http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/nyt-new-cheap-phone-solves-global-mobile-woes-01 An entire Lightstalkers thread via RSS/XML. en-us FYI, and not an endorsement: perhaps a alternative to all those roaming rates ... "A Cellphone Without Borders Early next month, a small company called Cubic Telecom will release what it’s calling the first global mobile phone. Sure, you could always rent a phone or use a phone card when you travel — but then nobody knows how to reach you. Now, most carriers offer special international plans: you pay more a month, you get slightly lower roaming rates. But even they can’t touch the appeal of Cubic’s cellphone. It makes calls to or from any of 214 countries — for 50 to 90 percent off what the big carriers would charge. On this phone, a 20-minute call from the Bahamas costs $5.80 (that’s 90 percent off T-Mobile’s rate). The Cubic price from Russia is 49 cents a minute (90 percent lower than AT&T). And there’s no monthly fee and no commitment for any of this. It works like a prepaid phone, where you put some money in your account and use it up as you talk. At this point, the appropriate world traveler’s response ought to be involuntary drooling, but there’s more to the story. Most of it is more good news, but also more complexity. For example, consider this: at the MaxRoam.com site from Cubic, you can request local phone numbers in up to 50 cities at no charge. Now you can have a Paris number, a London number and a Mexico City number that your friends overseas can use to call your cellphone. No longer must you hand out a series of international phone numbers for each trip you make, or expect your colleagues in the United States to pay $50 a pop to reach you...." more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/technology/circuits/27pogue.html?em&ex=1191038400&en=a2cd33b4f876aa56&ei=5087%0A Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:56:30 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/nyt-new-cheap-phone-solves-global-mobile-woes-01 Some good technical / cost discussion here: http://venturebeat.com/2007/09/17/maxroam-a-low-cost-alternative-for-mobile-international-calls/ Regards Ralph Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:26:42 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/nyt-new-cheap-phone-solves-global-mobile-woes-01#93968 Well, tried to fone them - and it seems the fone no. on their website is wrong. sent an e-mail yesterday and haven't received an answer so far.. we'll see. Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:23:15 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/nyt-new-cheap-phone-solves-global-mobile-woes-01#94189 Or you can set up a skype-in number in any country where you want a local number, buy skype credits and set skype to forward to whatever number you choose if you don't answer it while at your computer. Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:49:05 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/nyt-new-cheap-phone-solves-global-mobile-woes-01#94201 Irish ingenuity, apparently. They appear to really be onto something but the concern is that they may not yet be able to handle the global demand and need to expand their support operations first to be able to handle the growing inevitable growing pains. Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:16:35 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/nyt-new-cheap-phone-solves-global-mobile-woes-01#94208