Phone Card Graphic Designer Starts Her Own Business

One of the best freelance phone card graphic designers, Liz Broes, has decided to start up her own business and asked me if I would give her plug.

I had used her in the past to design a few cards, posters and trade show materials and was always pleased with the work, so I have no problem recommending her to everyone.

Her company is called Em Dash Design and you can visit their website at www.emdashdesign.ca

If you are looking to take your product to a more professional look and feel, I strongly recommend using her graphic designer services.

She can be reached via email at studio@emdashdesign.ca or by phone at 1-514-499-3336

Locus Telecomunicaions puts Latin Singer Toby Love on Card

The Toby Love calling card has just been introduced by Locus and marks the first time that company uses a latin celebrity on one of their prepaid calling cards. This move is an effort for Locus to gain more of a presence in the highly competitive latin calling card market.

Toby Love is a popular latin recording artist.

Blackstone Fined for Failure to Register and Pay Regulatory Fees

Looks like Blackstone has been slapped with a $20,000 fine for failure to register with the FCC and pay the appropriate USF fees. The Bureau is claiming they have made repeated requests of Blackstone to get in line and register but have received no response from Blackstone and no cooperation.

It seems as if Blackstone is just not responding at all since they feel they are not a service provider, just a calling card distributor, so therefore there is no need to file. I am not sure if Blackstone is an actual carrier, but I am sure, like many other prepaid calling card distributors, they have made claims as such to their end users (common practice). So if they want to make the claim, regardless of true or not, they need to pay the piper!

While the $20,000 fine may not look like a lot, the amount was actualy increased significantly from the base fine for this type of infraction due to Blackstone's complete lack of response or cooperation with the Bureau.

Prepaid Mobile Gaining Momentum with Teens

It seems as if the fastest growing segment of the prepaid mobile phone business is the teen market. Parents who were once buying regular post paid accounts for their kids are now switching over to the prepaid concept to help them control their kids usage which many a times can easily get out of control!

Ethnic markets were long seen as the main consumers of prepaid mobile phones due to their lack of established credit, the teen market is taking the industry by storm and accounting for the larger piece of growth in the industry.

FCC Lays Down USF on Prepaid Calling Card Companies

Looks like most calling card and VoIP companies are now having to scramble to get in compliance with new laws requiring them to collect Universal Service Fund (USF) fees from all users. VoIP users will se it in additional fees on their monthly phone bill but calling card users will not see it directly as most providers will just build it into the rates. Where end users will notice it, is with less competitive per minute rates.

I guess it's only fair since Ma Bell has been having to collect these fees forever but in the end it just means less minutes for the money.

Taking Stock of Which Prepaid Distributors are Still Around

Just thought I would do a quick run down of the prepaid calling card distributors still left:

Raza Communications
Millenium Telecard
TeleCenter, Inc.
Blackstone
Union Telecard Alliance
SDI
Reliablecom
9278
Touch Tell Comm
DR Phone

I know I am probably missing a few, and I appologize to those I left out... feel free to post a comment if you see a distributor not listed here.

Remember, I am only listing phone card distributors here, not providers. I classify a distributor as a company who makes more than 50% of their income through resale of calling card products.

Chinatown in Manhattan a Phone Card Hot Bed!

Who says phone cards are dead???

Estimates are that over $300,000 in phone cards are sold in Manhattan's Chinatown alone, making it one of the largest prepaid calling card markets by size. The flip side to this is that most calling cards sold here go for much less than face value. For example a $20 card, wich is the most popular denomination for the Chinese American community, sells for anywhere from $12 to $15 retail. But if you are looking to increase your international calling cards sales this is a great place to do that!