National Telemanagement Corp. believes it has solved the problems of the prepaid wireless industry.
Selling debit cards is like selling a pack of cigarettes, said Jerry Easom, director of business development for NTC’s SmartPay Wireless. A carrier has no way of knowing who the customer is.
The company said its SmartPay service is implemented at the local switch platform. A call management system is installed next to the carrier’s switch and prepay calls are routed to the system, processed and returned to the switch for call completion. This allows for extensive reports of all transactions and complete control of the call and processing, said NTC.
Unlike other prepaid services, SmartPay is transparent to users, said the company. Customers have the ability to make and receive calls and roam using NTC’s American Roaming Network, which furnishes roaming services to cellular providers for calls that originate from unregistered cellular customers.
Customers may use any phone they wish and can purchase airtime using cash, a bank draft, credit card or telco billing. Once an account is established with the carrier, SmartPay users can place calls like post bill cellular users can without using an access code to dial, said NTC.
NTC has an exclusive agreement with Traveler’s Express that provides 45,000 locations nationwide where customers can replenish their accounts on a real-time basis. Subscribers who use a bank draft or credit card can choose to have money added to their accounts automatically in any amount they determine.
Users can easily check on their account balance by dialing a code on their phone and automatic prompts warn users their account balances are low, said NTC. Once a subscriber’s account reaches zero balance, the call is disconnected to prevent fraud.
NTC said the SmartPay service is used in 10 states. The company recently announced it will provide the service to Century Cellunet, a subsidiary of Century Telephone Enterprises Inc. Century Cellunet provides cellular service in Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Texas and Wisconsin. Cellular South, a cellular service provider in Mississippi, also is offering service.
NTC said it handles the services necessary for installing the service in exchange for a portion of the profits carriers make from prepaid customers.
Untapped markets carriers hope to reach with the service include people with bad or no credit, college and university students, people under age 21 and companies that want to limit employees’ cellular spending, said NTC.
About 40 percent of those who apply for cellular service have either poor credit or no credit at all, the company said. Most of those who want service are unable or unwilling to provide the deposit required to reduce the risk of providing service to them.
People with poor credit don’t want to be treated differently, said Roger Boivin, executive vice president of NTC’s wireless division, which is why SmartPay service allows carriers to offer features similar to those offered to post-pay customers such as different rate plans and call waiting. NTC adds an extra touch by sending customers a deposit card, which looks like a credit card and contains the subscriber name and account number. The card is swiped through a data card reader at the replenishment sites at the time the deposit is made. Boivin said the card makes “credit challenged” people feel special since they typically don’t have any credit cards.
