One company that has proved successful at that has been Millicom International Cellular SA, a Luxembourg-based wireless provider that targets markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia. By gearing its pricing and marketing strategies to consumers, some of whom live on as little as a few dollars a day, Millicom has emerged as a top wireless provider in countries like Paraguay and Cambodia.

For example, Millicom offers customers plans in which they are charged on a per-second rather than a per-minute basis. The company also has figured out a way to turn street vendors into sellers of its service. “We’re selling minutes like Coca Cola’s selling soft drinks,” says Marc Beuls, Millicom’s chief executive.

Often operating under the brand name “tigo,” the company now has 18 million subscribers in 16 markets, up from just 2.8 million from continuing operations five years ago. Millicom’s stock price more than tripled from the beginning of 2006 to almost $100 a share last month. Millicom’s stock sold for as little as 12 cents a share in 2002 in the midst of the global telecom slump, which threatened to push the company to the brink of bankruptcy-law protection. In afternoon trading yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Millicom shares were at $82.82 apiece.

Still, Millicom could find its previous growth rates hard to match, as other telecom companies look to the same developing markets for growth. Its shares lost 12% of their value July 24 after the company’s second-quarter results didn’t meet Wall Street’s lofty expectations. The company added 1.5 million new subscribers in the quarter, for example, compared with the 1.8 million projected by Morgan Joseph & Co.

At the same time, doing business in developing countries is complicated by conflict and politics. For instance, subscriber growth was off during the quarter partly because of a new law in Senegal requiring cellular operators to register new subscribers.

Emerging markets today have a lot of potential. In countries like Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, only about 5% of the population has activated cellphones. Colombia’s ownership level, known in the industry as its penetration rate, is 60%, according to a Millicom report. By comparison, in some Western European markets there are more active mobile subscriptions than people because some have more than one.

Last year, Latin America, Africa and Pacific Asia, including Japan and South Korea, accounted for 69% of wireless growth world-wide, a number expected to rise, according to Wireless Intelligence, which tracks cellphone-industry data.

Wireless revenue in South America, Africa and all of Asia is expected to reach $320 billion this year, close to half of the total global wireless market, according to Insight Research Corp., a research firm. Wireless companies are expected to pull in $431 billion in total revenue from those regions by 2011.

Other companies are also flocking to these markets, and Millicom faces an array of regional rivals. The company is strongest in Latin America, where it has greater market share than its major competitors — América Móvil SAB de C.V., based in Mexico City, and Telefónica SA, based in Madrid — in four of the six markets where they operate. It is facing tougher fights in Africa, which includes some of Millicom’s newer markets, where the company is chasing MTN Group Ltd. of South Africa in Ghana and France Télécom SA in Senegal, among others.

These companies have varied strategies for profiting from consumers who pay as little as $10 or $11 a month for cellphone service. When users buy more phone time, they add an average of $1 or less each time.

Some companies are offering monthly calling plans; more advanced technology known as third generation, or 3G; and new services such as wireless Web access. Millicom has avoided add-ons to focus on keeping prices low, though it is exploring upgrading its networks to 3G in some markets.

Mr. Beuls says his rivals have invested in new technologies that may not be suitable for emerging markets. “Customers at the end of the day in emerging markets don’t care about technology,” he says. “It’s about what benefits you provide. They want accessibility.”

Mr. Beuls prefers to hire employees from fast-moving consumer-goods companies that he believes better understand distribution patterns, like Seagram Co., a unit of Diageo PLC, rather than other telecom companies.

Millicom first introduced prepaid calling cards in its markets in 1997, removing the need for credit checks, which are a major barrier to acquiring a cellphone for people who often lack identity papers.

Since then, Millicom has introduced e-PIN, a way to allow users to add minutes to their phones without having to purchase a prepaid card. A customer pays cash to a vendor, such as a clerk at a corner store, for a specified number of minutes. The vendor then sends a text message to Millicom with the buyer’s phone number and a request to add minutes to the customer’s phone.

By relying more on e-PIN, Millicom has been able to sell fewer calling cards, a more costly way of providing service. The lower expenses have allowed it to lower the minimum amount of airtime available for purchase to roughly 30 cents from $1.30. “Each time we lowered the value of the reload, people were buying more,” Mr. Beuls says.

