NEW YORK-Anyone who has tried to find a wireline pay phone or use a wireless handset at crowded public entertainment events can understand why International CellComm Corp. has found a lucrative niche providing portable cellular pay phone services.
The Titusville, Fla., company was founded in 1990, but its business really has taken off since 1995, largely as the result of two regulatory changes, said Steve Kroecker, founder and chief executive officer.
First, the regional Bell operating companies lobbied successfully to free themselves of a requirement to install, maintain and operate pay phones at any cost. They must do so now only if the unit generates a daily minimum average income. Since wireline talk for local calls is cheap and use at public events clustered into its time span, Baby Bells removed many of their wireline pay phones from these locations.
Second, the Federal Communications Commission, in a move designed to foster competition, made it more difficult for both wireline and wireless carriers to install cellular pay phones. Wireless carriers, for example, either must sign up the callers as customers or offer the calls free, Kroecker said.
International CellComm resells local analog cellular services with carriers in the areas to which it brings its solar-powered Mobile Communications Stations, each of which is equipped with four cellular pay phones. The company has applied for a patent for its stations.
Calls average six minutes at $1.50 per minute. At a typical weekend sporting event, usage ranges between 8,000 and 10,000 minutes, Kroecker said.
Customers can pay for services with calling cards, collect calling and other third-party billing arrangements and most major credit cards. Prepaid calling cards also are an option, although Kroecker said the price per call discourages their use because they typically have a low dollar value.
Salt Lake City-based Teltrust Inc., which serves as International CellComm’s operator service provider, also is promoting the use of payment via automated teller machine cards, something ICC may introduce as an option later this year, he said. Callers also pay a per-call surcharge of $2.25, which covers routing and rendering, operator assistance, emergency call handling and other services that Teltrust provides to CellComm.
Because CellComm is required to provide 911 service, it gains priority access to cell sites even for non-emergency calls, Kroecker said. That circumstance translates into speedy call completion for those using its services, a convenience that some cellular customers may not get if they try to use their own phones on a crowded network at a heavily attended public event.
CellComm’s portable units, which it fabricates using off-the-shelf technology, are capable of handling digital wireless calls. At this point, however, “digital won’t work in about 60 percent of the areas we go into, and it will take about three to five years for the digital buildout there,” Kroecker said.
The company’s Mobile Communications Stations, accompanied by installation and maintenance teams, are used at air shows, professional golf and football games, college basketball tournaments, music concerts, stock car and hot rod races and motorcycle rallies. In terms of crowd size, the largest event in International CellComm’s experience is coming up in August when more than 1 million people are expected for the Experimental Aircraft Fly-in in Oshkosh, Wis.
Kroecker said International CellComm continues to explore association with a wireless carrier that has a ubiquitous footprint and doesn’t charge high roaming fees. That kind of arrangement would simplify billing and reduce the need to reprogram handsets for each venue.
Once digital services reach into areas where International CellComm goes, Kroecker said the company will seek arrangements, possibly with Nextel Communications Inc., AT&T Wireless Services Inc. or Bell Atlantic Global Wireless.
Today, much of ICC’s event business is focused on the Eastern half of the country, although the company did handle AT&T Corp.’s Pebble Beach Golf Classic earlier this year.
“That was an El Nino (wet weather) event that greatly enhanced our credibility,” Kroecker said.
By fall, International CellComm expects to open a facility in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nev., to improve its operations in the West. Its portable units will continue to be built in Florida, however.
The company has developed a tamper-proof aluminum version of its Mobile Communications Stations for the international marketplace, and is negotiating with certain telecommunications companies in the Philippines and China to test market its products. It has sold units to Bermuda Telecom for use at soccer and cricket matches, and is exploring other opportunities in the Caribbean, Central and South America and Australia, Kroecker said.
The company also has developed and has applied for patents for its Hospitality Mobile Communication Station, a portable unit designed to provide cellular phones, fax machines and access for lap-top computers. Kroecker said he expects the convention industry in Orlando to beta test these stations sometime this summer.
International CellComm, which has 150 investors obtained through a private placement memorandum, likely will seek to go public sometime next year, Kroecker said. When the initial public offering is completed, he hopes to embark on another business opportunity for the company-providing emergency telephone services during natural disasters. International CellComm tested and proved its mettle in this sphere during a major hurricane that hit Florida several years ago, Kroecker said.
