MetroPCS Adds Unlimited International Calling for $5 a Month

Well the phone card business just had yet another big shot across the bow! MetroPCS is now offering unlimited international calling to over 1,000 destinations worldwide for just an additional $5 a month (you must be using either their $40, $45 or $50 plan to qualify). The destinations are mostly those in the 1 cent per minute category like most European land lines, Argentina, Hong Kong and many others. They have been very careful not to advertise the locations and do not post them on their web site. In order to see if the destination you need is included, you must enter in the complete telephone number you want to call in a look up tool they provide.

Prepaid Mobile has probably been the biggest contributor to the decline in the phone card market, with seemingly better attention paid to the international caller, a market for which the post paid companies still refuse to address. Not only has prepaid cellular helped to get recent credit challenged immigrants cell phones, it is now becoming one of the preferred methods to make international calls. I can't say I blame somebody either, straight dialing is much easier than having to worry about buying a phone card and then entering in all of those pin numbers before every call.

I wonder if Boost Mobile, who has seen great success with their $50 a month unlimited package (700,000 new subs in one quarter since announcing the plan), will counter this MetroPCS with a similar international calling add on package? If they do, they can easily negate any market advantage gained by MetroPCS's international plan.

Clifton Telecard Settles Suit With FTC

It was announced today that Clifton Telecard Alliance One, LLC has agreed to a settlement with the FTC in the amount of $1.3 million dollars. The lawsuit was brought against Clifton Telecard back in March 2008 and alleged that CTA had been falsely advertising the amount of minutes available on the prepaid phone cards.

The settlement is to be paid within 5 days and the funds will be wired into a unique bank account for the FTC set up to use for Consumer redress. Any remaining funds will be deposited into the United States Treasury.

The settlement came as no surprise as it is hard to fight the government and win especially when it comes to prepaid phone cards which, let's face it, were engaging in a large abuse of false advertising as a whole over the last few years. However, the amount of the settlement is not much more than a slap on the wrist for a company that produces over 4 billion dollars worth of calling card sales per year.

Source for data in this article = Examiner.com

Happy Phone Card TV Ad

Here is a Spanish language phone card tv ad for the Happy phone card from SDI.

IDT Buys out Carlos Gomez's Stake in UTA

Well the long and successful partnership of over 15 years between IDT and Carlos Gomez is now over. IDT has bought out Carlos Gomez's 49% share in the Jointly owned Union Telecard Alliance for $6.9 million in cash and other assets.

No one is exactly sure what prompted the transaction, but there is no doubt that this is a good deal for Mr. Gomez, whose UTA business has been declining rapidly over the last few years (just look at their quarterly earning statements over the last few years). Getting 6 million plus to get out of a business that has a rough future is something all of us prepaid distributors would love to be presented with!

IDT seems to be exited about the transaction with IDT CEO remarking "This deal will not only enhance IDT's operational capabilities, but is also in keeping with management's commitment to restructure and simplify our business..."

This is a toss up at this point with the potential for the company to go either way. Only time will tell who got the better deal.

To view the full article click here

Phone Card Mania Launches New Look and Cash Back

PhoneCardMania.com has a new look and feel this week, with the same great selection of phone cards and an easier to navigate interface. Along with the new design, phonecardmania.com has launched a loyalty program that rewards their frequent buyers with 3% cash back on all orders. "Our regular customers are our bread and butter and we needed to implement a program that treats them special" said Emma Lee President of marketing. The site also now included a live chat feature to help answer customer questions quicker and more effectively. "Our goal is to convert every visitor into a sale and we felt Live Chat was a valuable tool to help do that" said Mrs. Lee.

According to Mrs. Lee the redesign of the site has been a long time in the making "it has been a big undertaking to introduce the new look and features but is long overdue and it was designed with the customer in mind."

Visit the new look site at http://www.phonecardmania.com/

TouchTell Communications Store in Texas Robbed - Video of Supspects on YouTube

Texas Phone Card distributor Touchtell had one of their stores robbed on May 30th by two suspects in an attempt to steal thousands of dollars worth of prepaid phone cards. To help the police catch these suspects, Touchtell has posted the video from their security camera, showing the two suspects, up on YouTube. From the looks of the video it didn't look like they were having much luck finding anything of interest to them.

The suspects are described as two black men in their mid to late 20’s, both with medium builds. They appear to be somewhere between 5’7” and 6’0”. Anyone with information regarding this offense or the suspects in the video is asked to contact Detective Amy Smith at (214) 670-6179.

Colorvision Phone Card

Color Vision Phone Card commercial by SDI. This phone card mainly targets Dominicans in the United States.

Total Call The Latest Ordered To Pay Up and Be Clean!

Total Call International a leading phone card provider located in California is the latest company ordered to pay penalties and clean up their cards.

In a civil case brought by the State of California, Total Call was ordered to pay $300,000 in penalties and mandated to be monitored for the next 4 years to ensure that they no longer charge "hidden and deceptive fees" which are against the State's false advertising and unfair competition laws. In order to remain in compliance Total Call must clearly disclose all charges on it's advertising materials and the cards themselves.

In response Total Call has already started removing some fees from it's products and has begun to revise all of it's marketing materials to get into compliance.

Poor Economy Hurting the Bodegas

While there is no doubt the economic woes of this country has hurt the telecommunications business, I never once thought that the small mom and pop stores would be feeling it as hard.

According to a recent article in the Charlotte Observer small bodegas in the south that used to do quite well with their money remittance products are seeing that business almost cut in half. One store they reference in the article used to do over $4,000 a day in money remittance and is now doing only $2,000 a day. The reason for this decline is that many of the communities who had high concentrations of migrant Latino workers are seeing those migrants going home and staying home since there are just not that many jobs anymore (mostly in construction and farming).

While calling card sales have not dipped as dramatically for this store, there is no doubt that those sales are down as well since most of those people that used to use the money remittance service also purchased phone cards.

The migrant worker population is much larger in the South and Western parts of the United States so the decline is felt much more in those areas than in the Northern areas where most of the immigrants are permanent rather than temporary.

April's Poll Results - Will There Be More or Less Government Involvement in 2009

The results for April's poll have been tabulated and here they are:

We Asked:

Will Federal and Local Agencies Continue To Crack Down on The Phone Card Business?

You Answered:

Yes 14 (63%) No 8 (36%) Not Sure 0 (0%)