Leap's Cricket Goes The Distance
Long-Distance Plan May Boost Carrier's Local-Only Customer Base
wirelessweek.com
BY SUE MAREK
JUNE 10, 2002
WIRELESS WEEK
2002, REED BUSINESS INFORMATION, A DIVISION OF REED ELSEVIER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Local calling may be Leap Wireless International Inc.'s forte, but that's not stopping the wireless
operator from adding long-distance service to its offering. Leap recently announced it is deploying
VoiceCue Technologies Inc.'s Intelligent Network platform, making it possible to provision and bill
long-distance service.
This isn't the first time Leap has made long-distance available to its customers; however, because the
carrier had high per-minute costs, it didn't extensively market its long-distance offering. With the new
system, Cricket customers in all 40 markets can make domestic long-distance calls for 8 cents per
minute or calls to Mexico and Canada for 18 cents per minute. "Long-distance was something
customers missed," says Chris Demange, Leap's director of new technologies. "Eight cents a minute is
a really competitive rate."
The company will offer long-distance as an option to customers, who can pay for it by signing up for it
as a recurring feature with a certain amount of time charged to them every month; dialing *PAY and
having fees charged to their credit card; or going to the Cricket Payment Center and prepaying for a
certain amount of service.
Unlike some long-distance offers, Cricket doesn't charge a monthly fee for the service, nor do the
customer's long-distance minutes expire if they aren't used in the month they were purchased.
Adding competitive long-distance likely will be a boon for Leap. According to Gartner Group analyst
Mike McGuire, the ability to have affordable long-distance service will attract more customers. "This
seems like the kind of thing they are doing to expand their customer base," McGuire says. "The local
service is where their strength comes from, but the ability to do long-distance makes it much more
appealing."
According to Demange, Leap selected the VoiceCue system because of its modularity. The platform
will gather critical demographic information about Cricket customers as well as enable Leap to offer
different types of rate plans and provide special marketing deals and promotions. "Leap will be able to
adjust the capacity of the platform as it grows," says Moises Goldman, VoiceCue Technologies' COO
and vice president of strategic planning. "And our multidimensional rating table will allow carriers to put
in an infinite amount of plans or ratings to charge customers."
That modularity and flexibility likely will work in the operator's favor in other ways, too, such as allowing
Leap to track and monitor customer's usage patterns and provide a stepping stone for the company so
it can add other types of services. "Leap is buying the platform to do long-distance, but it will also give
them flexibility in the future," McGuire says.
Having the 10th largest U.S. carrier as a customer also is a huge plus for VoiceCue. The company,
which is primarily known for its prepaid expertise, has been actively working to broaden its customer
base and its product offering. According to Goldman, the company can provide applications and
services beyond the prepaid arena through its Intelligent Network Platform. The company already has
a long list of U.S. carriers as its customers, including Cingular Wireless, Iowa Wireless and Conestoga
Wireless.
Beyond the prepaid and long-distance arena, the company also hopes to attract more operators with its
m-commerce solution. In March, VoiceCue teamed with Wmode and introduced a prepaid add-on
service for its platform, which it says will simplify carrier prepaid m-commerce offerings. Called
ClearMode, the prepaid solution allows subscribers to set up an account when they purchase an
Internet-enabled phone. Then when they use the phone to make a purchase, the information is sent to
the ClearMode clearinghouse, which will then confirm the user's identify and make sure there are
sufficient funds available for the purchase.
Leap hasn't yet decided if it will use VoiceCue's platform to introduce other services beyond the initial
long-distance service. For now, the company seems content to take its local-only offering to the next
level.
---
And just in case you missed them, two news items.
Leap Launches Unlimited Text Messaging
biz.yahoo.com
Nokia 6370 CDMA2000 1X Phone Initially Available to Leap's Cricket Customers
biz.yahoo.com |