Also boosting sales: Anyone with a cellphone and several minutes’ worth of airtime can become a tigo vendor. The company allows customers to send a text message to Millicom requesting that minutes be transferred from their phone to another’s. The company also introduced a “share balance” program that lets customers who have exhausted their minutes send a free text message to a friend asking for more. The friend can then send a text message to Millicom requesting a transfer from his or her own phone.

Recently, the company started selling seconds, not minutes, under per-second billing. Instead of rounding up a 30-second call and charging the user for the full minute, Millicom charges for only the exact duration of the call.

By SARAH CHILDRESS
August 28, 2007

One approach is to use wireless broadband and high-speed 3G mobile offerings as a platform to provide VoIP on mobile handsets.

It is still early days for such services, however, and the range of such offerings is limited to just a few carriers.

Another approach is to use existing instant messenging services such as MSN’s Instant Messenger as a route for IP telephony.

This, however, limits the user to contacts they have using the same IM platform.

Tech Check this week looks at another alternative: VoIP on handsets designed as dual-use devices, able to provide standard telephony as well as internet voice communications.

We chose two such devices from well-known names in the standard and DECT handset market - Uniden and Linksys, and found many similarities.

Uniden VG100 Gateway

MOST of us are pretty familiar with our computers, and are well aware of the price advantages of using the internet to make phone calls, but it’s a fair bet VoIP’s reputation as a techies’ tool has scared many people off.

Some mobile operators have started offering access to VoIP services such as Skype via wireless broadband, but it’s still hardly a mass communications tool.

Enter companies such as Uniden and Netcomm, which have released products designed to bridge the gap between conventional and internet telephony.

Take Uniden’s VG100 VoIP Gateway, a product designed to provide seamless VoIP access in the home.

Not that it does away with the need for a PC. You still need a Skype account and credits, which involve going online to sign up, and then you need to connect it, by way of a USB cable, to the computer.

After that it should be as easy as picking up your handset and making a call.

The gateway itself is small (about the size of a cigarette packet), boxy and grey, rather like an external modem or router.

Thankfully, it doesn’t need an external power source (an annoyance with the comparable Netcomm V100 offering) but requires just a standard telephone cable to a handset and the humble USB connection to a PC.

Tech Check tried it out with a Uniden DS 7960 DECT handset, which in theory should provide premium operation, but the company claims it is compatible with any standard landline handset, and will even forward calls to a mobile phone.

Dialling out on a Skype account (once you have it set up) is just a matter, then, of hitting the hash button twice to access a Skype out tone.

According to Uniden, the unit’s echo cancellation technology and full duplex sound quality provides superior call quality to older or standard VoIP services.

I still found the quality mixed, more dependent on the volume of network traffic than the technology itself.

Still, VoIP users should be pretty used to this at the moment, and those with the technical knowhow and resources can always try tweaking it.

On the plus side, the gateway is a pretty inexpensive introduction to VoIP for newbies. We’re talking less than $100.

The promise of ease-of-use and seamless operability may well be in the eye of the beholder, but it’s a lot better than some similar products I’ve tried.
- Roland Tellzen

SPECIFICATIONS
Features: PSTN and Skype dialling; echo cancellation and full duplex sound quality; automatic switching between Skype and standard phone calls
Price: $99
More at: www.uniden.com.au
Rating: 8/10Linksys CIT400 iPhone

NO, it’s not the more famous Apple device, but until the Cupertino computer maker gets around to releasing a handset, and a 3G one at that, this is a far more desirable and useful piece of gear.

In fact, while the current configuration of Apple’s iPhone makes it difficult to understand why hundreds of thousands of North Americans have shelled out up to $US599 ($698) each to own one, there are very few reasons not to spend a comparatively meagre $240 with Linksys.

Sure the Linksys iPhone doesn’t have a flashy interface, nor does it play music, but it does let you make free and cheap calls over the internet without having to plug into a computer.

It also connects to a standard phone line so you’re not wedded to VoIP.

The real beauty of the CIT400 iPhone is that it looks like a regular cordless phone and for the most part acts like one as well.

The only thing that gives away its internet heritage is the small base station that needs to be tethered to a broadband router via ethernet.

The iPhone’s cradle is wireless, so even if the base station needs to be near a PC the handset can be kept in any room.

When you want to make a VoIP call, the iPhone taps into a built-in Skype service and new accounts can be set up using the handset or online.

