At Macworld/iWorld in San Francisco, Silicon Valley startup Gigsky Inc. has introduced an e-marketplace that takes aim at the international data-roaming dilemma. The Gigsky app lets you buy local prepaid data services for iPhones and other devices at local rates in more than 200 countries. In other words, Gigsky throws the traditional SIM card out the window.
“We bring buyers and sellers together. That’s what Gigsky truly is,” said tech entrepreneur Ravi Rishy-Maharaj, who founded Gigsky in 2010.
For a one-time fee of $9.99, you can become a Gigsky member and check out a menu of mobile data providers in, say, India or South Africa. The data package you buy is then loaded onto a universal SIM card. “We don’t do voice; we encourage people to use Skype,” Rishy-Maharaj said.
Rishy-Maharaj acknowledged that Gigsky, which is in the beta phase, “may not have the greatest pricing in the world” for prepaid data services right now, but that’s expected to change as more carriers connect with Gigsky. A full launch of Gigsky’s offering is set for June, he said.
Initially Gigsky is targeting business travelers, who pay nearly two-thirds of the world’s roaming charges, Rishy-Maharaj said. When it comes to roaming, business travelers “have a lot of pain. They’d like to have a solution, and we think we’ve got a great solution,” he said.
Other prospective customers who will be pursued by Gigsky are tech-savvy consumers and, eventually, everyday consumers, Rishy-Maharaj said.
Rishy-Maharaj called the sky-high cost of international roaming “unfair.” He said he doesn’t “see a need to give carriers $2,000 for what I pay 20 bucks for at home.”
“There’s no justification for it,” Rishy-Maharaj said. “The carriers want to solve it, but their legacy (systems) won’t allow them to solve it.”
