Answering call for cheaper phone rates

Tag : international adapter

Sometimes, it's a personal need that prompts a business idea.
That was just the case with Alex Filippov, a Russianémigré who, in 1994, formed Long Distance Post LLC, aBelmont-based distributor of prepaid calling cards and prepaidcellular service mainly for international use.
"I knew how much it cost to call Russia from the US on landlines,and I also knew there were plenty of Russians here who would like amore inexpensive service," said Filippov, 52, who came to theUnited States in 1989 as a refugee from what was then Leningrad,and now Saint Petersburg.
It took a while for Filippov, who now is a US citizen, to develophis business plan. To make ends meet, he took a job as anelectrical engineer with Signal Communications of Woburn, andworked nights in his Belmont home on how he would structure hiscompany. In 1995, he left Signal, where, he said, he had helpeddesign "a radio receiver-transmitter for call boxes on theinterstates."
Three years later, he began selling prepaid phone cards in $5, $10,and $20 denominations. Rates are cheaper because the cards areprepaid, thereby preventing collection problems, and the firm has anumber of contracts with large carriers such as Verizon , Quest, and AT&T, and smaller companies abroad, Filippov saidduring an interview. The company has offices in a small buildingoff Trapelo Road.
Currently, a customer using one of the cards is charged 1 cent aminute for calling Moscow, for example, versus about 10 cents aminute, typically, when another service is used, said Filippov,whose title is general manager-owner.
Another reason for the less expensive rates, he said, "is that wehave a lower overhead and don't need huge [profit] margins." Thefirm has annual revenue of more than $5 million, he said. There arenine employees, most of them from Eastern European backgrounds, headded.
While sales of the prepaid cards provide most of the revenue -hundreds of thousands of the cards have been sold - the firm isbanking on sales of the OneSIMCard, introduced a year ago, to boostrevenue in the coming years, Filippov said. (SIM stands forsubscriber identity module.)
The OneSIMCard is plugged into a cellphone and enables the user tocall from anywhere in the world for 45 cents a minute, Filippovsaid. That compares to the $4.99 a minute charged by competitorsAT&T and T-Mobile, according to those companies' websites.
The card "is the future of our company," he said. "People travelingoverseas need good communications at reasonable rates, and that'swhat we provide."
There are about 2,000 OneSIMCard customers, he said, adding thatthe corporate market is only beginning to be tapped. "We've nowsigned up about 30 companies, and are targeting many, many morebecause this market has tremendous potential."
Long Distance Post offers several OneSIMCard options. One of themost popular, Filippov said, is a $100 cellphone that comes with anadapter that can be used overseas, and a OneSIMCard with $10 ofairtime. A OneSIMCard alone sells for $40 and includes $10 ofairtime.
"Until people learn about us, largely by word-of-mouth, they don'tknow there's an alternative to AT&T and T-Mobile," he said.
Some who are learning about Long Distance Post are military andcivilian personnel stationed in the Mideast, including Kuwait,Iraq, and Afghanistan. About 300 people have signed on the withcompany for SIM cards, he said, adding that those with militarye-mail addresses get discounts.
Ron White, a civilian who works for the Air Force in the Baghdadarea, is a customer. "My wife, who's back in Indiana, uses acellphone with a OneSIMCard when she needs to reach me," he said ina call from his post in Iraq.
While he's looking for exponential growth in the sales of thecards, Filippov said he's been content to build "the businessslowly" without building up debt. With the exception of a mortgage,he hasn't taken out loans. "That's due to my Eastern Europeanpsyche," he said.