Skype-to-Skype calls cost nothing, while billing rates for Skype to mobile and landline calls start at 2.7c per minute, according to the VoIP company’s website.

For outgoing calls, the main way the CIT400 differs from a regular phone is that it asks if you want to dial out using VoIP.

If you want to ditch your old landline, traditional phone numbers are available through Skype’s website, so people can call you even if they’re on a fixed line or mobile phone.

Be warned, though, call routing has led some local Skype users to complain of lag when using VoIP to place calls to fixed lines and mobiles in Australia.

All things considered, there were really only two bones we had to pick with this product.

The first is that you can’t purchase Skype credit through the iPhone handset, you have to go online.

The second is that if you’re a regular computer-based user of Skype, your contact list won’t automatically sync with the handset.

That’s a nuisance, but as far as we’re concerned it’s a small price to pay.
- Ben Woodhead

SPECIFICATIONS
Features: PSTN and voice over IP dialling; cordless handset; wireless cradle and charger; base station with ethernet and RJ11 sockets
Price: $239.95
More at: www.linksys.com.au
Rating: 9/10CONCLUSION

AS yet, no fixed-line telecoms maker has been able to completely cut the link between VoIP and the PC, although mobile services such as Hutchison’s X service may be a pointer to future directions.

That said, both products this week offered a good compromise between standard fixed-line handsets and VoIP.

The Linksys product edges to the lead mainly on its ease of use, but both are well designed to help newbies get their heads around the benefits of telephony over the internet.

It began three years ago over a morning breakfast, with two Massachusetts kids hoping to help one soldier stationed in Iraq pay for a whopping cell phone bill.

Today, the Cell Phones for Soldiers program has raised more than $1 million and doled out more than 75,000 phone cards to soldiers overseas and their families back home.

The program received a major boost last week with AT&T Inc. launching a cell phone-recycling program that essentially will turn old, used devices into even more phone cards.

AT&T-owned wireless stores nationwide — including those at 1701 Rollins Way and 300 10th St. in Columbus — are accepting old cell phones that ultimately will end up at a recycling plant. The recycler will pay Cell Phones for Soldiers for the discarded equipment, with proceeds earmarked for more phone card purchases.

“They have been very supportive,” Gail Bergquist said of AT&T on Friday. “They have donated 30,000 prepaid phone cards, and are giving us a reduced rate now on the purchase phone cards, which is fabulous.”

Bergquist is the mother of Brittany and Robbie, now 16 and 15, respectively, who saw a TV interview in 2004 in which a father was discussing how his deployed son had racked up nearly $8,000 in cell phone bills communicating with loved ones here in the U.S.

At the time, Bergquist had two nephews serving in the military — one headed for duty in Baghdad, the other attending officer’s training for eventual deployment to Kosovo.

The Bergquist siblings remarked to their mother and father, Bob, both teachers in Norwell, Mass., that they wanted to help the soldier on TV and their family members in uniform. They ran upstairs and grabbed their piggybanks: $14 was quickly raised. Kids at school donated snack money. There were car washes and bake sales. A bank donated $500.

also is donating 10,000 more phone cards directly to troops stationed in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and other overseas areas over the coming weeks. The company’s goal for 2007 is to donate 50,000 prepaid cards valued at more than $450,000.

“The launch of our national recycling program that supports Cell Phones for Soldiers gives us the chance to demonstrate our commitment to military families all across America,” Bob Fox, director of sales for AT&T’s wireless operation in south Georgia, said in a statement. “AT&T is proud to do what we can to help keep military families connected.”

AT&T said it has donated nearly $8 million in free prepaid phone cards to those in uniform since 2000, on top of nearly $6 million in grants that support troops and related nonprofits. The company has 70 U.S. military calling centers scattered through the Mideast.

AT&T spokeswoman Dawn Benton said the recycling effort with Cell Phones for Soldiers is a good match, blending patriotism with environmentally friendly ways of ditching old equipment.

“We recycle year-round anyway,” she said. “Then we do a lot with the military. So this is a good way to combine something that we’re passionate about, which is helping the military, and combining what we have done in terms of recycling.”

Gold, toxins in phones

From a corporate standpoint, the program works well in light of the fact that AT&T’s partnership with Apple Inc. and its new iPhone is expected to generate plenty of discarded cell phones, BlackBerrys and iPods. Apple officials have predicted 10 million of the iPhones — which blend voice calls, Internet, photos and music — will be sold over the next 18 months.

David Kutoff sees this as a teachable moment.

He’s president and CEO of Materials Processing Corp. in Eagan, Minn., which has collected electronic waste, or e-waste, for nearly 25 years.

“If I throw my one-pound cell phone in the garbage buried in a plastic bag, who’s going to notice? It’s not like a 25-inch TV,” said Kutoff, 29, who bought the business in January with partner Todd Schachtman, 33.

“But if everyone recycles their phones, close to 1.5 million pounds of cell phones won’t wind up in the garbage can,” he said. “It’s the difference between everybody saying, ‘Who cares?’ and everyone saying, ‘We can do our part.’ It’s all about education.”

Already the average American has three to five cell phones lying around, which stacks up to a nationwide total of 750 million unused devices just lying dormant.

Unfortunately, a lot of those phones go directly from the dresser drawer into the trash can. About 130 million a year meet that fate, according to the Environmental Protection Agency — even though the phones are filled with all sorts of valuable metals, including gold.

Many cell phones also are loaded with hazardous materials like cadmium, arsenic, copper and lead — stuff you don’t want leeching out of landfills or incinerated in garbage burners.

BY TONY ADAMS - tadams@ledger-enquirer.com

In the past, such businesses — we’ll call them all VARs, for convenience — might have helped their customers only with computers and data networks, or perhaps only with traditional phone systems such as TDM PBXs. Now they’re adding VoIP to their acts. Doing so often fills a hole in their business models, and represents a new route by which VoIP can proliferate in small companies.

One significant part of this emerging market involves hosted Internet-based IP PBX services. These offer the ease and convenience of traditional Centrex services, but add all the modern advantages of VoIP. Suppliers of such services include Packet8 and Vocalocity. All a small business needs is a broadband connection and an IP phone to get enterprise-level features and flexibility. The package also delivers the cost savings that made Internet telephony famous in the first place.

The other main part of the market involves open source IP PBXs. VARs load Asterisk packages onto Linux servers, install them in their customers’ premises, set them up and keep them running. Fonality’s open source trixbox is an example of such software. VARs used to download it and put it on servers themselves. Now they can buy it from trixbox owner Fonality, preloaded on a server, in the form of a bright green trixbox appliance.

The hosted model has significant attractions for VARs. The biggest may be that it provides recurring revenues. VARs’ incomes no longer have to depend on upfront revenues for integrating and installing hardware, an approach that provides only inconsistent fees for maintenance or reconfigurations later. Rather, they can, as resellers, get paid a fee every month as long as the customer uses the service.

That doesn’t mean it will replace their existing business, rather it will augment it, according to Vocalocity channel manager Brian Koles. “We’re finding this kind of hosted PBX helps fill in the gaps where the existing solution sets haven’t been able to sell very well,” he says. “It has sort of created a new revenue space without replacing what a lot of the VARs and telecom brokers, as well as some of the IT consultants, have already been selling.”

The premise-based approach also holds attraction for sometimes-skittish small business customers of VARs. For one thing, it gives them the option of sticking with analog connections. Instead of having their calls come in and go out over the Internet via a VoIP provider, they can hook their IP PBXs to their existing standard incoming phone lines. That means they don’t have to rely solely on the Internet for all their calling needs. That may help persuade those still leery of Internet telephony quality, while still providing them with the advantages of VoIP switching.
 

By Robert Poe on June 5th, 2007

The quick-to-deploy MOTOwi4 solutions, which include wi4 Fixed Canopy and point-to-point backhaul products, will enable Ice to maintain the momentum of its rapid network roll-out. The high-quality voice over IP (VoIP) communication offered by the Motorola solution was central to its selection, with broadband customers in Ireland increasingly choosing the Internet to handle their telephone calls.

Demand for broadband in Ireland is booming, said Fran Rooney, founder of Ice Broadband. Wireless technology gives us the means to quickly and efficiently create a network that will reach customers across the entire country, regardless of the quality of fixed line infrastructure.

Motorolas solution is quick and simple for our engineers to install, reliable, offers excellent range and delivers high-quality data and voice transmission. It enables us to maintain the high rate of service roll-out weve established and the quality standards our customers have come to expect, Rooney said.

Ice Broadband selected Motorola after evaluating a number of solutions. Technology innovations, such as industry-leading interference mitigation techniques and excellent VoIP quality proved to be key factors in the decision and demonstrated Motorolas capacity to maintain and improve service quality.

Ian Bayly, MOTOwi4 sales director Europe, Motorola Networks & Enterprise said, Ice Broadbands decision to invest in wireless broadband technology demonstrates its commitment to pioneering service innovation in broadband. Our MOTOwi4 solutions offer the reliability and connectivity to deliver the high quality of service that wireless operators and their customers expect. We are delighted that Ice has chosen to deploy our wireless broadband products and we look forward to helping the company grow.

Ice Broadband is a premier broadband carrier providing quality services concentrating on suburban areas, rural locations and small towns. Ice Broadband has committed to provide quality service to the largely forgotten rural populations and communities in Ireland where lack of quality broadband is a particular problem.

Ice Broadband uses high quality, internationally proven, equipment coupled with bespoke network management software which constantly monitors the network and customer installations to ensure fast, reliable, high-speed broadband at all times.

Keywords: high-speed wireless Internet access, broadband wireless, broadband customers, broadband coverage, broadband data, motorola inc, nyse, fran rooney, launch, ireland, mot, motorolas, voip, high quality, wireless broadband services, interference mitigation, director europe, wireless broadband

By Robert Hoskins

The company plans to sell 25 million new shares at 20 cents each to raise $5 million representing 23 percent of total equity. The remaining 77 percent will be retained by the current shareholders.

Tel.Pacific was founded in 1996 and was until recently both an ISP and a calling card company. However earlier this year it completed the sale of its ISP business to gNode Networks (As part of the agreement gNode has retained the rights to the name and use of the domain name for a period of 12 months: so www.telpacific.com.au appears to visitors to be one entity selling both Internet access and calling cards.

Tel.Pacific COO Barry Chan told iTWire that the company’s ISP arm, with about 40,000 was not sufficiently large to compete with the major players so the company had decided to focus on its card business where it is number two or three. For its card business the company in the 2007 financial year (to end 30 June 2007), the company is forecasting revenues of $36.3 million and $3.9 million of EBITDA.

Of the funds raised in the IPO, the company intends to use the majority ($3.25 million) for acquisitions. Tel.Pacific says that, “As the cost to entry into this market is relatively low, some smaller players have entered the market and established well in the ethnic markets. These players tend to focus their market in specific communities and use their specific networks to build distribution and sales.” $750,000 is allocated for marketing and development and $500,000 to open a New Zealand office.

According to its prospectus, “With an estimated market size of $230 million in Australia, the calling card market has become highly competitive over recent years. A number of large and small industry participants have diversified into different ethnic and demographic niche markets. Competition driven innovation seen in the telecommunications industry as a whole has filtered down to the calling card market. Demand has moved away from commodity-based telecommunications towards applications-based products, providing a strong market for calling cards.”

Tel.Pacific’s focus (and that of most of its competitors) is remote stored value (RSV) cards that allow callers to make calls up to the value of the card by dialling a local call access number, or a 1800 number, and entering a PIN number. The value of this card is maintained in the network of the provider, rather than on the card as in the case of  payphone cards like Telstra’s.

According to Paul Budde Communication, the payphone card has seen a significant decline with revenue per annum in Australia dropping from $70 million to $20 million dollars from the late 1990s to mid 2000.

There are approximately 20 service providers in the RSV calling card market and,  according to Paul Budde Communication (quoted in the Tel.Pacific prospectus) the key players in order of importance, are: • Telstra (which owns approximately 95 percent of the payphone card market and approximately 20 percent of the RSV card market); • gotalk (Telecorp); • Hello (Tel.Pacific); and • World Telecom.

Tel.Pacific says it expects to sell 667 million call minutes during the 2007 financial year. Its IPO opens on 4 June 2007 and closes on 29 June 2007.

http://www.itwire.com.au

Calling cards providers offer plenty of various rates and destination packages to their customers trying to stay competitive on the overcrowded market. This is great for the customers as they have a plethora of choices. Those calling card companies, who are into a serious business, usually give their detailed rates on the official websites and these rates are final, therefore making a customer able to choose the offer that fits him best. 

It is not an easy task for a prepaid phone card user to dig the rates and other features which are important in evaluation the provider’s offer. However, if the job is done right, chances are high to have your savings maximized and connection problems minimized. 

Some companies offer US-Call-Back services, some give PIN-less accounts and some offer special bonuses and rewards if you call to certain countries on a frequent basis. If you know all these special offers and opportunities, it is possible for you to design a sort of a ‘combo’ where each call you place will be the optimal choice if to consider the price and reliability of the service. 

Some people claim it is impossible to save on domestic phone calls with the help of prepaid long distance products. This is not true as many calling card providers offer special rates on calls to the USA which are sometimes significantly cheaper than those from your local provider. Yes, you heard it right - if you call to the neighboring state as if you’ve been calling from abroad, it may appear to be cheaper than using your standard telecommunication operator. 

Information is crucial to make the process of calling cheap and pleasant. And while millions of people believe this is true only for the long distance international calls through prepaid calling cards, we now know there are additional opportunities to save money and still have a reliable and high-quality phone connection. 

Once used as an option only for those who did not have access through their phone company for one reason or another, we now have more companies offering International calling cards affiliate programs than we can count! As the cellular phone has decreased the use of the traditional pay phone and has invariably contributed to its complete extinction, so will the phone card (or calling card) doom long distance carriers the same fate.

International calling cards affiliate programs consist of a company that recruits others who have web sites to “advertise” for the calling card company on their site. This is done by the website of the recruited individual displaying a link to the calling card company’s website. This increases the amount of potential web traffic by “streamlining” from countless other sites. This affiliate program promises to pay a certain amount of commission per sale generated from an affiliate’s site. So, if you’re looking into fuss-free ways to make money without a huge investment of time or money, being an international calling cards affiliate programs member is a viable option for you.

The affiliate programs can also work the other way. Keeping in mind the original example, the calling card company can produce the cards and hire an affiliate to actually provide the service for those who purchase a calling card. In this scenario, the revenue is generated on both sides equally.

There are many benefits to all interested parties in an affiliate situation: the calling card company earns money by selling the cards; the users benefit by experiencing freedom from their long distance carriers rates and additional charges to place a call, and the contracted carrier to provide the phone service is paid by the consumer who uses their services, and up front to boot!

International calling cards affiliate programs work for everyone. No more waiting in line to use a pay phone at an airport, no more dropped calls or dead spots on your cell, the time and place in no longer the question as to whether or not a call can be placed, it’s only the “how” that is left to answer. With these programs, income is limitless and the potential for growth, well, we just don’t know, do we? Alexander Graham Bell could not have envisioned the cellular phone in his time!

The only down side of these affiliate programs is that you are solely at the mercy of the honest merchant; will you truly receive your deserved revenue check?

There’s no way to track who made a purchase as a result of visiting your website and clicking on the link to the calling card company. Other than that, the entire idea is genius!

1. Upgrade your Internet connection. Download and upload bandwith is crucial for VoIP connection quality.

2. Use special software to optimize you computer performance through the broadband connection.

3. Upgrade your VoIP software. Codecs and technologies develop so fast, that every new generation provides better quality.

4. Check your headset. If it is of bad quality, this may be one of the reasons for VoIP problems.

5. Don’t download anything when calling. If your broadband line will be stuffed with data packages when you donload something, there can be too little capacity left for VoIP connection.

And don’t fret to complain to your VoIP provider. The level of rivalry in the segment is not big… it’s huge! So be sure your service provider will do everything possible to make things run smoothly for you.

Coming up with giving various branded souvenirs as presents seems to be a good idea. But those keychains, coffee cups, T-shirts etc. are, well, very ordinary. People use them as presents too often. They are impersonal and you end up just as another one in the long list of companies bringing keychains, T-shirts etc.

Calling cards are something different. First - they are useful. Their usability is maybe one of their most powerful advantages. You don’t need a keychain if you have 100 more, do you? But a calling card is always a superb gift as it is useful. And it is great for branding. Customizable calling cards can be purchased from almost every calling cards provider and we shouldn’t tell you how many guys there are to print everything you wish on this small piece of plastic.

Second - though calling cards make up a temporarily present (account money expires sooner or later), they are unique. Eve when account turns empty, people remember you. As you’ve treated them with something original and, once again, very useful. They may have hundreds of keychains and coffee mugs, but they’ll remember your gift as it differs significantly from everything else.