Phone Plus Prepaid:  Product News

Posted: 6/2003

Product News
MGI USA RELEASES PLASTICARD DIGITAL
PRESS, PUNCHCARD DIE CUTS

MGI USA, a manufacturer of digital
color printing equipment, rolled out its new synthetic digital press and two
plastic card production units. The result is a complete turnkey plastic card
solution from print to finish in less than a 10 X 10-foot workspace.

The new digital press, PlastiCard,
is designed for small and medium-sized runs on synthetic materials, such as PVC,
Polyester, PET, polycarbonates, Lexan, Teslin SP and more. It accommodates 13 x
19 inch sheets, allowing 21 to 24-up ISO format card (i.e., credit card sized)
per sheet. It also allows printing on synthetic substrates from 0.4 mil to 0.13
mil.

In addition to the press, the
company has introduced an industrial production unit for converting and
finishing plastic cards. The new PunchCard Pro allows simultaneous two-sided
lamination of the card as well as high precision die cutting with rounded
corners. Its production speed is more than 800 cards per hour. PunchCard Pro is
fully automated, including automatic advance and production conveyor.

PunchCard Jr., another new unit, is
a standalone semi-automated plastic card die cutting station equipped with three
simultaneous male/female dies, optical recognition and a fully automated advance
feature. The PunchCard wil die cut each sheet up to 21 cards (credit card sized)
with rounded corners.

MGI USA
1600 Sarno Road, Suite 118
Melbourne, FL 32935
+1 321 751 6755
www.mgi-usa.com

ITXC PREMIUM PROGRAMS OFFER
INTERNATIONAL TERMINATION TO PREPAID PROVIDERS

ITXC Corp. rolled out a new service
designed specifically for the Prepaid Calling industry. Called the ITXC Premium
Programs, the new service enables international prepaid providers to outsource
call completion for some or all of their programs to ITXC.

Prior to this offer, service
providers generally have had to buy a route at a time, often from several
providers for each route because no one provider delivers consistent quality and
quantity. Costs for multiple carrier connections — which are often idle — add
cost and complexity to the business. Service providers also have struggled with
the time it takes to provision separate connections for new destinations;
opening up a new route can take months causing service providers to lose first
mover advantage and miss opportunities.

In contrast, service providers that
use ITXC Premium Programs can access a network with the depth to provide the
quality and quantity each individual route requires and the breadth to provide
all the routes in a program for almost any conceivable program.

ITXC supplies all the capital
equipment required for immediate outbound capacity (to qualified service
providers), and the relationships necessary to deliver termination on both
popular and new prepaid routes.

ITXC Corp.
750 College Road E.
Princeton, NJ 08540
+1 609 750 3333
www.itxc.com

CONVERGYS ADDS PREPAID GATEWAY

Convergys Corp. announced the
availability of its Convergys Prepaid Gateway for Atlys and Geneva clients. The
integrated billing component acts as an interface between the Atlys or Geneva
real-time rating engine and the intelligent network (IN) platform that handles
mobile network call control, providing operators with a truly unified method of
supporting all prepaid and postpaid customers.

Convergys’ Atlys end-to-end billing
product and Geneva rating and billing software already contain integrated
prepaid and postpaid functionality to support mobile commerce and content
services. The Convergys Prepaid Gateway further extends the capability by
enabling the full integration of the Atlys or Geneva rating engine with voice
and data services managed by the IN service control point.

Unlike OSS that separately handle
prepaid and postpaid customers, the Convergys Prepaid Gateway is a network-grade
component that resides between the IN service control point and the Atlys or
Geneva rating engine to offer the true integration, real-time rating engine
access, high availability and low latency.

Convergys Corp.
4600 Montgomery Road
Cincinnati, OH 45212
+1 513 458 1300
www.convergys.com

VOICECUE TECHNOLOGIES, INFO
DIRECTIONS CREATE CONVERGED PREPAID, POSTPAID BILLING PLATFORM

VoiceCue Technologies Inc., a
telecommunications applications software company specializing in real-time
provisioning and billing, and Info Directions Inc., a developer of net-centric
billing, customer relationship and supply-chain management solutions, announced
a strategic partnership to create a converged prepaid and postpaid billing
platform.

VoiceCue and Info Directions
integrated their products to build one complete solution that blends all of the
benefits of postpaid with the real-time voice and data transaction processing.
In the converged platform, VoiceCue incorporated its real-time prepaid rating
engine, VoiceCue Blue, and Info Directions incorporated its postpaid net-centric
billing solution, CostGuard XG. Adding real-time authorization and rating to a
postpaid platform allows carriers to offer a variety of voice and data services
to subscribers, while minimizing exposure to bad debt.

