Omega Phone Card TV Commercial

It's Been a While Since I last posted so I thought I would start out the New Year right with a new Phone Card Commercial!

Enjoy & Happy New Year!

Vox Call Commercial - Agent & Distributor Program

Boost Adds Unlimited Calling To Mexico, DR, Brazil, Colombia & More for $15 & Month

Look out calling cards, Boost has put a shot across the bow by offering a $15 Month unlimited plan for all Boost monthly unlimited plan subscribers to call 40+ countries including:

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Dominican Republic
• Mexico (including calls to mobile phones)
• Peru
• Spain
• Venezuela
• & Much More!

The plan was announced earlier in the week by the MVNO and at present is good until at least the June 6th and may (or may not) increase after that date but details are still pending. However, they did state that anyone  that anyone who signs up for this plan between now and June sixth will be grandfathered into the deal. The plan also includes unlimited text messaging both domestic & international, another feature that not many of it's competitors currently offer. It also features free push to talk calling between the US & Mexico as well as US & Peru, US & Chile, US & Brazil and US & Argentina.

The $15 plan also comes with reduced international long distance rates to over 200 other countries worldwide!

For more information you can visit boostmobile.com

Next Angel LLC Aquires Majority of Vivaro Corporation's Assets

In the latest news on the Vivaro Corporation Bankruptcy, a joint venture lead by Angel Telecom, Next Communications Inc. and Marcatel Telecommunications, LLC announced last month that they have acquired all of the assets of Vivaro Corporation and most all sub company assests. The joint venture company is to be called Next Angel LLC, with Angel Telecom having the largest stake at 42.5% overall.

Vivaro and six of it's sub companies including STi Prepaid, STi Telecom, Kare Distribution filed for Bankruptcy protection back in September of 2012 after running into some significant cash flow issues due to various missteps by the company in recent years. The companies main business revolved around selling prepaid calling cards to the Spanish speaking customers in the US and was once a very dominant player in the prepaid phone card industry.

Angel Telcom AG was founded in 2004 and is located in Switzerland. Their website which now shows as under construction includes a brief blurb about it's new aquisition and it's stargey going forward:

"as you already might have heard this year started out to be very exciting for Angel-Telecom. Significant network expansion and the successful acquisition of 42.5% of the assets of Vivaro Corp. in the US made us decide to give our website the long needed work over. We will soon be back with our relaunch1"

It's clear based on some comments posted in another article by Peter Waneck, Angel Telecom's CEO, that they truly believe in a solid future for prepaid calling cards, but also acknowledge that only through strong management and  forward looking behavior will they achieve success. Seems a little vague to put much belief in it, especially to those of in this business for years. Time will tell I guess but I wish them all luck!

Univision el Gordo y la Flaca Phonecard Promotion

A List of Some of Vivaro Corporation Creditors

I recently came across a list of some of Vivaro Corporation's outstanding creditors and the payment amount claimed to be owed. Here is a list of a few of the companies who have filed a claim with the courts to date:

• AFFILIATES OF VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC - $2,177,991.65
• BESTEL(USA) INC. - $275,508.62
• BLUE WOLF GROUP LLC - $107,840.00
• CALLTRADE CARRIER SVCS - $166,935.00
• CITY OF NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE - $410,259.00
• COMNET (USA) LLC - $406,588.30
• D EXPOSITO & PARTNERS - $800,684.72
• DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY - IRS - $195,794.95
• DIAMOND PHONE CARD - $15,000,000.00
• DIGICEL JAMAICA - $488,051.33
• EASTERN POINT COMMUNICATIONS LLC - $279,112.18
• EMPRESA NACIONAL DE TELECOMUNICACIONES SA - $840,553.90
• GENBAND US LLC - $122,079.00
• GEOTEL INTERNATIONAL LLC - $83,367.78
• GLOBAL INTERLINK LTD - $352,550.54
• IBASIS GLOBAL INC - $138,658.16
• ISEND LLC - $215,351.96
• JAZZ TELECOM S A U - $763,207.98
• LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS LLC - About 2.5 million in total claims
• MARCATEL COM SA DE DV - 12,306,097.00
• RAZA COMMUNICATION INC - $3,393,167.96
• SPRINT - $17,376,272.48
• & many more...

