The Development of the Calling Card Industry

The Calling Card industry has gone through significant transformations in which IPsmarx has contributed to. Below is a brief history of how the calling card industry has developed and where it is now.

1. In the beginning, there were traditional calling cards which users purchased at a retail location. Users would have to dial an access number followed by a PIN number and the destination number.
2. Since traditional calling cards posed many inconvenient aspects for users, PINless cards and flexible PIN numbers were developed so that users would not have to dial a lengthy PIN number each time they made a call.
3. To increase convenience, calling cards offered a new feature which allowed multiple users to use the same PIN number. This was used mainly in businesses where international calls were made by many employees on a daily basis.
4. The industry then focused on payment and balance recharge of calling cards. Rechargeable PINs or Top-up, auto recharge, and rechargeable to IVR features were so that customers would not have to purchase a new card each time their balance ran out. This simplified the payment process for customers.
5. However, the calling card industry could be further simplified. Features such as, Direct DID and DID Forwarding, provided users with one unique phone number that eliminated the need for dialing access numbers and PIN numbers. Other options such as, Speed Dial, were also developed to increase convenience for end users.
6. IPsmarx then followed by developing Permanent Accounts or Subscription Services which meant that users no longer needed a physical calling card.
7. To expand on the Permanent Accounts, IPsmarx created the PINless Reseller Module which simplified the process by allowing users to go to a reseller and subscribe for a Permanent Account. This latest development means that resellers no longer have to carry inventory of physical calling cards at their retail locations.

To learn more about IPsmarx’s latest Calling Card Solutions contact us at: sales@ipsmarx.com

Marketing Tips From the IPsmarx Team: How to Remain Competitive in the Calling Card Market

Listed below are a few ways you can take advantage of IPsmarx’s Calling Card Solution to differentiate yourself from other service providers.

Multi-Carrier Compatible Software

• Allows you to choose multiple carriers, enabling you to provide better quality service to your customers.
• You can offer competitive rates by choosing the carrier with the lowest rate or by taking advantage of our Least Call Routing feature.
• You can also increase your profit margin by choosing the carrier with the lowest rate and adding a higher markup.

Optional Hidden Fees

• Our management solution allows you to charge and manage hidden fees for end users.
• You can be more competitive by charging lower per minute rates, while making up for the loss through hidden fees.
• To learn more about hidden fees read the following post: http://blog.ipsmarx.com/2011/06/increase-your-profit-with-optional-calling-card-fees/

Resellers’ Commission

• You can offer resellers commission for selling your calling card and track their sales through the IPsmarx management solution.
• This will motivate resellers to promote your card over other service providers’ cards.

Optional Bonus Referral Module (available for PINless)

• You can offer free minutes to customers for referring another customer.
• This will increase your customer loyalty and overall customer base.

Callback Solution

• Enables you to provide service in regions such as, Africa and the Middle East, where traditional calling cards are not possible.
• You will be one of the few service providers offering a long distance calling solution to those destinations, hence you will be able to accumulate a larger market share.

DID Forwarding

• You can offer customers a unique feature that permits them to use their assigned DID number to make international calls through VoIP rates.
• Your customers will be able to take advantage of this feature even while travelling internationally, thereby differentiating your calling card service from other providers.
• To learn more about DID Forwarding read the following post: http://blog.ipsmarx.com/2011/06/the-convenience-of-did-forwarding/

All of these features will enable you to offer customers better termination quality and lower rates, as well as, increase your customer base and profit. Through the implementation of these IPsmarx features, your Calling Card or PINless service will be easily differentiated from competitors.

To learn more about our solutions and how to start your own calling card business contact us at: sales@ipsmarx.com

Increase your Profit with Optional Calling Card Fees!

Use our many fee functions to add revenue streams to your Calling Card! Our Solution comes with many included features such as Maintenance fee, Surcharge Fee and Connection Fee.

Additionally, there are add-on modules that can add value to your services such as our Step Billing Feature, which allows you to set up fees that increase as the calls continue. There for the more people talk the more fees they will be paying per minute.

Another great feature is our Disconnection Fee, which is a fee that is charged after the call is disconnected and allows a fee that is calculated on a percentage amount based on the length of connection.