A common customer care layer
translates into one simple interface for both prepaid and postpaid. Now customer
service representatives (CSRs) only need to learn one interface, ultimately
reducing customer service costs and training overhead.

The platform also makes it easy for
carriers to move subscribers between prepaid and postpaid. Account management is
not just limited to credit status; it can also be customized to how subscribers
desire to pay for each service, including both voice and data options.

Carriers can market integrated
balance management options to both families and businesses. For example,
carriers can use the same balance for families in which some members have credit
limits and some do not. In a work environment, subscribers can utilize prepaid
for their work calls and Internet minutes, which often are covered by their
employer while using postpaid for their personal calling minutes. In addition,
integrated balance management allows for multiple services per single balance,
providing one balance for voice services, one balance for m-commerce and one
balance for text messaging.

The VoiceCue and Info Directions
converged platform can be customized according to carriers’ business
requirements and personalized based on specific preferences. It works in both
wireless and wireline environments and is provided as an ASP model.

Info Directions Inc.
833 Phillips Road
Victor, NY 14564
+1 888 924 4110
www.infodirections.com.

VoiceCue Technologies Inc.
1700 Higgins Road, Suite 350
Des Plaines, IL 60018
+1 800 808 2600
www.voicecue.com.

DCA ROLLS OUT CUSTOMER CARE, POS
SYSTEMS

DCA Services has rolled out the
latest version of its customer care system, DCA Customer Care version 5.0, as
well as its new PoS and interactive voice response (IVR) systems.

DCA’s PoS connects to DCA Cust-omer
Care to allow remote agents to enter customer information and create a shell
account. The system interfaces to DCA Provisioning (DCAP) to electronically
provision orders to the ILECs. If an order has errors, DCA’s system will work to
clean these errors electronically.

In addition, the PoS allows remote
agents to know the status of their customers: whether a customer is cancelled,
has a dispute, is in collections or is archived or suspended. They also can view
the type of service (local or long distance) a customer has, the customer’s
payment plan and the status on payment for a new installation, if applicable.
Through PoS, representatives at remote locations can also manage their cash
drawers, record customer comments, take customer payments and send work orders
to dispatch.

PoS interfaces with DCA Customer
Care version 5.0. This new software version contains additional features to
support greater workflow as well as DCA’s enhanced system automation.

DCA Customer Care 5.0 also contains
a real-time taxing feature, which applies state and local taxes to phone service
and accessories purchased at a remote location or through an agent. This service
allows an end user to pay for their service and accessories at a remote location
and ensures the telecom company will collect the correct taxes.

In conjunction with the roll out of
DCA Customer Care 5.0 and the PoS system, DCA has also developed an IVR system
to improve call volume management, enhance collection efforts and monitor
dispatch services. DCA’s IVR system offers multiple language support and can be
used for inbound and outbound calls, as well as dispatch reporting.

The outbound IVR can be set up to
make calls to remind end users they are past due on paying for service or that
their service is about to expire. Depending on state rules and parameters set by
the client, the IVR can handle disconnect orders by automatically interfacing
with DCA’s order management system and DCA Provisioning, which instantaneously
interfaces to ILECs.

The IVR also provides a time stamp
for dispatchers in the field, allowing them to report when they’re at the
customer’s site, when they’ve fixed the problem, and how the customer will pay
for the service.

DCA Services
300 N. Meridian
Oklahoma City, OK 73107
+1 405 951 9300
www.dcaservices.com

NET DG UNVEILS SOA SERVICE BUREAU

SNET Diversified Group Inc. debuted
its SOA Service Bureau. Based on technology from Evolving Systems, it manages
preport interactions required between carriers through a single, user-friendly
Web GUI. The service, which takes about a month-and-a-half to install and get
running at a carrier, also includes resolution software to support porting
between wireline and wireless carriers. That’s important considering wireless
number portability is required by November, and the number of porting events for
all carriers is expected to jump dramatically.

The SOA software will convert the
service order data into a porting transaction, or subscription version, that can
be processed easily by the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC). Once
formatted, subscription versions will be transmitted to the appropriate
regional-level NPAC. The SOA platform has dedicated and backup connections and
auto transmission retry to ensure high reliability,

SNET DG’s solution can be integrated
into an existing service order entry system or it can operate as a standalone
system. SNET DG also offers an external database of historical data with
extensive query capabilities so the carrier’s customer care and repair service
personnel can better serve their customers. Reports will be available on almost
any criteria. Carriers even will be able to check the porting history of a
subscriber before processing the service order.

SNET Diversified Group Inc.
530 Preston Ave.
Meridien, CT 06450
+1 800 447 6386
www.snetdg.com