A complete list is available here (you can search one by one or you also have the option to perform a search to get a complete list).

Please note this is only a partial list and only includes only companies who have field a claim with the courts. Other big companies on this list include many different local and state agencies throughout the country, Federal governement offices, real estate companies, banks, shipping service companies (UPS has a claim in for over 100k alone) and media agencies.

WOW Prepaid Calling Card Commercial

2012 - Phone Card Industry Year in Review

Well we are just about ready to say farewell to another year and for the phone card business, it wasn't the most exciting of years in recent history. Unfortunately just like the year before, the top stories continued to be focused around the FTC crack down on deceptive practices in the industry and bankruptcies.

Some of the top phone card related stories of 2012 included:

• The once powerful STI going into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection (Vivaro is the parent company)
• Skype pushing into the hard card space (available at 7-11, Best Buy and Radio Shack)
• FTC fining DR Phone Card for deceptive marketing practices (case still ongoing)
• IDT expanding it's Point of Sale activation products into Rite Aid stores
• Millenium Telecard paying a 2.3 million dollar settlement to FTC for alleged deceptive marketing practices
• Consumer Reports publishing scathing review on phone cards finding that most cards tested delivered far lower than the advertised minutes. This report led a month long media flurry around the subject, painting a terrible picture for an industry which cannot afford more negative press!

While all of the above are definitely not positive news items that is not to imply that there were not at least a few positive things this past year. For starters in 2012 there was a huge expansion and mass acceptance of the "virtual" type cards also known as Pinless products. The most popular of which seems to be the IDT Boss Revolution offer followed hot on their heels by VoxCall a SpeedyPin product. Another positive in 2012 was the huge growth seen with the International Mobile Top Up products (IMTU). The margins are a ot lower than traditional calling cards but the consumer demand is there and it has helped many distributors replace some of their lost calling card business.

To all of my readers and those in the business have a Happy and Safe New Year!

Here is to better things in 2013!

Updates on Vivaro Corp. Bankruptcy

It has been about three months now since the powerhouse phone card company Vivaro Corporation and it's child companies STI Prepaid LLC, Epana and Kare Distribution entered into chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (filed Sept 5th 2012). The company continues to operate but it is not clear as to how long they can continue to operate in this environment as some of their distributors begin to withhold payments (more about this later). Unfortunately since the initial filing news has been limited and the company representatives mostly tight lipped so I thought I would put out a post with all of the updates I could provide.

• In early September, Vivaro applied for and was granted by the courts the ability to continue to honor it's cards already in the channel.

• In mid September, Vivaro made it known that it was open to a buyout.

• In late September, Gustavo M. De la Garza the President of Vivaro Corporation, steps down from his position as chairman of The American PrePaid Phonecall Association (APPPA) and is replaced by Pete Pattullo, CEO of Network IP.

• According to an article in the Prepaid Press from October, Red Cherry/Sigma Prepaid took over distribution for Vivaro's NY/NJ cards and in contrast to what you would expect with a company in bankruptcy, Vivaro is giving more minutes than advertised in some cases. Most likely to help continue the consumer and distributor trust in their products.

• In early November, Vivaro sued one of it's major distributors Raza Communications over what it claims is $7.4 million in missed payments. No doubt more of these type of lawsuits will follow!

• Numerous lawsuits filed from the companies owed monies are in process against Vivaro.

There are clearly a lot of rumors floating around in the phone card world but I won't dive into those and will stick with the known facts right now. I will post more information as it becomes publicly available!

Look Out World! Vonage Launches Digital Prepaid Calling Card!

Vonage put out a press release today announcing the launch of it's new stand alone, Digital prepaid calling card offering. A first for Vonage! They have long had a calling card feature bundled with their home phone service but they never offered a stand alone calling card until now.