The IVR switching Module allows setting up the IVR percentage for each destination to be applied for each destination. For example, if your percentage for a destination “A” is setup at 80%, the call will be disconnected when 80% of announced time is used.

Finally, we have our Minute Rounding Feature so providers can charge a customer for an increment of minutes used rather than charging a call on a minute-to-minute basis. For example every minute of a call can be rounded to determined number of minutes, so providers will make money on the amount time every customer do not use during a call.

contact us at sales@ipsmarx.com to talk to us about our Calling Card Platform.

Coming Soon – IPsmarx Hotline Solution

How would you like to pocket money each time you receive a phone call… and have more money drop into your pocket each minute you’re on the call?

People want and need specialized information. Just look at the Internet and Google. What makes Google so important? It helps you search and find specialized information you want and need on the Internet.

But… haven’t you been on a website, or the entire Internet, and wasted hours scrolling, clicking, searching, reading… and not found what you need? Thousands, maybe millions, of people suffer from the same agony everyday.

What makes “Hotlines” better than a website (or it could be combined with a website to make it more useful and profitable); you can speak directly with an expert and get instant answers to your personal questions or problems.

It’s so much easier and faster to ask an expert for advice, right?

How can you use your own “Hotline” service to increase revenues?  Here are a few examples:

• Start a new business (maybe something like a psychic Hotline) or;
• Add a new revenue stream to an existing business (instant tax help, computer or iPhone help, or fashion tips, healthy cooking ideas, or…?)
• You can also resell this service as a ready-to-use package to other experts and businesses for a big fee plus calling minutes!

As you know, specialized information sells at a premium so you can collect much higher per minute fees because you won’t be selling a lifeless commodity. Instead, you’re offering one-of-the-kind information to a select and hungry audience.

The IPsmarx Hotline Solution allows your customers to prepay for minutes to contact your call center or network of experts anytime! For more information, contact sales@ipsmarx.com.

IPsmarx API allows integration of Calling Card and PINless with Point of Sales Solutions

IPsmarx clients can use our API to integrate with many other tools and solutions, such as Point of Sales (POS). With Point of Sales integration, Calling Card and PINless Solution Providers can sell cards or ANI PINless Services at supermarkets or convenient stores and charge clients using their point of sales terminal. Customer will pick up the card of their choice and simply add funds at the counter as they pay for any other items. This useful solution makes transactions much faster and easier. It also reduces the risk of cards being stolen since cards won’t be valid until activated at the point of purchase!

For more information on our API integration for POS and other custom applications, please contact us.

Come Join Us At ITW: May 23rd – May 25th

Attention Calling Card Providers – How to Offer Services for Smartphones

Last week we shared some tips on how to position your calling card business to take advantage of the explosive smartphone market.

Now that you know that IPsmarx has the latest technology and features that enable you to easily profit from this permanent trend, we thought you’d like to see how our solutions work.

At the core of our solutions is our Award-winning Calling Card Platform. You can view a video that describes how our solution works here: http://ipsmarx.com/cms/english/solutions/calling-card01.html.

Once you implement the calling card solution, you can easily add PINless and Breeze, our VoIP application for smartphones, like the iPhone and Android!

In 2009 the US mobile phone company, MetroPCS, began selling the BlackBerry Curve as a “Pre-Paid” smartphone for only $50 a month.

Today, it’s easy to enjoy the convenience of a pre-paid smartphone —

• No credit check
• No long-term contracts
• No contract required at all (cash and carry)!
• Cancel service any time
• Pay your service by credit card, debit card, even in cash

These pre-paid smartphones are perfect for the average calling card buyer!

And business is good because last year four new carriers, Virgin Mobile, T-Mobile, Cricket (Leap Wireless), and Boost Mobile (Sprint Nextel), entered the market with their own pre-paid smartphones too. AT&T and Verizon mobile won’t be far behind…

Calling card customers are buying smartphones because they’re a better value than traditional cell phones and more convenient than a landline: It’s phone, a camera, video camera, voice recorder, it has games, GPS, email, Facebook, and a computer they can carry in their pocket to stay connected with friends and family around the world, while on vacation, at home, or at work.

