Anything to do with gadgets is usually Julia's turf but this was one I could not let pass. This short video features Martin Varsavsky, an Argentine/Spanish person who made an obscene amount of money out of the Internet before turning his attention towards alternative ways of building low cost wifi networks.
Recently, he has launched another venture, PeekFon which aims to solve the European (and later global) roaming charges issue. Anyone who collects email while traveling out of their home country quickly finds that roaming charges can easily run £12-15 per day. That's ruinous to any budget.
According to the website:
Even if you never roam outside your home country, Blackberry services,
iPhone and Android services in Europe are expensive. They cost around
50€ a month, have minimum two-year contracts and include no talking
minutes. Even if you stay at home, you spend 1200€ just to get email.
And if you travel, you spend double that on average. With PeekFON, you
would spend only 312€ (compared to 2400€)! PeekFON costs just 12,90€/mo
(99€ for the first 6 months including the device – then you decide to
renew or not) anywhere in Europe.
As you can see, the downside cost risk is barely equivalent to a decent lunch in London for two.
The device looks like a 'poor man's' Blackberry so if you demand the latest in cool toys then this is unlikely to be for you. Even so, as an email workhorse it's got to be worth a try.
Note - it looks like the original delivery date has slipped.
Thoughts?