Press Release

1-800-COLLECT calls from any customer can also be billed to mobile numbers.

The service will continue to be available to landline callers, including those using payphones. The rapidly growing market for prepaid mobile service now accounts for more than 21 percent of the US market, according to industry data.

Industry experts say that each month, more than 20 million prepaid mobile customers in the US cannot pay their prepaid bill on time, and have their accounts temporarily suspended. 1-800-COLLECT, for these customers, provide a communications safety-net. When an emergency arises, and suspended customers need to reach family or a friend, 1-800-COLLECT gives them another way to make a call.

“The reason that 1-800-COLLECT was a huge industry success story when it launched in 1993,” said Whitey Bluestein, a senior advisor to the Company, “was that it provided an easy-to-use service that fulfilled a need in the market. It captured nearly 50% of the US collect calling market within three months of launch.”

“With the recent growth of the prepaid cellular market, the lack of a ‘safety-net’ has been a gaping hole. 1-800-COLLECT has adapted the service to that segment, bringing this trusted and recognized brand, and high level of service, to customers. And it will allow 1-800-COLLECT users to call from landline telephones, payphone or mobile to make a collect call to mobile postpaid customers as well as to landline telephones,” he said.

1-800-COLLECT is easy to use, as millions of customers can attest. The party accepting the call is advised of rates and accepts charges before the call is connected, with standard opt-in process for calls billed to mobile. And call details and charges appear on the called customer’s landline or mobile telephone bill, or credit and debit cards issued by VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover as well as many legacy telephone company calling cards.

The service is available to landlines, payphones and a growing number of mobile customers in the US and Canada, with calling to all US destinations, including Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Mariana Island, including Saipan.

Mobile network operators are embracing the service because it is easy to implement, and does not affect their customers’ ability to pay on or refill their account when they are able. It gives their customers another way to complete a call and stay on the mobile operator’s network. Several mobile operators are implementing the service, and announcements are coming soon.

“It wasn’t easy bringing 1-800-COLLECT to mobile,” said Bluestein. “The 1-800-COLLECT automated service platform took nearly 20 years to develop and refine, includes multilingual capability extensive billing relationships with local telephone companies, competitive carriers, rural and independent telephone companies – more than 1,200 landline operators in US and Canada – and now most mobile operators.”

In order to “mobilize” 1-800-COLLECT, the capability to bill collect calls to mobile customers who accept charges for 1-800-COLLECT calls was added. 1-800-COLLECT also has long-standing expertise in Card-Not-Present billing.

About 1-800-COLLECT
1-800-COLLECT Inc., headquartered in San Diego, offers collect calling service from landlines, payphones and now mobile telephones. The Company operates one of the largest casual calling services, with collect and other calling services. The Company has implemented a large-scale distributed network that takes full advantage of the converging technologies of VoIP, IP networks, and the Internet. The technology platform is based on open systems, which provides a wealth of opportunity to design, develop, and deploy extensions to call processing or reporting with minimal effort.  For information on terms of service, go to www.1800COLLECT.com.

(The Federal Communication Commission’s 911 Rules require wireless service providers to transmit all 911 calls to an emergency dispatcher, regardless of whether the caller subscribes to service or not, including whether or not the customer is suspended for non-payment. 1-800-COLLECT is for non-emergencies, when a suspended mobile customer doesn’t have the time or resources to pay to restore service but has an urgent need to make a call.)