CVT Prepaid Solutions Settles Lawsuit with IDT

In a private settlement reached this week, CVT Prepaid Solutions, the most outspoken company against this lawsuit, surprisingly agreed to adhere to the "true minute" program that IDT is pushing. While no details of the settlement were revealed, it is estimated that CVT will join Locus, Dollar Phone, Epana and others who have already agreed in principal to follow ethical marketing practices and promising to deliver actual advertised minutes.

To see the full article go to CNN.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Your Friends at phonecardmania.blogspot.com

Phone Card Commercial - Week 23

A Spanish language commercial for the Hi-Connect prepaid phone card. Not sure if this is just an online card or also available at retail outlets.

Some Demographic Data of Interest to Phone Card Providers

I came across some interesting demographic data on foreign born immigration to the US that I though might be interesting to people in the phone card business:

2005 Statistics

* Foreign Born Population of the US represents: 12.4% of the countries total population
* 53.5% of Foreign born peoples come from Latin America, followed by 26.7% from Asia, 13.6% from Europe, and 3.5% from Africa.
* 30.7% of foreign born people came from Mexico, followed by 4.9% from China and 4.5% from the Philippines.
* The amount of foreign born Mexicans in the United States is actually decreasing... went from 3,784,835 in the 90s to 2,796,118 in this decade (granted the decade isn't over but in total % wise of total immigrants, there is definitely a decrease)

To view the source of these statistics and other interesting stats please visit: migrationinformation.org

Canadian Prepaid Calling Card Market

In this article, the third in a long series of articles on the prepaid calling card market, I will provide a quick overview on the Canadian prepaid market and where it is heading.

While those of us in the US had seen the huge boom in the phone card market back in the late 90s, Canada was a little bit further behind in it's market maturity. It was not until the early part of this decade that they began their boom. However the boom was very short lived and the market decline began just after the Canadian market hit it's peak in 2004 (320 million in revenues). The quick decline came about mainly as a result of the emergence in the popularity and acceptance of the prepaid mobile market, which took off much faster than in did in the US.

Since 2004 each year has seen a steady decline in revenues, shrinking to around 310 million in 2005, and currently sits around the 280 million mark. The trend looks like it will continue to decline at a pace of around 20 million a year until well into the next decade.

While the Canadian market appears to be maturing much faster, it is also an extremely different marketplace. Immigrants to Canada are not as credit challenged as they are here in the US and their acceptance of new technologies is much greater than it is here. The mobile phone market appears to be taking over at a much faster rate in Canada with a remarkably bigger chunk of the cell phone market going for prepaid over post paid services. Other services like Skype and Vonage are also eating away at the phone card market with their cheaper and more technologically savvy product offerings.

In short the reality is that the immigrant market, long seen as the primary consumer for phone cards, is much more sophisticated and slightly more well off than the US immigrant market. Immigrants to Canada on average have much greater incomes than their US counterparts.

Total Call Settles with IDT

Well, chalk up the total to 4 phone card companies who have agreed to clean up their act as a result of the IDT lawsuit. First there was Dollar Phone, Locus, Epana and now Total Call joins the ranks of parties that has agreed to clean up their calling card disclosure and marketing practices. One area of note... they did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement.

Still holding out are: STi Phonecard, Inc., Find & Focus Abilities, Inc, VOIP Enterprises, Inc., and Telco Group, Inc. and CVT Prepaid Solutions, Inc.

IDT Finalizes the Purcahse of It's Corporate Headquarters

IDT finalized the purchase of their headquarters building at 520 Broad Street in Downtown Newark New Jersey. IDT has been renting this space from 520 Broad Street Associates, L.L.C. (a.k.a Kushner Companies) since they moved there in 2000. The seventeen story building is located in the heart of downtown Newark and was constructed sometime back in the 1950s.

Under the terms of the deal, IDT agreed to pay $22.8 million in cash and assume the $27.2 million in remaining mortgage payments, making for a total buy amount of 50 million dollars.

The move comes on the heels of the opening of the close bye Newark Prudential Center, the new home of the New Jersey Devils. Maybe an indicator that the city is on the rise, making real estate in the area a potentially wise investment.

Phone Card Commercial - Week 22

A spanish language commercial for the Super Latino prepaid phone card. I believe this product is a Nobel card.

Intelecard Expo Comes to North East!!!

Not sure if this is a fact yet, but if you go to the Intelecard Expo website they have an announcement that there will be an Intelecard Expo in the Northeast. Looks like it will be from April 22nd to the 24th and will be held in New Jersey at the Expo center in Edison. This would be great as there is a large concentration of prepaid distributors and companies here in the Northeast including myself.

I was still kind of confused as I also got a fl yer in the mail from them promoting a Las Vegas show in March as well. Kind of close together if you ask me! Also strange is the fact that they normally do the spring show in Miami Beach. I wonder if this means that the Miami show is now done... I hope not because it always gave me a nice excuse to go down to beautiful sunny South Beach!

Their website does not look like it has much in the way of details yet so stay tuned!

Phone Card Commercial - Week 21

Commercial for an online phone card website. Nothing too high end but fits the bill.