The card is available exclusively online and is can be purchsed in $5, $15 or $25 amounts. The $15 purchase amount comes with a limited time intro promotional $5 bonus and the $25 purchase amount comes with a limited time inro promotional $10 bonus. The product seems to have very aggressive, yet not rock bottom, A to Z rates on par with it's main competitors like Pingo and PennyTalk. Some sample rates for the card are as follows:

• India $0.017/min
• Mexico $0.033/min
• UK $0.01/min
• Philippines $0.109/min
• Pakistan $0.111/min

New Vonage Digital Calling Card

There are no connection fees, no monthly fees and is fully rechargeable! However, the card is not completely fee free, charging a $2 inactivity fee per month after 6 months of no use.

The card also offers pinless dialing from up one registered phone, speed dial settings and a convenient auto recharge option.

For more information about this card, visit the Vonage website at  http://lp.vonage.com/callingcard

Tarzan Phone Card TV Commercial

Is this the End for STI?

Vivaro Corporation, the parent company for STI, filed a voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy petition this past past week in the NYC bankruptcy court for all of it's telecom related units including: Kare Distribution Inc, STI CC 1, LLC, STI CC 2, LLC, STI Telecom, Inc, STI Prepaid, LLC and TNW Communications.

Reason for Filling
Vivaro's revenues' have dropped by over 40% since 2010 and their total liabilities are double that of their current assets. Their cash flow situation is what forced them to finally to file for chapter 11 protection having slightly less than $150,000 in cash

Who they Owe the Most?
Sprint - $4.5 million dollars
Telecommunication Relay Service - $2.7 million dollars
Telecom Italia Sparkle - $2 million dollars
Verizon - $1.9 million dollars
Level 3 - $1.3 million dollars

How Many Phone Cards are Currently on the Street?
According to the bankruptcy filing, they have about 22 million unused active cards currently on the market representing about $31.2 million face value dollars.

What are Some of their Card Brands?
Digame, Mi Carnal, STI Family, El Chavo, Eroika, STI Edge, and Clarito

How Many Employees Jobs are Currently at Risk?
In total all of the companies listed above has a total of 231 full time employees & 64 part time employees.

What's Next?
It is important to note that chapter 11 does not mean the company is closing down, it just means that they are trying to seek temporary relief from creditors so that they can restructure and hopefully emerge more stable. However, the odds seem to be against Vivaro since most telco's in this position usually end up going to chapter 7 (bankruptcy) within weeks or months. Vivaro has made it clear that they need more time and absolutely cannot have their big creditors shut them down as they need to be able to honor all of the cards currently on the street as failure to continue to provide service for these cards will make a recovery all but impossible. There is a hearing on the motion is scheduled for September 10th.

Stay tuned for updates...

Skype Prepaid Cards Launched in Mexico

To make inroads into the the Mexican marketplace, Skype announced this week the introduction of Skype Prepaid Cards. These cards will help Skype get into this largely non credit card market by making two different types of prepaid cards available at local stores like 7-eleven, Best-Buy, and Radio Shack. The cards will be available in a 100 pesos format (unlimited calling to US and Canada) and a 150 pesos format which will provide a PAYG balance so users can call anyone of 170 countries world wide.

This move is sure to better position Skype in the huge Central American marketplace and one that will no doubt get the local operators to take notice!

New Skype prepaid cards now available in Mexico

FTC Cracks Down on Another Phone Card Distributor for Deceptive Practices

The latest phone card distributor to be slapped on the hand by the FTC is DR Phone Card owned and operated by David Rosenthal, a long standing distributor of prepaid calling cards dating all the way back to the Econophone days from the early 2000s. The FTC is suing the company for deceptive advertising practices using terms like "No Fees" on posters for cards where there were fees and for delivering less than the advertised minutes on its cards. The FTC tested 169 of the companies cards and on each and everyone found that they delivered far less than the advertised minutes. In fact they found that most delivered less than 50% of the advertised minutes. If the lawsuit is successful, consumers most likely stand to get some relief in form of minutes or some sort of other type of financial settlement.

Pending the court hearing DR Phone Cards has agreed to stop all "deceptive" practices the FTC lists in it's suit and has agreed to cooperate fully with the FTC and the courts on this matter.

