Cork firm Cubic Telecom has signed a €10 million deal with the international charity organisation, the Mission to Seafarers.
Cubic’s MAXroam SIM card will be rebranded as SeaRoam and will be made available to the 1.7 million seafarers worldwide at 250 ports.
Chief executive, Pat Phelan, said this was the company’s biggest deal so far this year. He said the SIM cards would save users up to 80% on telephone charges when they travelled internationally.
The Mission to Seafarers is a missionary society of the Anglican Church, which helps seafarers worldwide by visiting them on their ships.
“We had meetings all over the world with the organisation in order to secure this deal,” said Mr Phelan.
Cubic estimates that this partnership could generate up to €10m annually.
As most seafarers do not have credit cards, Cubic had to develop a new discount pre-paid service. It will have scratch card credit vouchers on sale at all ports used by the organisation worldwide.
Cubic was founded in 2005 and provides its own MAXroam service, which provides low-cost voice services in 213 countries.
Mr Phelan said the firm’s focus was on joining with partners worldwide, and the firm had developed a virtual platform that could be rolled out for any brand that had a large number of customers or members.
www.missiontoseafarers.org
