Hispanic Institutes Study on US Prepaid Calling Cards

With all of the hooplah recently about the phone card business cheating it's customers, the Hispanic Institute recently conducted a study of over 45 different phone cards from various providers to see what the cards actually delivered and to verify the quality of the calls as well.The tests were performed between November 12 and December 8th of 2007 and the results reaffirmed what the press has been talking about. Most of the phone cards are failing to deliver the true number of advertised minutes.

Of the 45 cards tested, only 15 cards allowed the researchers to use the whole card balance and 6 fell to the opposite end of the spectrum giving 50% or less of the advertised minutes.

The Winners:

• IDT Boss-WSH Mexico - 100% of minutes delivered
• Telmex USA Companero Guatemala - 100% of minutes delivered
• GEO I Love NY Mexico - 100% of minutes delivered
• STI World Mexico - 100% of minutes delivered

The Loosers:

• Diamond Bingo Guatemala - 50% of minutes delivered
• GEO GEO Florida Guatemala - 50% of minutes delivered
• Lycatel Call Me Guatemala - 50% of minutes delivered
• RTG Cocktail Mexico - 20% of minutes delivered
• Touch-Tel USA La Salvadorena Mexico - 20% of minutes delivered
• Telmex Companero Mexico - 10% of minutes delivered

Granted this study also looked at things like call quality and PDD which on any given day can be different and affect the results, but for the most part this is the first published study that I am aware of that looks at this issue. Whatever the methodology used, this study emphasises one thing, the prepaid calling card industry needs to shape up!

The full report can be viewed at the Hispanic Institutes's web site