Lawsuit against IDT, Provider of Prepaid Phone Cards

Class action
Does a class action lawsuit get our industry’s attention? Not really. When IDT, the volume leader in our effervescent industry, the “Coca Cola” in a world of Pepsi and Dr. Pepper, was named in a class action lawsuit, few people in our industry seemed to care. The suit represented U.S. customers who purchased IDT calling cards from 1997 to Jan. 22, 2007, claiming that the amount of minutes advertised on cards did not match the amount of minutes delivered. Sound familiar? As IDT headed to the courthouse, many of their competitors seemed to continue doing business as usual. IDT’s decision to fight the allegations brought heated discussion at a past Intele-CardNews Editorial Advisory Board meeting held by this magazine. Some felt IDT was surely wrong and should pay. IDT maintained innocence and the right to defend against any and all allegations. In January when the suit was settled for $20 million, IDT continued to maintain innocence, but agreed to settle to eliminate litigation costs and uncertainties.

Tit for tat
After settling their lawsuit and amending their business practices, IDT’s second-quarter results were less than stellar. In fact, a 10 percent drop in revenue led IDT to investigate its competitors’ calling cards. IDT claims they found their rivals significantly overstating the number of minutes delivered on their cards. In what some would call an ingenious business maneuver and others would term a total shock, on March 8, 2007, IDT sued six of its competitors, alleging that the companies were essentially doing what IDT was accused of in the class action suit, not delivering advertised minutes on prepaid calling cards. IDT’s civil anti-fraud lawsuit is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions against the competing companies. The complaint alleges that deceptive practices by their competitors are causing consumers to lose more than $1 million a day. They are merely trying to level the playing field, they say. This leaves some pundits wondering how long this can go on? How many more lawsuits will there be? Will this industry be driven out of business by legal fees? Will smaller companies be forced out of business or will they start delivering the minutes they advertise?

Source:
http://www.intelecard.com/

Funny Phone Ads

source: www.seanquinnproductions.tk

Jury Issues $156 million Dollar Judgement Against At&t Over Prepaid Calling Cards

A federal jury recently ruled in favor of Dallas based TGIP Inc. on their claim that At&t had used two of their patents that allowed the company to deliver point of sale activation for some of their prepaid calling cards. The lawsuit was originally filed back in March of 2006 and named At&t as well as Verizon, MCI and IDT. The later three companies settled out of court but At&t fought it all the way.

The $156 million dollar award was determined by a 4% royalty on At&ts 3.5 billion in calling card sales during the time frame in question.While At&t is going to appeal the verdict, it seems as if this company has set the proper precedent in court to lay claim to most of the POSA technology in the market today.

Ariel Lin in Phone Card Ads (Part 2)

This is another version of the same phone card ad featuring Ariel Lin.



Click here for the other phonecard ad featuring Ariel Lin

Enjoy !

Vonage Introduces New International Calling Packages

Broadband phone provider, Vonage, has launched a number of new international calling plans for new and existing residential subscribers in the U.S.

The new plans are available to Premium Unlimited customers for an additional monthly fee of $6 to $15 per month. The Premium Unlimited service costs $24.99 per month, and comes with built-in unlimited calling within the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and the UK.

Vonage is now offering customized international long distance plans covering Asia, Europe, and Latin America, as well as a “world” service encompassing 60 overseas jurisdictions.

To better promote these new options, Vonage has added a special search function to its international rates page, allowing customers to conveniently determine which international plan suits them best.

Souce:
http://www.teleclick.ca/2007/09/vonage-introduces-new-international-calling-packages/

Beware of the Hidden Fees in Phone Cards

Woman Won Over Verizon's False Bill Claims

Shaila Touchton, an Indian-decent woman, was very surprised one day when she received a bill from Verizon for $590 for calls to India, Colorado and New Jersey. When she complained to Verizon's customer service, they put her in a long hold for hours several times, and they still claimed that she owed them for those long distance and international calls.

Touchton has been using a particular calling card to make calls to India and other long distance calls, and always used the 1-800 number. She said she never did long distance and international calls directly from her phone, and moreover, the Colorado and New Jersey calls proved this bill wass false since she and her husband did not know anyone in those states.

After getting nowhere with the customer service, she finally contacted a media outlet in south Florida. As soon as the media outlet contacted Verizon, they credited her account for those disputed calls. However, even though they credited her back, they still belive that she accidently punched the wrong dial when using her prepaid phone card and got switched to Verizon's international calling plan.

Not saying this woman is lying but having been in this business for a while, there have been so many times people calling into the calling card customer service department saying that their local phone company charged them for calls they made using the prepaid phone cards. And 9 out of 10 times it is usually due to users' error, forgetting to dial the access number and just dialing directly. It is possible that Verizon made a mistake but it's also possible that she made a mistake.

Source:
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=63720

Sprint Will Launch Airave Indoor Antena in Denver, Indianapolis

Sprint will begin to offer the Airave CDMA booster antenna, which is designed to be installed alongside a broadband internet connection similar to T-Mobile's new @Home service.

Unlike T-Mobile's offering, the Airave does not require new handsets, nor does it suffer from range and maximum user constraints, allowing three simultaneous users as well as providing a total useful range of 5000 square feet.

The unit will launch initially in the Denver and Indianapolis markets for $50, with monthly service fees of $15 dollars for a single line of service, and $30 dollars under family service plans.

Source: http://www.phonenews.com/content/view/2308/9/

Ariel Lin in Phone Card Ads

Enjoy =)

2007 JD Power and Associates Prepaid Wireless Customer Satisfaction Results

JD Power and Associates released their 2007 prepaid wireless customer satisfaction results yesterday and to no surprise Virgin Mobile was on top! Also this being the second year for the study, the customer satisfaction results seemed to be much improved over 2006 numbers. The reason for the improvement was mostly due to much more attractive plan offerings and better pricing.Virgin Mobile won the top spot for the second year in a row followed by AT&T, GO Phone, Boost Mobile and T-Mobile To Go.

Statistically:

• Prepaid users spend an average of $38 when purchasing additional airtime. Comparatively, the average monthly service cost for typical postpaid customers is $71.
  
• Prepaid customers report using 218 minutes per month, less than one-half as much as postpaid customers, who average 528 minutes per month.
  Approximately 59 percent of prepaid phones that are prepackaged with minutes are purchased from retail stores, while an additional 25 percent of customers report purchasing a prepackaged phone via the Internet.
• Approximately 16 percent of customers purchase activated minutes cards separately from their cell phones.
  The percentage of prepaid customers who use a card provided by their local retailer to purchase additional airtime minutes is equal to the percentage of customers who use the provider's Web site to do so 36 percent.
• Thirteen percent of prepaid customers use their handsets to purchase additional minutes in 2007, which has increased from 10 percent in 2006.

To read more about the survey and read the whole piece from the above quote, go to JD Power web site