Credit: HMD Global
HMD Global didn't just announce a few new and old Nokia phones this week. They also announced something potentially far more exciting: a global roaming service.
Of course, with many countries closing their borders, enforcing quarantines, lockdowns and self-isolation, the market for a global roaming SIM setup is probably going to be somewhat-limited for the time being. Still, it's an intriguing development.
Branded as HMD Connect, customers will sign up via an app, have a SIM mailed to them and they're good to go. The aforementioned app lets you easily add data as you need it. At a glance, this app-centric approach reminds me of what Singaporean telco Circles.Life have been doing.
Right out the gate, HMD Global say they've got over 120 countries signed up and that they'll be working with partner Greenwave Systems and local telco operators to add to that.
The other big unknown is whether that local roaming will include 5G. Given that HMD are billing the new Nokia 8.3 5G as the handset that'll play nice with 5G no matter where you are in the world, you'd hope so. However, with some carriers like Telstra looking to charge extra for 5G, it's unclear how all this will work in reality.
We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, you can sign up for the beta version of the service and find out more at the HMD Connect website here.
