State and Region Phone Cards

The trend in the phone card industry today is to issue calling cards that are state or regional specific. There are several good reasons for this calling card distribution trend.

First calling cards issued for a specific state are typically targeted to countries called more often by local residents of that state. When an issuer builds a rate deck for Ohio, they are going to ask me about the demographics of Ohio. They may also ask Jim Howard in Cincinatti, or Miguel in Columbus. In this manner the new phone card is more likely to suceed, since it will offer more minutes and more advertised minutes to Philippines, Senegal, Ukraine, Poland, El Salvador and other countries which are most important to the foriegn born Ohioans.

Next, the card might offer local access numbers for the major cities in Ohio, and perhaps some local access numbers in surrounding states. This is important because when a consumer dials a local access number to make a phone call, the phone card service provider does not pay for the 800 access charges, nor does the service provider pay for pay phone surcharges. These savings can be passed along to the consumer in the way or more real minutes.

Finally, since the card is geared to one or perhaps two or three states, the issuer will only release the phone card for distribution by one distributor in each city, and because the phone card will presumable be highly targeted, the local access phone card has a greater chance of being sucessful than a widely targeted 800 access phone card. The sucess of the Ohio calling card, means that the selected calling card distributors will enjoy greater sucess in their distribution business, and naturally want to purchase more phone cards from the issuer. So creating a highly targeted phone card and giving it to just one distributor in a city, (assuming that the issuer inforces territorial boundries), will ensure great sucess and loyalty. This greater control allows distributors to establish pricing that increses the profit margin to the distributor, and thus allows the phone card distributor to offer better customer service to the local stores.

These three reasons contribute to the large number of local access phone cards coming to the market today. There is also an additional reason for the sucess of local access phone cards. Savvy consumers have figured out that if you use a cell phone that has free domestic long distance calling, then you can reach a local access number from anywhere in the United States.

Here in Ohio we are building quite a portfolio of "Ohio Phone Cards". Here is a partial list. For a more comprehensive list contact Phone Card Hotline or check the wholesale posters listed at www.phonecardhotline.com

STI Ohio Plus - international
Eastern Gold - is issued by Phone Card Hotline and has been very good for Ukraine and Eastern Europe - Local Access Numbers in Ohio, Michigan, IL, PA and most other states where a lot of Ukrainians live.
Latino Pearl is issued by Phone Card Hotline phone card is good for Puerto Rico, and some other destinations in Central America, and is especially good for the rest of Eastern Europe (excluding Ukraine)
9278 comes out with the "phone card of the week" and many of them while short lived, are very good for a few months.
Entrix NS America Latino Ohio - Michigan is issued by Union Telecard Alliance, and is very good for Mexico and the rest of Latin America
Fabuloso Ohio, is excellent for Mexico and a number of other targeted countries.

phone card posters - calling card rates

I would estimate that 99% of all phone cards that are issued in the United States are accompanied by a phone card poster that shows the international rates that the phone card issuer is advertising. www.phonecardhotline.com/posters/posterlist.asp has compiled a list of calling card posters which are updated on a regular basis.

It is important to understand that the actual minutes delivered by the phone card company are almost always less than the amount of minutes advertised on their printed poster. This is due because most phone cards charge various calling card fees, calling card surcharges and calling card taxes. The phone card poster generally advertises the minutes offered assuming one single call. The phonecard poster will usually have fine print disclosure that talks about all the fees.

The best use of the phone card poster is to determine the country, contries or regions of the world that the calling card is made for. This is best determined by looking at the poster design, and checking out which countries are advertised with the biggest typeface on the poster. If a phone card poster shows only one country such as Honduras Tren, then it is a safe bet that the phone card is designed for people calling home to Honduras.

New Phone Cards - Tienlen - Total Europe - Smart Exclusive

Tienlen Phone Card
issued by ILDS features Vietnam with 70 minutes to Vietnam on the $5 Tienlen prepaid phone card - including Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh city. Also advertises 50 minutes to Vientnam mobile. the Tienlen calling card offers a basket of countires with 301 minutes incluindig all of western Europe, Austrailia, USA and Israel. Tienlen covers Cambodia at 38 minutes, Laos at 103 minutes, Thailand at 225 minutes
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Total Europe phone card
is popular in Chicago and the midwest and features Poland advertising 700 minutes on the $5 Total Europe calling card. Total Europe advertises you can Call home to Lithuania 150 minutes, Sofia Bulgaria 310 minutes, Bucharest Romania 150 minutes, Ukraine 102 minutes, and 1000 minutes to Moscow and St. Petersburg - Issued by Callaway Communications
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Smart Card Exclusive phone card
Oblio has issued an upgrade to the long popular Smart Card phone card. While Oblio Telecom continues to offer the original Smart Card, this new Smart Card prepaid calling card is issued by Sprint. Smart Exclusive retails at $5.99 and advertises Nigeria 165 minutes - Costa Rica 150 minutes - Iraq 75 minutes - India 75 minutes - Kuwait 75 minutes - Pakistan 50 minutes - ghana 70 minutes- Sierra Leone 75 minutes - . Rates available at 1-888-894-3455.
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Reliable India Phone Card
Issued by ReliableCom of India - (not associated with florida based Reliance - Reliable - NEC - INTC) - The Reliable India international prepaid calling card features no connection fee - no maintenance fee - no roundings - no hidden charges. With Reliable India phonecard you will talk for 50 minutes to India for $5 including multiple calls over many days, weeks up to 90 days.
Many other countries look attractive on the Reliable phone card

IDT Telecom or Venture Capitalist

One of my phone card suppliers just sent me this link to an article regarding IDT. IDT is affiliated with Union Telecard - Entrix - DSA and is a leader in the prepaid international calling card industry.

