A new MVNO is gearing up to launch this year, targeting price-concious US customers with a $69.95 a month unlimited voice and data plan — with an extra $10 getting the same service to another 40 countries. Zer01 doesn’t follow the usual MVNO model of buying and reselling minutes on a carrier, but instead has bought its own IP backbone and signed an interconnect roaming agreement with AT&T (NYSE: T). This also lets it get around the carriers’ 5GB/month data caps. Zer01 gets the cost savings by doing everything via VoIP, even over EDGE and GPRS networks, claiming to have “developed specific algorithms in our technology that address latency issues” reports PC Mag.
Other proprietary technologies let users dial from the phones keypad without launching a separate VoIP app and use the built-in microphone and headpiece. At the moment the service will only work on Windows Mobile-based handsets — people can bring their own or buy one from Zer01 — but there are plans to open it up to Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Java and jailbroken iPhones. The company is currently looking for distrubitors — it plans to launch in closed beta in April, and announce the commercial launch date at CTIA. Zer01 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delaware-based Unified Technologies Group, a privately-held international diversified conglomerate.
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