Find Out How to Profit From the Newest and Biggest Calling Card Trend Today

Click here to view a video on how our Calling Card Solution works!

Are YOU keeping up? What are you doing to stay in front of industry leading trends?

The answer is simple. Speak with an IPsmarx consultant and learn how to use Breeze, the VoIP solution for smartphones.

Click here to view a video about how our Calling Card Solution works!

If you want to continue to thrive as a Calling Card Provider, you need to understand how Breeze and the smartphone trend directly affect your business. With IPsmarx’s help you’ll master the ins and outs of this new phenomenon and put yourself on the cutting edge of the calling card industry.

Call 703-779-3594 and schedule a no-obligation phone consultation while you’re thinking about it.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Attention Calling Card Providers – How to Offer Services for Smartphones

Last week we shared some tips on how to position your calling card business to take advantage of the explosive smartphone market.

Now that you know that IPsmarx has the latest technology and features that enable you to easily profit from this permanent trend, we thought you’d like to see how our solutions work.

At the core of our solutions is our Award-winning Calling Card Platform. You can view a video that describes how our solution works here: http://ipsmarx.com/cms/english/solutions/calling-card01.html.

Once you implement the calling card solution, you can easily add PINless and Breeze, our VoIP application for smartphones, like the iPhone and Android!

In 2009 the US mobile phone company, MetroPCS, began selling the BlackBerry Curve as a “Pre-Paid” smartphone for only $50 a month.

Today, it’s easy to enjoy the convenience of a pre-paid smartphone —

• No credit check
• No long-term contracts
• No contract required at all (cash and carry)!
• Cancel service any time
• Pay your service by credit card, debit card, even in cash

These pre-paid smartphones are perfect for the average calling card buyer!

And business is good because last year four new carriers, Virgin Mobile, T-Mobile, Cricket (Leap Wireless), and Boost Mobile (Sprint Nextel), entered the market with their own pre-paid smartphones too. AT&T and Verizon mobile won’t be far behind…

Calling card customers are buying smartphones because they’re a better value than traditional cell phones and more convenient than a landline: It’s phone, a camera, video camera, voice recorder, it has games, GPS, email, Facebook, and a computer they can carry in their pocket to stay connected with friends and family around the world, while on vacation, at home, or at work.

Find Out How to Profit From the Newest and Biggest Calling Card Trend Today

Click here to view a video on how our Calling Card Solution works! 

The answer is simple. Speak with an IPsmarx consultant and learn how to use Breeze, the VoIP solution for smartphones.

Click here to view a video about how our Calling Card Solution works!

If you want to continue to thrive as a Calling Card Provider, you need to understand how Breeze and the smartphone trend directly affect your business. With IPsmarx’s help you’ll master the ins and outs of this new phenomenon and put yourself on the cutting edge of the calling card industry.

Have you positioned your calling card business to take advantage of the explosive smartphone market?

Your customers are quickly adopting smartphones. IPsmarx has the latest technology and features that enable you to easily profit from this permanent trend.

Not having a service  to sell your smartphone-carrying customers can be a big mistake. And if you don’t think your calling card customers are buying smartphones, think again…

In 2009 the US mobile phone company, MetroPCS, began selling the BlackBerry Curve as a “Pre-Paid” smartphone for only $50 a month.

Today, it’s easy to enjoy the convenience of a pre-paid smartphone —

• No credit check
• No long-term contracts
• No contract required at all (cash and carry)!
• Cancel service any time
• Pay your service by credit card, debit card, even in cash

These pre-paid smartphones are perfect for the average calling card buyer!

And business is good because last year four new carriers, Virgin Mobile, T-Mobile, Cricket (Leap Wireless), and Boost Mobile (Sprint Nextel), entered the market with their own pre-paid smartphones too. AT&T and Verizon mobile won’t be far behind…

Calling card customers are buying smartphones because they’re a better value than traditional cell phones and more convenient than a landline: It’s phone, a camera, video camera, voice recorder, it has games, GPS, email, Facebook, and a computer they can carry in their pocket to stay connected with friends and family around the world, while on vacation, at home, or at work.

