GERRY McQUAID, the former commercial director of mobile operator O2, has taken up a similar role with Irish-headquartered Cubic Telecom.

“The new Cubic Telecom which is about to be launched is very different from the old one,” said Mr McQuaid. “It’s very internationally focused.”

Cubic has specialised to date in providing low-cost international roaming services for mobile users. It sells its own MaxRoam service, which provides low-cost text and data in 220 countries.

Mr McQuaid said Cubic had developed a new core network that allowed data and calls to be intelligently routed over the best value network. Styling the service “borderless communications”, he said Cubic would now be selling this service to other telcos and big brands who wanted to be able to offer voice, text and data services internationally.

“Cubic has built a powerful and flexible platform which enables third parties to offer mobile services anywhere in the world,” said Mr McQuaid.

The company will “white label” the service. Although the service will use Cubic’s platform to the end-user it will appear as if it is offered by the other telco or brand.

“People want . . . flexibility, convenience and value,” he added.

The firm claims its MaxRoam service can reduce roaming bills by 70 per cent to 80 per cent on average. Mr McQuaid said it was also essential that telecoms services were transparent to the end-user. Cubic’s billing system allowed customers to check online so they could see what they were paying for services in real time.

The company has also launched what it claims is Europe’s first Sim card for Apple’s iPad 3G, which went on sale in the US last month. The iPad does not use traditional Sim cards but instead uses the smaller MicroSIM or Form Factor 3 card standard.

Cubic is selling the cards under its MaxRoam brand. They cost €75 each, which includes 50 megabyte data capacity. Cubic charges a single rate across Europe wherever you travel with your iPad.

“We think the iPad will go through the same rapid adoption curve as the iPhone,” said Mr McQuaid. “The advantage of the Cubic Sim is you don’t have to worry what you are consuming.”