MAXroam sells 500 SIMs in first day

MAXroam, the new mobile roaming service from Cork-based startup Cubic Telecom, has sold over 500 SIM-cards in the first day of trading today.

CEO Pat Phelan told me by phone: “It’s going mental. I thought we’d do 50-100 in the first day, but I didn’t expect this. The servers are being hammered. What is more amazing is that people are obviously buying for a reason as this is a niche product.” The first day’s trading was also linked to an competition for a free unlocked iPhone, which may also have helped.

Phelan also said Cubic Telecom has had over 15 offers of venture funding today – including one offer from a potential investor who wanted to fly to Cork tonight – although he stressed the 13-strong Cubic is well funded presently. Cubic was one of the hotly tipped startups to appear at TechCrunch40 last week.

With the slogan “Travel Global, Pay Local” Cubic telecom is attacking incumbent mobile operators and mobile roaming charges with a dedicated SIM card and a free incoming number from the USA, UK, France or Ireland for €29.99. Customers need an unlocked phone.

The Cubic SIM allows a customer to make calls to or from any of 214 countries for 50 to 90 percent off what the big mobile carriers would charge. The pay-as-you go service also enables you to request local phone numbers in up to 50 cities at no charge, allowing your friends overseas to call you at local charges. The calls are then re-routed over the Internet – for very low cost to Cubic – just like any VOIP call.

Furthermore, for a flat €30 a month, you can have an unlimited Wi-Fi calling option which comes with a MaxRoam handset. This lets you receive unlimited unmetered calls to any numbers in the world from WiFi hot spots.