Press Release:
SUNCOM Internet's VirtualSellers.com Commences Strategic Marketing Campaign
to Over 160,000 NetMall.com Sites; SUNCOM Secures Two Customer Contracts for
Call Center
Business Wire - January 26, 1999 08:41
%CA-SUNCOM SNLMF INKT EBAY %MICHIGAN %NEW-YORK %FLORIDA %CALIFORNIA
%COMPUTERS %ELECTRONICS %COMED %TELECOMMUNICATIONS %INTERACTIVE %MULTIMEDIA
%INTERNET V%BW P%BW
VANCOUVER, B.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 26, 1999--SUNCOM Internet (a
subsidiary of SUNCOM Telecommunications Inc. (OTC BB:SNLMF), announced today
that VirtualSellers.com. has commenced marketing activities under its
agreement with American Information Systems ("AIS") and NetMall.com.
With over 160,000 Web sites and several categories listed in the AIS Web
directory, the company has initially targeted four product categories for
marketing its services: books, music, food and sports. The first phase of
the company's marketing program will consist of an email campaign targeted
toward qualified sites in these four product categories.
As disclosed in a previous release, VirtualSellers.com will be
exclusively promoted to NetMall merchants by AIS for the purpose of
providing small and medium size businesses with a customized, secure, total
eCommerce solution for selling their products over the Internet immediately.
VirtualSellers.com will enable transactions and provide back-office
operations including fraud prevention, invoicing and shipping preparation.
New Call Center Business
On a separate note, SUNCOM announced two new customers for its call
center business. The first is with a new client, Televista Communications,
Inc., located in Franklin, Michigan. The second piece of business is an
expanded service agreement with an existing customer Telecom Group, Inc. a
cable company located in Florida, which has scheduled six new properties for
the 1999 and will be utilizing SUNCOM's "People First" front office package
for all its customer service needs. These two clients should increase the
subscriber base by 30 percent and revenue by 25 percent, enabling SUNCOM's
Northnet Telesolutions to reach breakeven by the end of the year.
"As pleased as we are with the progress of our SUNCOM Internet
subsidiary, we are continually focused on adding new companies to our call
center business," said Dr. Dennis Sinclair, chief executive officer of SUNCOM.
Safe Harbor Statement
Included in this release are "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. There are
certain important factors that could cause results to materially differ from
those described in the statements made above. These factors include, but are
not limited to, the performance of AIS, its customers and Internet commerce
in general at or above projected levels, fluctuations in worldwide economic
conditions, and the ability of VirtualSellers.com to attain its projected
market share. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected
in such forward-looking statements are reasonable; it can give no assurance
that such expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements will
prove to have been correct.
VirtualSellers.com provides businesses with a customized, secure, total
eCommerce service for selling their products over the Internet immediately.
This offers a significant advantage to the great majority of small and
medium-size businesses that do not wish to spend several months and tens or
perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars developing eCommerce functionality
on their own sites. VirtualSellers.com generates transaction fees for each
sale and has capabilities similar to some of the leaders of Internet
commerce such as Inktomi (Nasdaq: INKT), eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) and uBid
(Nasdaq:UBID). However, because VirtualSellers.com performs the complete
transaction, including payment processing and credit verification, it is
able to earn a higher fee per sale than its competition, which typically
pass collection of payment to the product seller. Visit VitualSellers.com's
Web site at: www.VirtualSellers.com.
SUNCOM has made the successful transition from the low margin long
distance business to a customer care provider, servicing and outsourcing
large users of inbound toll-free telephone numbers, handling customer care
and concentrating on outsourcing of customer service facilities. The recent
creation of SUNCOM Internet and integration of VirtualSellers.com allows
SUNCOM to offer merchants both inbound toll-free telephone ordering and
Internet-based transaction processing services.
CONTACT: COMPANY CONTACT
SUNCOM Telecommunications
Cary Berman, Investor Relations, 312/920-9999
or
MEDIA & INVESTOR RELATIONS:
Market Pathways
Shannon T. Squyres, President, 949/955-1860
or
VirtualSellers.com
Stephen M. Meade, President & CEO, 888/271-6236
or
American Information Systems, Inc.
Josh Schneider, Vice President of Development,
312/255-8500 ext. 7184 |
