+ =  Two of my favorite companies and two I have evangelized around the world, literally, have hooked up.  They got together and made a baby called QikRoam.  It is the best of MaxRoam, an internationally roaming sim card providing low price minutes and data around the world and Qik, instantly uploaded video from your phone to the net.  They made it so you can Qik anywhere at anytime for a very reasonable price.

Congratulations to Pat, Bhaskar, Jackie, and the rest of the Qik and MaxRoam teams.

Read all the details here in MaxRoam CEO Pat Phelans blog and purchase your sim at www.QikRoam.com.

The folks over at Cubic Telecom have launched the newest interation of their MaxRoam sim card called V5.  It builds on all the money saving MaxRoam offered before with

• 70%-80% savingson your roaming bill
• Global voice/data coverage on one sim
• No monthly daily connection charges
• Voice works in 213 countries
• Data works in 137 countries

This is a huge accomplishment for Pat Phelan and everyone on his team.  Congradulations on the launch.

If you want to save money when traveling outside your home country don’t hesitate to check out www.MaxRoam.com.

Congrats Pat, Sean, Florian and all the others on your first year, 100,000 MAXRoam sims and a MILLION dollars saved for people.  I really like your product and can’t wait for revision 2.  See some of you this week in SF.

So this morning started like any other morning except when my wife got in the car with my daughter it wouldn’t start. Being suburban living big city Americans the first thing we did was call AAA. They came out and diagnosed the problem as a bad battery (Joe was extremely courteous and helpful) so it got jumped. So instead of going to work like I usually would in my home office I had to take the car in to get a new battery, while I was there we decided it needs new tires, brakes, a brake flush, and an oil change. So what does a self employed mobile evangelist (I’m really an event planner) do??? You guessed it, I brought my trusty Apple MacBook and started working. Remember though, we jumped the car and I couldn’t just leave it for a half hour while I made sure everything was charged and ready to go, no I had to close the lid on my laptop, stuff it in my Crumpler bag (thanks Nokia) and go. Since this morning I have done all kinds of regular work related things, like making calls sending email and lots more. Gone are the days where spending time at the mechanic is time wasted. I have been working for about 5 hours until the MacBook battery gave out and now I’m typing this on my IGo Stowaway BT keyboard and the most amaizing Nokia E71. Today was not as productive as it could have been if I had my regular truly highspeed internet, duel screen set up and mouse, but working on a 13 inch MacBook with less then optimal wifi isn’t as bad as it could have been. I’m actually enjoying typing on this tiny bluetooth keyboard creating this post but wouldn’t want to do it every day. I must say though, being ready at a moments notice is a way of life and in this case very useful. I suggest everyone, especially you take a few minutes and make sure their laptop bag is packed or you have a little “go bag” packed.

Here’s a list of what I always, have ready to go either in my laptop bag which is for everyday life or in my go bag which is for emergencies or for longer then a day or 2 out of the office.

• Chargers for phone, bluetooth headset, laptop and other powered accessories
• Spare batteries
  
• Electrical currency converters for traveling outside my home country
  
• My Boingo log in information
• Log in and pass words all incoded for important sites
  
• A Cat 5 cable for the laptop
• A spare set of contact lenses
• The sim cards I have for other countries
• My MaxRoam sim card
• Ear phones
• Business Cards
• Pen and a pad of paper
• A Proporta charger
• Note: Leave a copy of your credit cards, drivers license, health insurance card, and passport with a trustworthy friend

Now as I wait for the Firestone guys to finish working on my wifes car I’m glad I won’t be working like this again tomorrow, but I could make this a lifestyle with a little more preparation. Take a look here at the Working Anywhere blog for tips on being a global nomad.

Truphone as many people know is one of my favorite companies.  They have a great product and good implementation.  They need a little work on their pricing plan but that’s neither here nor there when it comes to todays news.

It was announced today that Truphone purchased Sim4Travel.  They are as far as I can tell a MaxRoam wannabe.  This means for Truphone that they are now in the sim card business which means they are about to hit the big boy league and truly have a service that will work around the world.  I will save another post to rant about TruPhone not getting together with MaxRoam, though it doesn’t make a bit of difference now I guess.

Anyways here is the press release put out by Sim4Travel.

    SIM4TRAVEL HOLDINGS PLC

Truphone acquires the assets of SIM4travel

The Board of SIM4travel are today pleased to announce the sale of its business assets to Truphone. Included
in  the  sale is the transfer of all staff to ensure business continuity and to leverage the full value  of
the assets.

The  transaction  comprises  of  £1.343m  in  cash for outstanding  loans  and  creditors  with  a  further
consideration of £1.3m in Truphone shares.

SIM4travel  Holdings  plc will be retained to develop shareholder value by exploring new  technologies  and
market opportunities.

Truphone  is  a privately-owned UK technology company, founded in 2000 and funded by a mixture  of  private
investment and venture capital. Truphone enables mass market mobile phones to make free and low cost  calls
via the internet.

Paul  Buck,  SIM4travel's Managing Director said: "By integrating the technology, platform and distribution
assets  of  SIM4travel with the resources and technical expertise of Truphone, the directors of  SIM4travel
believe  that  significant  shareholder value can be created. Truphone will be  well  positioned  to  offer
customers new and compelling propositions in low cost, feature-rich global communications."

James  Tagg, Truphone's CEO, said: "This completes Truphone's GSM core network, allowing us to offer global
mobile  operator services. We're already enabling customers to make low-cost Wi-Fi calls and soon we'll  be
able to provide the added convenience of low-cost GSM calls too, all on a single, worldwide, Truphone SIM."

Truphone is the trading name of Software Cellular Network Ltd. (SCN)

[ends]

The Directors of the Issuer accept responsibility for this announcement.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Paul Buck, Director
SIM4travel Holdings Plc
Tel: 01895 259876

Nick Michaels
Alfred Henry Corporate Finance Limited
Tel: 020 7251 3762

I want to wish Truphone all the best and good luck.   Just one question, why not work with MaxRoam?????