While the “in-a-box” concept seems a natural fit for a fast-food chain, the more complex task of setting up wireless service may seem to be asking a bit much from such a simple idea.
Equitel Inc., based in Research Triangle, N.C., thinks simple ideas are a great way to market its prepaid wireless services and phones to the underserved segments of the wireless market that the larger wireless operators have not focused on yet.
The company’s “phone-in-a-box,” when combined with its proprietary handset technology, allows the phones to be sold through nontraditional, convenience-oriented outlets, where the phones can be handled as traditional cash-register sales. Equitel has national distribution agreements with McLane, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart and a supplier to convenience stores, gas stations and truck stops, and Amway Corp., which features Equitel phones in its national catalogs.
“Traditional carriers cannot offer national retail services. With [our] unique intelligent-handset technology and national distribution network, we intend to bring the benefits of wireless communication to a mass-consumer audience,” said Anthony Cullen, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board at Equitel. “Prepaid cellular is already the fastest-growing segment of the wireless industry, and we plan to be a big part of that growth.”
Founded in April 1999, Equitel quickly set lofty goals for itself in the prepaid wireless market. Equitel planned to grab market share from the larger prepaid companies by going after the casual wireless user, instead of the lucrative corporate market.
The company set up contracts with cellular carriers, including AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Verizon Wireless, Alltel Corp., BellSouth Mobility Corp., Western Wireless, Southwestern Bell, CenturyTel and Sprint PCS, to buy airtime and provide a nationwide footprint that it says covers 97.3 percent of the U.S. population. Equitel said the contracts allow it to offer services to customers in 297 of the top 300 cellular markets and almost 700 markets nationwide.
Equitel said what makes its service so easy to use is an Internet-based management information system, enabling automated business operations, including over-the-air airtime updates and handset programming, customer service and carrier information services. Customers can also use their handsets or the Internet to reload their wireless phones with Equitel’s Direct Airtime Recharge Technology with minutes that never expire.
Cullen noted that even though the company’s post-sale setup is designed for simplicity-the company has 10 full-time engineers who wrote the programs-people still have questions which retailers that do not specialize in wireless products might have trouble answering.
“Training of employees in high turnover jobs is difficult,” Cullen said. “This is probably the most difficult part of marketing our products.”
To combat this potential problem for both the customer and retailer, Equitel offers a toll-free customer service phone number, as well as periodic training of management employees at distribution centers.
Equitel also announced an agreement with Western Union Financial Services Inc., allowing its customers to purchase minutes for their wireless phones through Western Union’s SwiftPay service in 32,000 locations nationwide.
