What is the Future of Prepaid Phone Cards?

While most of us will no doubt agree the prepaid phone card boom is well behind us, but the real question now is what kind of future does the prepaid card business hold?The answer, seems to be clear by the fact that the once powerful companies, like UTA and STI are just not doing well. Sales of prepaid cards are at an all time low and I think the market was just so badly managed and abused that the customers are more willing to try other methods of long distance calling, like with prepaid cellular phone, VOIP services (Skype/Vonage) as well as traditional long distance. The idea that the average prepaid phone card customer is credit challenged and prefers cash business is changing and more and more immigrants are either becoming more credit enabled or now have the means, through prepaid cash cards and other debit systems, to buy more mainstream services. Immigrant consumers are more educated and technology savvy than they were 5 years ago and the rates that Ma Bell and VOIP players are offering today are so low that it is almost no wonder why a lot of people are turning away from phone cards.