Find Out How to Profit From the Newest and Biggest Calling Card Trend Today

Within two years, your calling card business could be thriving from this new calling trend or falling behind your competitors if you don’t take advantage of it today.

Is this a drastic prediction? Perhaps.

But take a look at this timeline …

• The earliest calling card used a magnetic stripe and was manufactured in Italy in 1976.
• It took 24 years for today’s virtual and PINless phone cards to come to market.
• VoIP commercially started in 1995  and
• Vonage was founded in 2001, 6 years after the InternetPhone and it took them five years to reach 1.8 million subscribers.
• However in 2003 Skype was founded and in its first 3 years reached over half a billion downloads of its software and handled over 7.6 billion minutes per quarter.
• Then in 2007 magicJack started business and in 12 short months sold over 2 million devices!

As you can see, the rate of adoption for new calling technologies gets faster and faster and adding new customers becomes easier and easier. The reason is simple: these technologies are much easier to use and have become a vital part of our lives.

If you’re not up to speed and ahead of the curve, you’re falling behind.

Are YOU keeping up? What are you doing to stay in front of industry leading trends?

Now, take a look at this related timeline…

• The first smartphone was sold 1993. It was rudimentary by today’s standards.
• In 2002 RIM released the first BlackBerry, which is the first smartphone optimized for wireless email. It took them 6 years to reach 32 million subscribers.

Even with smartphones, the rate of adoption has gotten faster and the ability to quickly add new customers easier:

• The iPhone launched many years after BlackBerry in 2007, BUT it took them only two years to sell 41,152,350 units.
• Then Google’s Android came along in 2008 and in 24 lightening-speed months it surpassed Nokia, Apple and BlackBerry for global smartphone market share!
• In 2010 smartphone sales increased 72.1 percent from the previous year, while traditional mobile phones sales increased only 31.8 percent.

So what can you do to profit from this trend and make sure you don’t get left behind?

The answer is simple. Speak with an IPsmarx consultant and learn how to use Breeze, the VoIP solution for smartphones. Call 703-779-3594 and set up a no-cost, no-obligation, and no-risk phone consultation now.

Here’s a sample of questions to ask your IPsmarx consultant:

• How to position and grow your calling card business in the smartphone marketplace.
• The steps you can take to increase your revenue by offering Breeze and related smartphone calling services to your clients.
• What are the top opportunities for making money with Breeze.
• How to combine Breeze and the rapidly expanding smartphone market to acquire new end users and distributors.
• What are the different steps needed to sell Breeze online and through retail distributors.
• Why adding Breeze to your service today means more profits over the next 2 to 3 years.
• What to say when agents, distributors, and end users ask if you have an app that saves money on calls made from smartphones at home and internationally?
• Why your reputation as a serious calling card provider could hinge on how quickly you add the Breeze smartphone calling card app to your offerings (slow movers, beware!)
• Easy questions you can ask agents and distributors to convince them to sell Breeze for you.
• How to use Breeze to – in just a few days – generate a rush of new sales that could keep your business busy for the next year.

And that’s just scratching the surface!

If you want to continue to thrive as a Calling Card Provider, you need to understand how Breeze and the smartphone trend directly affect your business. With IPsmarx’s help you’ll master the ins and outs of this new phenomenon and put yourself on the cutting edge of the calling card industry.

Call 703-779-3594 and schedule a no-obligation phone consultation while you’re thinking about it.

Download Our Free Report on How to Start a Calling Card Business

If you’ve been thinking about starting your own calling card or PINless service, our free report on How to Start a Calling Card Business may give you some insight.

Click here to download: www.ipsmarx.com/lp/callingcard

In the report you’ll find out:

1. The advantages of owning your own brand instead of reselling for someone else.

2. How to make more profit by establishing your own brand.

3. Where to get the technology, software, and services needed to become a calling card provider.

4. How to sell PINless services.

5. How to set up a website to sell your services and cards online.

6. How to compete against older and larger calling card providers, and win!

7. The 7 reasons to start a calling card business today.

Download your free report today! www.ipsmarx.com/lp/callingcard