Oblio Wins 2.5 Million Dollar Suit Against Clifton Prepaid

Well it seems as if the Oblio mess continues even long after this companies notorious collapse. Back in August 2007, Titan Global Holdings (Oblio's parent company) filed suit against Clifton Prepaid Communications Corp in Texas court for non-payment of invoices based on services rendered. They had successfully won a Motion for Writ of Garnishment which in essence froze Clifton Prepaid's bank accounts until the trial had concluded. Clifton Prepaid had offices both in Texas and NJ and Mr. Aref had been the former owner of another phone card distribution company called Clifton Digital pior to opening this business. It's interesting how this is the second phone card company located in Clifton NJ to make the headlines recently... Clifton Telecard was in the headlines earlier this year for it's alleged deceptive marketing practices by the FTC.

Well the trial is now over and Titan won a 2.5 million dollar judgement in their favor but Clifton Prepaid's owner, Aref Aref, had already filed for personal bankruptcy making any chance of Oblio recouping the full judgement near impossible. However, Titan will be able to unfreeze the bank account and seize any contents towards the judgement and they have vowed to pursue Mr Aref further which will include monitoring all recent transactions between the defendant and any known associates or businesses for any "concealed" monies.

While I'm sure not many distributors or service providers have anything for disdain towards Oblio for having left them holding the bag with worthless cards, this judgement will possibly open up some chances for Oblio to actually make things right with their distributors that did not "screw them." Unfortunately this is just a common example of what goes on in the prepaid business... it's the mind set of some distributors and service providers who say I need to screw them up before they screw me up!

I hope Oblio gets everything from Clifton Prepaid and then all of the other honest business men and women who we hurt by Oblio get their restitution.

A full link to the story: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS182111+29-Sep-2008+BW20080929

IDT Corporation CEO Jim Courter To Step Down In October 2009

IDT Corporation announced that current CEO Jim Courter will begin what will be his last year in that position, retiring at what will be age 68 (Born October 14th 1941). The long time CEO and former NJ Congressman (1979-91) will be replaced by majority owner and founder Howard Jonas. The previously announced company stock instead of cash payments will continue to be Howard Jonas's form of payment for at least 3 of his 5 year contract and Jim Courter will begin receiving company stocks instead of cash salary beginning in January of 09 all the way through his retirement in October.

Jonas had previously served as the companies CEO from 1991 until 2001 when he agreed to vacate that position in favor of Jim Courter, who had been serving as president of the company for the previous 5 years (1996-2001).

While there is no word on the conditions surrounding this change, there is no doubt that Jonas returning to the helm will signal a change in direction for the company. We will just have to wait and see if that change in direction is a positive or negative one!

Terremoto Latino Phone Card Commercial

Here is a Spanish language commercial for the Terremoto Latino card.

India Telco Bharti Brings Itself Into The Canada Rechargeable Calling Card Space

The large Indian Telco Bharti announced this week that they have introduced their rechargeable online calling card product called Airtel CallHome into the Canadian marketplace, just months (8 months to be exact) after entering the US rechargeable calling card market (service has also been available for some time in the UK and Singapore). With over 1.5 million Indian's living in Canada, they feel well positioned with a rate of roughly $0.058 per minute to take over as one of the prominent companies serving this community.

The space has been traditionaly held by Reliance but with Bharti's brand name and heavy marketing spend (see the Airtel CallHome TV Commercial) they feel well positioned to take over a significant market share. The battle will be tough as Reliance has held the #1 position in this market for a while now and they will no doubt put up a strong fight!

Virgin Mobile Lowers Calling Rates to Central & South America

Beginning October 15th, Virgin Mobile will lower rates to many South and Central Amercia locations. This move is meant to help secure a bigger portion of the Latin America calling market and will no doubt take away some business from the phone card providers who have traditionaly dominated this market segment. Some of Virgin Mobile's new rates are unheard of in the mobile phone business:

• Mexico - As Low as $0.02 per minute


• Brazil - As Low as $0.02 per minute


• Guatemala - As Low as $0.10 per minute


• El Salvador - As Low as $0.10 per minute


• Argentina - As Low as $0.05 per minute


• Dominican Republic - As Low as $0.05 per minute

To see a full list of rates go to their web page: http://virginmobileusa.com/rates/internationalCalling.do

While these rates may not be as low as some of the calling cards on the market, the convenience of direct dial from your mobile phone and the lack of the dozens of fees, might make this very attractive to many Central and South Americans living in the US. So all phone card providers and vendors should take note, this WILL take a bite out of your business!

Prepaid Press Running a Advertising Special

Just got an email from the Prepaid Press that they are running a special for the next couple of weeks on advertising. If you buy 6 Ads you get 1 free (must run November to April) and they will throw in a free button on their website as well as 1 email blast on your behalf to their base. They also have a buy 3 months and get half off the 4th month special.

If you are interested send an email to: lsimon@prepaid-press.com or call 1-866-203-2334 ext 512

Gasolina Latina Phone Card Commercial

I guess if you buy this phone card your car will turn into a Sports Car and you will get all of the women ;)

IDT Releases Q4 Financials and The Numbers are Poor as Expected!

IDT Corporation released it's 4th Quarter earnings on Monday and the results were as expected... poor! In total they had a net loss of $86.4 million mostly due to what they are claiming as restructuring costs. The company has undergone what it calls a major restructuring and to be fair this was announced in the Q3 results and investors were warned that this expense would be hitting the books in Q4. This exercise is going to provide IDT with what they claim will be a cash flow positive business by end of Q1 09.

There is no doubt that IDT has come upon rough economic times and is in need of some major changes to help it survive, but I am afraid this down turn is not unique to them and I am sure if other phone card companies were publicly listed (most of which are not), we would see the same results on their books.

IDT has to accept the fact that telecom is a shrinking business and in order to survive they need to streamline operations considerably. While cutting staff will be the main way to get there, they can't just cut blindly, they will need to streamline all back end operations through new management styles, outsourcing and new systems. This company will ultimately need find another new big cash generating business now or be in the neighbourhood of less than 500 total employees by the end of fiscal 09 in order to have enough cash to survive.

Don't get me wrong, I think IDT CAN DO IT and WILL find a way to survive. However, they need to pick up the pace in order to keep check with the market. Phone cards may be a shrinking business but they will still remain a real business for many years to come!

Interesting Article on Luis Arias President of Blackstone Calling Card Inc.

With all of the negative press and horror stories circulating around the media today, I thought I would share a more positive and upbeat story that I found from Smart Business on Luis Aria President of Blackstone Calling Card Inc. the article basically profiles how Arias runs his business and seems to point to how he tries to keep involved and paints a picture of Blackstone being a great place to work and a business with it's eye on the bottom line.

Here is the link to the article "Dialed In - How Luis Arias keeps Blackstone Calling Card consistently growing by getting everyone to work together"

September Poll Results Are In and the Winner Is....

Or September poll is now closed and the winner, as chosen by you the readers, for the lucky honor of being October's Phone Card of the Month is.... Los Temerarios card by CVT Prepaid (now STI) with a whopping 45% of the total vote. In second place was the Thank You card from SDI with 18% of the vote and in third place we had a tie between the S Card from Locus and the Boss card from IDT each with 13% of the total vote.

Be sure to vote in this months poll question "What is your best month for sales of phone cards?"