Press Release Source: ICM Telecommunications, Inc.
ICM Telecommunications Expands Product Offerings Into Arizona
Tuesday July 29, 10:05 am ET
Move to Enter This Promising Marketplace Launched Six Months Ahead of Schedule
LAKE OSWEGO, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 29, 2003--ICM Telecommunications, Inc. (Other OTC:ICMH - News), a rapidly growing provider of prepaid pin-based products through its Point of Sales Activation (POSA) terminals, today announced that the company has accelerated its strategic geographic expansion by adding J&S Consulting, a very seasoned telecom sales and marketing team in Arizona, six months ahead of its original projected schedule.
"This opening penetration of the Southwest marketplace was accelerated because we had the good fortune to form an alliance with this group, whom we have had the pleasure of working with earlier," said Doug Hamby, president & CEO of ICM Telecommunications. "We are still planning to enter the northern and southern California marketplaces within the next two months," Hamby continued, "but the opportunity to affiliate with the team in Phoenix was too compelling to delay our strategic plan."
Hamby noted that the company's ability to quickly seize upon such opportunities underscores not only its entrepreneurial approach but also its goal of becoming a key player in its evolving marketplace. Currently, the number of grocery and convenience stores now featuring ICM's Electronic Payment & Inventory System (EPIS) has grown to 85, primarily in the Seattle/Tacoma and metropolitan Portland, Oregon markets. In recent weeks the company has added eight additional sales representatives to these areas and sales have accelerated by more than 30% in response.
The company's EPIS hardware and software package enables the retailer to process a suite of services, all on the same terminal. Current products available for purchase include prepaid cellular telephone recharge, telephone calling cards, home dial tone, roadside assistance and discounted prescription drug cards. The EPIS system also offers merchant services such as VISA and MasterCard transactions.
The stake for all these products and services are substantial. Hamby noted that industry analysts now believe that within two years, by 2005, the overall market for prepaid products will climb to as much as $4 to $5 billion. The CEO said that ICM believes that, with its current suite of prepaid products, and those now in development, that the company could conceivably capture as much as 1% of that market by that time, and grow aggressively thereafter with continuing new services being introduced to this dynamic marketplace.
Demand has been especially strong for the company's telephone calling cards, which offer rates of 3.9 cents per minute domestically, and 7.4 cents per minute via the company's popular Pachanga card focused on the Mexican calling card market.
The roadside assistance card, which retails at $9.95, and is good for 30 days from issuance, features free towing to the nearest garage, refills of fluids such as water and gas, free lockout assistance and free fixing of flat tires. In addition, purchasers receive a calling card good for 225 minutes in the U.S. and 60 minutes to Mexico.
The prepaid prescription card, retailing at $9.95 and good for 60 days from issuance offers consumers a 30% discount on all prescription drugs and is honored at all major pharmacies such as Long's and Rite Aid.
Two weeks ago, the company introduced one of the cellular telephone industry's most well recognized, high quality, and high profile product offerings -- the Samsung Model 850 flip-top telephone, making it available to consumers who would otherwise not have access to such a product.
"Now, in addition to our customers enjoying multiple prepaid services, for the first time they have the opportunity to have access to a product that other providers demand high credit ratings and other hurdles to acquire, including multi-year contractual obligations," said Hamby. "With our new plan, everyone has the ability to own and use a cellular phone, without such restrictions, and at an incredibly modest starting price."
In this newest product offering, a customer enters a participating merchant store, to which ICM has sold the phone, purchasing it at a suggested retail price of $79.95, resulting in a 30% profit margin for ICM. The phone comes fully charged, with an assigned number, and 20 minutes of airtime. Additional time recharges are exclusive to ICM's POSA terminals, ensuring a continuing revenue stream.
"We knew this new product would be a big seller since, after initially introducing it to our merchant base, they immediately came back with substantial orders before we could even get these phones into the stores," Hamby continued.
Last week, the company signed a premier partnership agreement with payQuake, a rapidly growing payment solutions provider. payQuake earlier this year introduced a "dynamic merchant pricing" (DMP) model that gives merchants the ability to control the costs of their merchant account "upfront as well as each and every month." Merchants always have the ability to do what's best for their business by choosing an account from one of the three individual merchant accounts offered by payQuake. payQuake merchant accounts range from no-set-up or monthly fees to rates as low as 1.59%. A secure payment gateway account is also included when one signs up for a payQuake account.
The pricing model permits millions of users of PayPal (NASDAQ: eBay - News) to have a real traditional merchant account with all the same protection as a larger scale merchant account. As the business grows, the merchant can migrate his or her account to more traditional pricing. When the joint agreement was announced, Tony Perre, CEO of payQuake, said, "Our model is built on the empowerment of the merchant, and we can see that ICM Telecommunications and its unique platform does just that -- giving the power of choice to the merchant, who in turn can give that same power to its consumers."
"The merchant world is in for some radical changes," Perre noted, "and payQuake and ICM Telecommunications are both helping to enable merchants to benefit from those changes."
"As partners, we will get a percentage of the sales our merchants make under the payQuake account," said Hamby. "More importantly, we are opening ourselves up to future opportunities that will involve EPIS and payQuake.
"Our whole business model is focused on giving the merchant and the consumer choices of how they want to spend/accept monetary devices," Hamby continued, "and payQuake furthers those choices."
Hamby also noted "Unlike PayPal, payQuake offers both swiped and e-commerce solutions, so the fit is natural with our EPIS approach. We are going to look to further the strategic partnership between payQuake and ICM Telecommunications in the near future."
The CEO concluded by reiterating the company's belief that, with its current suite of prepaid products, and those now in development, that the company could conceivably capture as much as 1% of its marketplace by 2005, and grow aggressively thereafter with continuing new services being introduced to this dynamic market sector.
Statements contained in this release, which are not historical facts, may be considered "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and the current economic environment. We caution the reader that such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Unknown risk, uncertainties as well as other uncontrollable or unknown factors could cause actual results to materially differ from the results, performance, or expectations expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
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Contact:
ICM Telecommunications, Inc.
Doug Hamby, 503/534-3663
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Source: ICM Telecommunications, Inc.
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