Posted: 06/2000

1-800-RECONEX Offers Wholesale Program

1-800-RECONEX launched a wholesale program earlier this year for companies that want to get into the prepaid local dial tone business but don’t have the expertise or the resources to do it effectively.

As a prepaid integrated communications provider, 1-800-RECONEX Inc.
(www.reconex.com) has CLEC licenses in 46 states that allow prepaid local service, as well as resale agreements with Sprint Corp.
(www.sprint.com), GTE Corp. (www.gte.com) and all
RBOCs.

“As far as I know, we’re the only prepaid carrier with a nationwide footprint for local service,” says Todd Meislahn, 1-800-RECONEX’s president.

That advantage prompted the company to expand its focus from its own branded prepaid products to offering a prepaid wholesale product.

“Traditionally prepaid dial tone companies put together their service and go out to get distribution, which is what we have done as well. What we have done with our wholesale program is offer the use of our back office under their own marketing name,” explains Meislahn. “This is for people who want to get into the prepaid dial tone business but can’t go out and get all the CLEC licenses, set up all the resale agreements, negotiate the issues or set up call center.”

According to Meislahn, the provider’s main focus in 1999 was to automate many of the back-office functions, such as billing analysis and provisioning. This year, 1-800-RECONEX plans to pursue marketing agreements for its wholesale program with distributors.

Two agreements already are in place with Pay Smart and Fidelity Express
(www.fidelityexpress.com).

Pay Smart, one of the largest phone card distributors in the United States, offers prepaid dial tone via 1-800-RECONEX’s back office under the name America ReConnect. The product will be distributed through Pay Smart distributors, who canvass 35,000 locations throughout the United States.

A deal is also in the works with Shared Technologies
(www.sharedcellular.com), which will distribute the prepaid service under its own brand name through Home Shopping Network, K-mart, Target, Speedway and others.

“If people want to get into this business, it takes two years and a half million dollars to get set up with your licenses,” says Meislahn. “People who want to get into it quickly can come to us and get set up and be operating, and all they have to do is print up their cards and design the program and leave the rest to us.”