Phone Plus Prepaid: contracts & deals

Posted: 09/2002

contracts & deals

Compiled and reported by Khali
Henderson and Tara Seals

Debisys Provides PoSA to Cellular
Warehouse, Voicelink

Debisys Inc. completed a WAN
integration with Cellular Warehouse, an authorized distributor of Cingular
Wireless products and services, for processing prepaid transactions. The company
also will provide turnkey electronic point-of-sale (PoS) processing technology
to prepaid distributor Voicelink Communications Inc.

Debisys provides proprietary
transaction processing software that automates PoS activation (PoSA) and
electronic payment processing for prepaid cellular and home phone,
long-distance, gift and other products and for processing ATM/debit and credit
card transactions.

Voicelink will use Debisys’ system
to activate prepaid telephony services it sells through universities, colleges
and retail channels. "When selecting a partner to bring prepaid telephony
services to market, Voicelink evaluated its options and determined that Debisys
has an unmatched technology solution," says Ann Johns, president and CEO of
Voicelink. "The Debisys solution allows Voicelink to manage and distribute
our prepaid inventory while eliminating the inefficiencies of ‘live card’
distribution."

In addition, Debisys will provide
its technology to more than 100 Cingular stores and kiosks Cellular Warehouse
operates in the western United States.

Cellular Warehouse is the first
company to use WAN integration in the Debisys prepaid processing network. All
transactions will be processed to the Cellular Warehouse corporate host data
center, which relays the transaction in real time to the Debisys data processing
network for authorization.

Debsys president and CEO Mark
Flanagan says the company’s ability to integrate its technology and enable
transactions on a host-to-host basis will allow distributors and operators to
process prepaid services through an existing PoS system.

Blackstone Delivers TracFone
Prepaid Wireless PIN Distribution

Blackstone will distribute prepaid
wireless airtime codes from TracFone Wireless Inc. via the Blackstone POS
system, which is available at more than 5,000 retail outlets.

"Today’s prepaid wireless
customer expects their service provider to offer a convenient one-step option to
buy airtime at retail," said Stephan J. Ritter, TracFone Wireless executive
vice president of sales and marketing.

The patented Blackstone POS
integrates the processing of major credit cards and ATM/Debit/EBT cards with the
sale of prepaid wireless and calling cards into one point-of-sale terminal.

First Mobile Japan Deploys
VocalTec Solution for International Service

First Mobile Japan Co. Ltd. (FMJ) is
deploying a calling card solution from VocalTec Communications Ltd. for a new
international calling service targeting prepaid calling card consumers.

The service covers calls from Japan
to China, with subsequent expansion to cover Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia
and Brazil, and is based on VocalTec’s voice over IP (VoIP) architecture.

FMJ plans to expand its service
offering to include the provision of global private voice services to
multinational enterprises with globally scattered branch offices. This is
achieved by deploying VocalTec’s VoIP VPN solution on the same multiservice
architecture.

Ntera Deploys Riverstone Metro
Solution to Deliver IP Voice Services to Prepaid Carriers

Ntera Inc. deployed metro routers
from Riverstone Networks Inc. to deliver packet voice solutions, reducing costs
through network simplification, and offering carriers new profitable service
opportunities, such as toll-bypass and prepaid calling.

Deployed in about 30 Ntera PoPs
worldwide, Riverstone’s RS 8000 metro routers provide IP connectivity between
Ntera’s voice gateways and the Internet. Riverstone’s Hitless Protection System
(HPS) enables Ntera to deliver consistent toll-quality voice services over
dedicated bandwidth and the Internet. With HPS, Riverstone’s metro routers
continue functioning with no impact on live traffic during service disruptions,
improving network recovery times by a factor of 60 and eliminating at least 25
hours of network downtime and 250 hours of router downtime in a 500-router
network each year.

Telefyne to Promote Q Comm’s
Qxpress 200 PoSA Solution

Q Comm International Inc. announced
Telefyne Inc. would promote Q Comm’s Qxpress 200 point-of-sale activation
solution.

Telefyne is a facilities-based
carrier and switch-based reseller of prepaid services for retail and wholesale
customers. The company’s mainstay is switching prepaid traffic and serves some
of the largest distributors and domestic carriers in the nation. The company
directly supplies prepaid cards to 4,500 retailers nationwide and, through its
distributors, indirectly supplies an additional 15,000. Telefyne founder and CEO
Jorge Bellas, says his company’s need for a user-friendly PoSA environment to
manage inventory led him to Q Comm Qxpress 200 system.

GTS Prepaid Partners With Wawa

GTS Prepaid Inc. (GTS) has signed an
agreement with Wawa Food Markets to provide the convenience store chain with
prepaid telecom products and services.

By mid-July, GTS will provide a
range of prepaid products, including nationally branded prepaid phone cards,
prepaid wireless phones and refill cards, wireless accessories and prepaid
Internet to all Wawa’s 540 locations in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The agreement also includes the
placement of PoSA terminals in every Wawa location.

Cingular Wireless Unifies Prepaid
Services on bcgi Nationwide Network

Boston Communications Group Inc.
announced Cingular Wireless has signed a multiyear contract to expand its
implementation of bcgi’s Prepaid Wireless service offering in all of its TDMA
markets throughout the country. Cingular Wireless serves more than 22 million
voice and data customers throughout the United States.

Cingular’s expanded implementation
of prepaid wireless will take advantage of bcgi’s platform capabilities,
allowing support for features such as nationwide roaming, caller ID, call
waiting, voicemail, two-way text messaging, mCommerce, multiple recharge methods
and Web-based customer care.

bcgi Prepaid Wireless is an
end-to-end prepaid solution combining bcgi proprietary software applications,
fully hosted voice messaging and networking capabilities delivered through the
bcgi IVSN (Intelligent Voice Services Network), and a fully hosted and managed
back-office subscriber management platform. Platform features include
triggerless, standards-based call processing, XML-based integration to
additional network elements, BSS and OSS systems, and voice messaging and
customer care capabilities.

In addition, the bcgi platform is
integrated to more than 115,000 retail PoPs, including Western Union and
RadioShack locations throughout North America, providing carriers with real-time
cash collection and payment processing.