better than I at analyzing the numbers and politics of telco.

The New York Times also weighs in on why WiFi will be a big voice play.