Business News - IDT Latest Entrant in Nickel-Minute Race

By Khali Henderson

Posted: 06/2000

IDT Latest Entrant in Nickel-Minute Race
By Khali Henderson

After two months of strong in-market results, IDT Corp.
(www.idt.com) launched an aggressive multimedia consumer campaign for five-cents-a-minute long-distance phone service, making it the latest to join the nickel-minute race. Sprint Communications Inc.
(www.sprint.com), MCI WorldCom Inc. (www.wcom.com) and a few smaller competitors have 5 cent plans.

“IDT’s plan is the real thing. No games, no gimmicks, no dial-around numbers to call, just a straight flat rate, anywhere in the U.S. and internationally, anytime,” says Howard Jonas, IDT’s chairman and CEO. Most subscribers to IDT’s long-distance service receive state-to-state long-distance rates of only 5 cents a minute to anywhere in the continental United States, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The plan also comes with a long-distance calling card which enables subscribers to make domestic long-distance calls to anywhere in the contiguous United States for only 10 cents a minute.

The latest price plan from the No. 2 long-distance carrier, which is a spin-off of its MCI 5 Cent Sundays plan, offers the nickel rate on all calls made between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. during the week and all weekend, and 10 cents per minute for weekday daytime calling for a monthly fee of just $4.95. This is a leg up on Sprint’s Nickel Nights, which offers consumers nickel-a-minute calling seven nights a week between 7 and 9 p.m. (10 cents all other times) for a $5.95 monthly fee.

New customer sign-ups for IDT’s long distance and international phone service are approaching 1,000 a day. The two-month market introduction included Direct Response TV spots in over 40 markets nationwide.