St. Paul, Minn.-based Tele digital Development Inc. has introduced a system that allows cellular phone service resellers and other providers to control the cost and use of prepaid airtime on their own, without the help of a carrier.
Called the TallisSystem, the package features a cellular phone that contains Tele digital’s patented on-board Tallis technology that is supported by its Windows-based TallisWare administrative programming software. Designed by Tele digital and manufactured by Taekwang Ltd. in Korea, the 9200D handset is an analog cellular phone that contains a wireless modem.
The Tallis technology is used to program a flexible rate table of prepaid airtime dollars, monitor airtime spending, warn users when dollars are running low, shut down the phone when the prepaid limit is reached and enforce restrictions on dialing and roaming, among other functions.
The phone is targeted at anyone who wants to provide cellular phone service to customers or employees, but who also wants strict control over how the phone is used. Owners can custom program the phone merely by plugging it into a computer running the Windows-based TallisWare administrative software via the serial port adapter. They can add prepaid minutes to it the same way, or wirelessly via the modem.
“This phone will make every corporate controller whose cellular phone costs are running amok happy,” said Jim Latham, Tele digital vice president of marketing.
“You decide through the administrative software what rates to charge, what features to allow, how much debt to load, when to roll up the database of phones activated, etc.,” said Dan Kobylarz, chief engineer at Tele digital. “The phone control software is at the point of sale or management. This checks phones in and out, runs call detail records, adds or subtracts dollars, turns phones on or off and much more. (It) does only what you and the software instruct it to do.”
Usually, the programming ability for such functions resides in the switch and in debit cards. The 9200D instead contains the programming functions inside the handset. Besides allowing for greater control of the phone’s use, it also allows for greater programming flexibility because the cellular carrier that owns the switch is not involved in any programming choices.
“It takes forever for them to make a decision,” Latham said about carriers that handle the prepaid programming for resellers. With the 9200D, however, “they don’t even have to know what’s going on.”
The phone also allows the owner to download phone use information, such as number called, time of call, length of call and the exact cost of each call. This information can be downloaded either by direct computer hookup or wirelessly.
Because of the added hardware inside the phone, the 9200D is somewhat larger than a standard cellular handset. It is 5.5 inches long, 1.5 inches thick and weighs in at about 10 ounces.
The $300 unit originally was unveiled at Wireless APPS ’97 in Seattle, but only recently received government approval for distribution. Latham said the company now intends to line up distributors and introduce more advanced models, including those with Internet activation systems and a digital phone using Global System for Mobile communications technology.
