Posted: 12/2002
industry news
Public Cell Phone Service 'Corners' Market in Bolivia
By Geraldine Besgrove
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Hanging around on street corners has taken on a new twist in many of Bolivia's towns and cities. Students wearing fluorescent, logo-emblazoned waistcoats are offering passersby the use of a cell phone for 14 cents per minute for a national call.
Cheap call rates available in bulk, prepaid packages have enabled entrepreneurs to buy cell time and resell it at a 30 percent markup. The public demand for the service is high. Isaac Toro, owner of upstart company Punto Movil, explains, "I have 30 students working for me, each one selling on average 150 calls a day."
Toro claims to buy the same number of prepaid calls in a day that the cell phone companies sell in a week.
"We are losing money to the street operators," confirms Marcelo Aleman, marketing coordinator of wireless company Viva, which is partly owned by Western Wireless International Corp. "We're starting to put a barrier place, we've found a way to stop this."
The company has set up an investigation unit to identify customers offering street cell phone services.
"SITTEL [the regulator] is not controlling the street cell phones, so we have to do it ourselves," says Aleman.
Todito.com Launches Todito - ePaid
Todito.com, an Internet portal, ISP and virtual marketplace for North American Spanish-speakers, has launched Todito - ePaid service, which allows customers to create prepaid, stored-value accounts for online shopping.
Todito - ePaid allows customers to open a prepaid account and deposit funds at 1,800 Banco Bital branches in Mexico or 40,000 collection points in the United States. Deposited funds then can be used at 50 Mexico-based stores in Todito's virtual mall, and at U.S. e-commerce sites.
Todito - ePaid users also can send funds to other Todito - ePaid accounts, transfer money to any bank account in Mexico and make cash withdrawals at any Scotiabank Invertal branch without having a bank account.
Qxpress Terminals Support Prepaid Mastercard
Q Comm International Inc. has signed an agreement with Next Estate Communications Inc. to enable the Next Estate prepaid Truth MasterCard card package to be purchased at retailers using Q Comm's Qxpress point-of-sale activation (PoSA) terminals.
Buyers receive a unique code and call Next Estate to register for their Virtual MasterCard account. Once the account has been set up and activated, Next Estate allows customers to use the Virtual MasterCard account immediately for online purchases, and then sends customers their physical card in the mail, if requested. Once they've used their initial balance on the card, customers simply return to any retailer that sells the Truth package to add more money to it. Initial sale and reload denominations are $20, $50, $100, $200 and $400. The Truth MasterCard is accepted at more than 28 million locations worldwide.
New Telemac Patent Covers Remote Programming of Wireless Devices
Telemac Corp. was awarded its 28th patent (no. 6,424,827 B1) for a system for secure, remote programming of wireless devices. The system covers a wider range of communications methods, including over-the-air communication, and more secure generation of the encryption key within the wireless device. Telemac received its first U.S. patent for its intelligent telephone technology in 1994. Telemac now has more than 75 patents and patents pending for its systems and related wireless technologies in more than 30 countries. Nearly 14 million Telemac-enabled mobile phones with patented technology have been sold worldwide.
Bill-paying Habits May Point to Increased Prepaid Wireless Use
A study conducted by Western Union Financial Services Inc., found 43 percent of people pay their wireless phone bill late. Eliminating wireless phone service contracts by using prepaid service appeals to one-third of current users (34 percent).
In conjunction with Opinion Research Corp. International, Western Union SwiftPay service conducted a survey of 1,016 Americans on bill-paying habits. The bill most likely to be paid late is the utility bill, followed by wireless service, then credit cards.
Ninety-six percent of Americans recognize that paying bills late can potentially affect their personal credit ratings, yet 25 percent report paying at least one bill late each month. Forty-two percent of respondents open to prepayment indicate that using a prepaid wireless service would help them better manage their budget. Those most interested in managing budgets are 18-24 years of age (54 percent).
A recent Yankee Group Inc. study said approximately 12 percent of all wireless subscribers were prepaid. By the end of 2006, it predicts that figure will grow to exceed 30 percent.
Dancris Prepaid Cards Aid Phoenix Coyotes Charity
Dancris will sell long distance and a special Coyotes prepaid calling card via its Web site, which will be linked from the Coyotes home page. A percentage of all customer usage will go to the Coyotes Charities. To help promote the services, Dancris is giving away Coyotes T-Shirts with the prepaid cards.
SportsTicker, Atlas Team for SMS MultiSports Cards
The cards allow sports fans to follow their favorite teams directly on their mobile phones through SMS text messaging, and can be purchased online at www.smscardsonline.com.
SportsTicker delivers instant scores, breaking sports news, statistics, previews, recaps and features, gathered by more than 850 event-site reporters from media outlets throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Japan.
Walgreens Offers AT&T Prepaid Internet
"Walgreens customers can now pick up an AT&T PrePaid Internet Service start-up kit along with the other household electronics products we offer," said Gary Platek, Walgreens divisional merchandise manager for electronics.
Walgreens is the nation's largest drugstore chain, with fiscal 2002 sales of $28.7 billion and stores in 43 states and Puerto Rico.
The AT&T PrePaid Internet Service, introduced last year, is a pay-as-you-go Internet service that comes with one e-mail account. The company says it is perfect for consumers who want to access the Web without a monthly fee, need on-the-road Internet access or want a back-up service.
The service CD is available as eight hours of Internet for $9.99, or 20 hours for $19.99. Additional minutes can be purchased online for $19.99 (20 hours) or $29.99 (30 hours).
Sprint, eBay to Sell Prepaid Products Online
Sprint Corp. and eBay Inc. have combined efforts to sell Sprint prepaid phone cards. Consumers can shop for long-distance prepaid cards in the new Sprint Prepaid PhoneCard Store, located online at www.ebay.com. eBay shoppers will be able to choose from two different denominations, with rates as low as 4.2 cents per domestic minute. Sprint has chosen marketplace management provider ChannelAdvisor Corp. to develop and manage the Sprint Prepaid PhoneCard Store on eBay.
This is not the first time Sprint and eBay have worked together. Late last year, the two companies announced that eBay would begin using Sprint E|Solutions Centers to expand eBay's Web hosting facilities.
GPA Offers Money-back Guarantee
Global Prepaid Alliance Inc. (GPA) has unveiled a 100 percent money-back guarantee for every GPA prepaid calling card. Any consumer can request a refund if they are not satisfied with any prepaid phone card with the GPA logo. The company says GPA distributors and retailers expect the policy to make customers feel more satisfied with card purchases, thereby creating brand loyalty. "This results in total customer gratification and higher sales for GPA distributors because GPA stands behind their product with this real money-back guarantee," according to a GPA statement.
