NEW YORK-Boston Communications Group Inc. has a not-so-modest proposal and concrete plans to execute it: a prepaid wireless roaming network for the Western Hemisphere.
Already the company is in various stages of a rollout of its C2C wireless prepaid roaming network for four cellular carriers: Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile, SNET Mobility Inc. and Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Co.
“From our viewpoint, prepaid (services) let more people experience wireless because it gives them some kind of control over what they spend on cellular phone bills,” said Jackie Himmelberg, a spokesperson for Southwestern Bell Mobile. “We just launched it in late August in our Boston markets, so we’re still pretty much in an educational phase.
Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile would not comment on its C2C introduction until it issues a formal release sometime later this month.
“We have voluntarily distributed our architecture, putting local voice nodes close to the carriers,” said Denise Archer-Allen, vice president of strategic business development for Boston Communications Group, Woburn, Mass.
The company’s ambitious goal to hook all the North and South American wireless markets into a prepaid roaming network would seem ridiculous were it not for the depth and breadth of experience represented by top executives of the company, she said.
A third of Boston Communications’ 21 officers and managers, including Archer-Allen, are alumni of Appex Corp., now known as EDS Personal Communications Division. Among other familiar corporate names on the resumes of key personnel are: Arch Communications Inc., Cellular One (division of Bell Atlantic Corp.), PacTel Cellular (now AirTouch Communications Inc.), GTE Telecommunication Services Inc. and Motorola Inc.
Boston Communications Group “pioneered and developed Roamer Plus to provide a way for carriers to bill unregistered roamers,” Archer-Allen said. Roamer Plus, which provides real time rating of calls to prevent fraud, operates in 1,200 of the 1,400 markets in Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Last year, Boston Communications Group unveiled Debit Plus, its first wireless debit card service as a pre-call alternative to metered billing, which only springs into action after a call is made. Convinced “a more elaborate system (was needed) to meet the huge opportunity of expanded functionality,” the company unveiled C2C this year.
A key to this next generation product is the goal of serving a larger market than the so-called credit-challenged-customers who want prepaid wireless services to “look and feel like post-pay wireless,” Archer-Allen said. “You know that 30-digit dialing is a little dangerous while driving a car.”
Boston had its initial public offering June 18, raising net proceeds of about $50 million. Of that amount, about $18 million was used to retire preferred stock and debt and about $11 million to deploy C2C.