To read more on the suit, visit the FTC web site.

Hitch Phone Card Commercial - United Telecard

US Government Bans The Sale of Phone Cards

In what will sure send shock-waves through the phone card business, the US Government recently announced that it has passed a law banning the sale of prepaid phone cards. Congressional spokesman Dr Pepper issued the following statement: "Phone Cards are just bad and we don't want them sold anymore." The ban is set to go into effect starting today April 1st and lawmakers are wasting no time on their next major law, the ban of sugar in chocolate followed by.... April fools!!!!!

The Death of the Payphone

It's hard to believe that only 10 years ago the payphone market was at its peak with over 2 million payphone scattered throughout the United States. You couldn't walk for more than 100 feet in any direction in a major city without seeing one! Today you would have to walk for miles to see one! The American Public Communications council now estimates that there are approximately 400,000 payphone left in the US and declining at a rate of about 10% per year.

I can't say this is a surprise. The proliferation of the cellular phone has made the payphone much less useful. In fact the decline of the payphone matches u exactly with the growth of the mobile phone market. Today almost 90% of Americans use cell phones and with the recent popularity of prepaid mobile, even the recent immigrants and lower classes also now own a mobile phone. It used to be the convenience store always had a payphone outside for the immigrant groups to go and use their phone cards to make a call back home but today, those same people now walk out of the store, pull out their cell phone and use their phone card to make the call.

The major telecommunication companies have already abandoned this once hugely profitable business with Verizon selling off most of it's payphone to PTS in 2011 (AT&T and Sprint sold off their businesses in 2008 and 2006, respectively). There is still a market out there for payphones especially in high traffic service related public areas like airports, train stations, hospitals and rest stops, it's just going to take you a little longer to find the one or two phones which are now most likely hidden off in a corner somewhere. If it continues this way, 10 years from now the only place you will be able to find a payphone is in a museum!

Stats courtesy of the Payphone News

IDT Inks a Deal to Sell Calling Cards in Rite Aid Stores

IDT has been selling phone cards in Walgreens stores for years but this month IDT announced that they have an agreement to sell IDT Phone Cards in Rite Aid stores across the country. The cards will be available in approximately 4700 retail locations in 31 states and will be co-branded with the Rite Aid logo. The cards will feature minutes ranging from as low as 150 per card all the way up to 2000 minutes per card and range in price from $5 to $50.

"IDT has been an industry leader for over 15 years and brings to Rite Aid a wealth of experience providing practical, prepaid communication solutions that we believe our Rite Aid customers will use and appreciate," said Bill Renz, Rite Aid vice president, consumables. "As an added incentive, customers who recharge an existing card with new minutes from a Rite Aid store will receive 10 percent additional minutes for free."

The deal probably means more in name than it does in terms of added revenue, but it still is a significant accomplishment especially in the declining hard card market. The deal also helps IDT push it's services to the mainstream as most of the companies success with hard cards has come from the recent immigrant consumers and not the mainstream.

Vox Call PinLess Commercial - Agent Program

Harvard University Students Set the Record for the Longest Phone Call!

A Harvard university group called "The Harvard Generalist" have teamed up with Ibasis and their rechargeable calling card program called Pingo to attempt to get into the Guiness Book of World records for what would be the "Longest Phone Call."

The rules, according to their website dictate that the students must keep the call going and actively talk in real conversations (no gibberish or yes no type exchanges) and taking no more than 10 second pauses between comments. The time to beat: 43 hours, 8 minutes, 55 seconds. That is one long call!!! Good thing they have Pingo flipping the bill ;)

In the end they managed to do it, talking for 46 hours 12 minutes and 52 second . Congrats Guys & Gals on one of the weirdest achievements I have ever heard about!

Check out the following article from their Harvard Student Newspaper, The Crimson... it appears they had a lot of fun with this world record attempt!

>Picture above from The Harvard Crimson Newspaper shows one of the students on the active call and it seems the students decorated the room quite nicely with lots of blankets and other items to keep the participants comfy!