http://biz.yahoo.com/fool/061011/116059667017.html?.v=1

Motley FoolIDT: Telecom or Venture Capitalist?
Wednesday October 11, 3:57 pm ET By Matthew Crews

On Tuesday, IDT (NYSE: IDT - News) reported its fourth-quarter and fiscal full-year earnings. This semi-conglomerate does lots of things, it seems -- except make money. From fiscal 1994 to fiscal 2006, IDT earned a profit from operations in only one year, 1999. It's a true testament to the equity markets' imagination that IDT remains an ongoing concern.
In its most recent earnings statement, IDT's full-year revenues, which exclude the IDT Entertainment segment, were essentially flat at $2.2 billion. Fourth-quarter revenues were up $8 million, or 1.5%. Operating losses expanded from $139.8 million in fiscal 2005 to $220.8 million in fiscal 2006. Fourth-quarter operating losses improved from $57 million to $44 million. As you would guess, returns on equity and capital were negative.

One of the only bright spots has been the IDT Entertainment segment, which actually made money. However, it was just sold to Liberty Media Interactive (Nasdaq: LINTA - News). Meanwhile, Net2Phone, which IDT took public in 1999, was bought back. It's now a wholly owned subsidiary in the IDT Telecom segment.

Basically, it looks like business as usual. How does this company, which can't turn a profit from operations, remain an ongoing entity? I'm guessing that IDT, which began life as a telecom, is surviving as a venture capitalist. IDT's day job of selling prepaid phone cards to companies such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT - News) and Walgreen (NYSE: WAG - News) is now just an attempt to support the development of new businesses as a part of the IDT Capital operations. Management must have gotten the idea after its initial success with Net2Phone's IPO and the latest divestiture of IDT Entertainment; these have been the only real sources of positive cash flow for the company.

Management is pinning its hopes on selling brochure racks found in airport lounges, utility and natural gas services in New York, AM radio in Washington D.C., and an ethnic grocery-brands business based on IDT's recent purchase of Vitarroz. Frankly, I don't see these new ventures offering much hope for the future.

To buy this stock, you must have serious conviction that management can incubate these new business lines into profitable divestitures or IPOs before the company bleeds to death from continued operations. Me? I'm amazed IDT has lasted this long. Wal-Mart is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick.

Fool contributor Matthew Crews welcomes your feedback -- really! He does not have a financial position in any stock mentioned. The Fool has a disclosure policy

Ethnic Marketing - Where does my customer live

If you are selling prepaid phone cards today, then you are an international marketing specialist or becoming one. You try to find the best phone cards for your ethnic clientel. The typical phonecard distributor has 20 or 30 different phone cards in his or her portfolio, and more likely he has more than 50 different international calling cards. Even so, chances are you do not sell phone cards for calling 150 different countries.

Most cities around the United States have an ethnic thumbprint. Call phone card distributors around the country and you will learn that each city has its unique combination of international foreign born residents.

For example, here in Cleveland, we have a strong historical Eastern European heritage going back at least three generations. If you have lived in Cleveland at any time in your life, you know people who are of Polish decent. Phonecard distributors need to know the mix of first generation people living in their town, and they need to know where they live. In Cleveland we have first generation Polish families living in the neighborhood known as Slavic Village, which is located along Fleet avenue. In Parma, there are a dozen ethnic stores owned by Ukrainians, catering to the Eastern European population of about 10,000 families.

Our Eastern European population includes people from Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Czech Republic. More recently we have added many families from Romania, Albania, Bosnia, Serbia.

The Cleveland has about the same number of families from western Europe, especially Germany, Ireland, Greece and Hungary.

The vast majority of our first generation Latino population in Northeast Ohio is from Puerto Rico. We have many Mexicans who work here during the summer months at the race tracks, in landscaping and in farming. This is in addition to a growing number of Mexicans who live here year around. The Cleveland area also has several hundred families each from Colombia, Guatemala, and El Salvador with a growing number of Hondurans.

We have many Jamaicans, but not so many Haitians for example. In other cities it is just the opposite.

More recently, our African population is growing, especially West Africa. We have a growing population from Somalia, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.

Cleveland also has many families from India, and less from Pakistan. We have Chinese, Vietnamese and Philippinos in large numbers, and a growing population from Thailand and also Myanmar (formerly Burma).

If you have interest in learning the ethnic population of your city, please contact me at 216-524-9292. I have spent hundreds of hours analysing the census data, downloading files, and analysing the data for my phone card distributor clients. For as little as $50 I can tell you what is your city's ethnic mix. Imagine how much you could increase your sales, if you knew how many first generation, foreign born people from each country live in your geographic area. I can break down these numbers with surprising accuracy right down to the zip code level.

Bob

Ayayay and a few new phone cards

Here is a fun phone card from Telmex USA - Ayayay! features 825 announced minute to Guadalajara and Monetrry and 250 minutes to the major cities in Mexico. Additionally, Ayayay calling card announces 100 minutes to Edador on the $5 phone card, 111 minutes to El Salvador, 125 minutes to Guatemala, and 50 minutes to Honduras. This is the second phone card we have seen recently to advertise 50 minutes to Honduras on the $5 prepaid phone card. Ayayay callng card also boasts 90 minutes to El Salvador mobile (cell) and 70 minutes to Guatemala mobile, and 35 minutes to Ecuador mobile. Also 500 minutes to Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Lima.

Real Smart prepaid phone card is still advertising 36 minutes to Myanmar (Burma) for $5. Real Smart is a versaltile international prepaid calling card featuring Vietnam, Pakistan, Jamaica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Cambodia, and Syria.

Both of these two cards are available at www.phonecardhotline.com for wholesale purchses or at www.hellocallingcards.com for retail purchases.