Startup Xcelis Communications L.L.C. last week introduced a service that essentially re-routes Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s in-network calls to numbers outside the carrier’s network. The $10-per-month service allows Cingular customers to place a call to any phone number in the United States and Canada, but have that call billed as if it were a mobile-to-mobile call. Thus, a user with an unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling plan could pay Xcelis $10 a month and place calls to anyone in the United States and Canada without having those calls billed to their anytime minutes.
Xcelis said it soon plans to expand its unlimited calling service to subscribers of T-Mobile USA Inc., Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS.
“A legal call is being made,” said Glen Alexis, Xcelis’ chief executive officer. “We are not disrupting their (the carriers’) network in any way.”
Officials from the carriers saw the issue in a different light.
“Any personal organization that would re-route our traffic that would make calls appear as a mobile-to-mobile call would be in violation of our contract,” said Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman.
Nelson said Verizon reserves the right to suspend service to its customers for any “good cause,” a term that includes causing interference, illegal usage and lying.
A spokesman for Cingular said the carrier doesn’t comment on other companies’ business models, but that Cingular would be “investigating this one thoroughly.”
A spokeswoman for Sprint said the carrier had no comment, and a spokesman for T-Mobile said the carrier needed more time to review Xcelis’ service before commenting.
Despite largely chilly reactions from the nation’s wireless operators, Xcelis’ Alexis said the company does not need approval from the carriers to offer its service.
“We don’t need their permission,” he said. “There’s no disruptiveness, in our opinion.”
Xcelis’ service is based on its Unum technology, which the company said combines voice, data, fax, Internet Protocol, wireless and video transmissions into one manageable platform. Xcelis uses the technology in its line of Pantheon products, which support wireless-point-of-sale, PBX and call-forwarding services.
Xcelis’ unlimited calling service also makes use of its Pantheon products. Essentially, the Pantheon box re-routes a mobile-to-mobile call onto either a landline phone or Voice over IP connection (the service routes the call to whichever connection has less traffic). Once the landline or VoIP connection is established, the call can be directed to any phone number in the United States or Canada.
To offer its $10-per-month unlimited calling service, Xcelis first signed up for several mobile-to-mobile business accounts from Cingular, as well as business accounts from landline and VoIP service providers. Xcelis users who sign up for the company’s service are instructed to first call the number for one of Xcelis’ Cingular accounts. Once the call is connected (which registers as a mobile-to-mobile call for both the user and for Xcelis) the user then can dial the number he or she is actually planning to call. The second number is routed through a landline or VoIP connection to the call recipient. To offer the service to T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint customers, Xcelis must first sign up for mobile-to-mobile business accounts from those carriers.
“I can see the carriers embracing this,” Alexis said.
Because the service would increase wireless traffic, Alexis said the carriers would likely support it. He said Xcelis’ goal is to partner directly with the wireless carriers, or the landline or VoIP carriers, to offer the service to users.
“We anticipate forging some type of relationship with the carriers … once we’re signing up hundreds of customers a day,” Alexis said. “Our whole goal is to help them make more money.”
Based in Wayne, Pa., Xcelis runs on private funding and counts about seven employees.
