Barcelona: Looking for the cheapest way to message internationally without worrying about high roaming costs?
Italian company ChatSim has launched the world’s first SIM card that lets you connect to your chat apps wherever you are without internet access.
Juan De la Coba, co-founder and COO of ChatSim, told Gulf News the SIM works in 150 countries, and consumers can send unlimited text messages and emoji with WhatsApp, QQ, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, LINE, Telegram, WeChat and other messaging apps for a charge of €12 (Dh46) per year.
The one-time activation fee is €12.
“When we started it was only with WhatsApp and we will be adding more apps in the future,” he said.
ChatSim works with 250 telecom operators worldwide, including du in the UAE. Customers can also make multimedia recharges with the card, €12, €30 and €60, to send videos, photos or voice calls.
For €12 top-up, consumers can send 200 pictures or 40 videos or make calls for 80 minutes. He said that the company pays telecom operators worldwide for the data used by the consumer.
Consumers need to activate the SIM card on the company’s website and upload a picture of a photo ID for security purpose.
The company also ships the SIM card to anywhere in the world but shipping charges apply.
