TechPulse 360

Anyone wanting to use their cell phone abroad should buy the Qik Roam SIM card to avoid the astronomic roaming charges

“Go mobile, not broke,” is the tagline of Qik’s new pre-paid SIM cards.

Unveiled today, the Qik Roam lets U.S. travelers make calls, send text messages and emails, browse the Web and stream live video from their mobile devices – in 203 countries for voice and 140 countries for data – and for just a fraction of the cost of international roaming.

Because Qik’s Roam is pre-paid, you won’t have a surprise when seeing your mobile phone bill after returning from your trip abroad. The service also allows to buy local phone numbers for countries you are traveling to and manage your account online.

“We launched the Qik Roam after our users said that it was prohibitive for them to shoot videos with their mobile phone when they were traveling abroad because of the high cost of international data roaming,” explains Bhaskar Roy, a Qik co-founder.

To make this possible – because Qik is not a telecom operator – the live mobile streaming video service partnered with Irish mobile virtual network enabler (or MVNE) Cubic Telecom which provides global low cost mobile cellular global roaming.

The Redwood City, Calif.-startup is the only distributor of Cubic Telecom’s service in the U.S. and the pre-paid SIM card can be bought here.

In a conversation with Bhaskar Roy, after the Qik Roam launch event – which was attended by no less than Ireland’s deputy Prime Minister Mary Coughlan ! – Qik’s co-founder admitted that despite hundreds of thousands of users, his company is still looking for a business model.

“Will be experimenting with business models sometimes this year,” said Roy.

Qik claims its video stream service supports close to 120 devices, including the “jailbroken” iPhone and is now integrated with numerous social networks including Facebook and Twitter.

Roy also confirmed that Qik will be on Google’s Android as soon as it supports video.

Here’s a video excerpt of our conversation: