“The future belongs to those who can see it before it becomes obvious”, read a framed quote that was hanging in an office.
Ramin Heydari, President, CEO CellGateUSA, has forgotten whose office it was, but the words still resonate well over a decade later. Maybe it resonates because he had read the ‘writing on the wall’ when he first replaced a wholesale car stereo business with mobile pagers and then mobile phones.
The next time was in 2000, when he moved his enterprise into refurbished mobile phones and prepaid services. CellGateUSA has since grown to a network of more than 2,500 points of distribution in retail locations nationwide, which contributes to a volume in excess of a quarter of a million phones.
Heydari foresees prepaid as a growing industry over the next five years, rather than cycling down like other sectors abroad. “There are approximately 60 million un-banked in the U.S. alone,” Heydari stated pointedly. He said that worldwide, prepaid wireless has been the popular model for most European and Far East countries, much more than postpaid.
But he doesn’t just make educated guesses at the future of prepaid, he gathers his insight from careful study and as a time traveler. “I travel to one area of the world and step back in time, then another part of the world and I move forward in time.” He believes that one reason why the prepaid model is more common in countries outside of the U.S. is that foreign consumers prefer a way of controlling their spending rather than locking-in contractually with carriers who bill-out extraordinarily high on time overages. “What may begin as a $40 bill,” he explains, “quickly becomes $75 at 45 cents a minute rates.” The numbers of un-banked however, in this country, account for millions of low-income earners; a growing youth market; and the millions of undocumented immigrants who would otherwise need ID and social security numbers to get a bank account.
This population segment equates to billions of dollars in cash spent annually. Heydari also believes that as prepaid rates come down, it will be even more popular in the States, given a slowing economy that will undoubtedly create more credit-challenged and spend-conscious North American wireless customers.
Heydari says the opportunity for the wireless corner store to take on a ‘utility-like status’ for the prepaid market will only grow. “There are hundreds of thousands of Mom and Pop shops throughout the US who have become the perfect supply channel for prepaid products on a local level,” he said.
He doesn’t claim to have a crystal ball of course, but under current conditions, his refurbished phones packaged with prepaid minutes have a powerful ally within the local retail environment. “Retailers can create recurring income through this market,” he continues, “which is what will sustain their business now that the postpaid market has reached somewhat of a saturation point.” CellGateUSA serves the retail market for prepaid goods and services, supporting wholesale businesses, retail chains, and independent retailers.
Their product portfolio for prepaid wireless includes both refurbished and new cell phones. They also have products in financial services like debit cards, and bill payment in the queue.
CellGateUSA’s POS solutions allow retail customers to replenish their accounts from anywhere that there is a terminal. They provide transaction-processing and access to high-end products and services as well as help retailers generate consumer awareness and in-store demand from prepaid.
The company serves the carriers in the Americas with flexible processing platforms, for multiple prepaid offerings. CellGateUSA’s platform provides carrier benefits by deploying products and setting commission rates for multihierarchy channels.
Product delivery through a wide variety of devices including POS terminals, PCs, kiosks, handset devices, and IVR will be available. Customers can expect real-time payments and wireless account replenishment for suppliers and their customers Heydari believes the potential for wireless prepaid has far from reached saturation and his company needs no crystal ball to determine its future in this market.
For information on prepaid phones and services from CellGateUSA visit http://www.cellgateusa.com or call toll-free 800-407-2437.