Cubic Phone

“This inexpensive device has the potential to be highly disruptive in the telecoms space.”

Pat Phelan from Cubic Telecom in Cork has kindly let me try out a pre-release version of the Cubic phone for the past few months. This device, when released, may finally shock the mobile operators into changing how the gouge their customers.

The phone is at the low end in terms of features except for two important things. The first is that it has built-in Wifi and the second is that (like the MAXRoam SIM) you can have a multitude of international numbers on the phone. It is a rebranded Pirelli DP-L10.

The Wifi means that if you are connected to a home wireless network or public Hotspot, you can make calls over Wifi and receive them too! This drops the cost for both incoming and outgoing to almost nothing. Given that wireless is becoming ubiquitous in most cities, this could result in massive call savings for mobile users.

The multiple numbers means that you can register e.g. a UK number, an Irish number and a US number. You then give the relevant number to those who call you from those countries. Now they are making an international call to you but it’s only costing them the price of a local call.

I don’t know if the entire pricing structure has been defined but the ballpark numbers seriously undercut the incumbents.

Downsides? There is only a mickey mouse camera built-in which doesn’t work, predictive texting is clunky and there is no bluetooth. But based on the release price that I heard (which will include a MAXRoam SIM), this phone will be a steal!

The only difficulty I see at the minute is the confusion between the phone, the SIM and Wifi. What costs what for whom? Which uses callback etc? When I call someone, which system is being used? I have to admit I get mixed up when trying to describe all the options to people.

I don’t know the release date for this product but I expect it to fly off the shelves given the cost savings and usefulness for anyone who makes/receives international calls. 

Rated 4/5 on Dec 16 2007

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Review Tags: cubic telecom, gsm, maxroam, mobile, phone, pirelli, roam4free, sip, telephone, voip, wifi