Southern California Phonecard Collector’s Group Meeting - Part II

On Saturday, October 25th, 1997, the Southern California Phonecard Collector’s Group will be meeting again in Camarillo, California. (About 45 minutes north of Los Angeles off the 101 Freeway) The meeting will take place at the Outlet Center Mall, specifically the food court. The first meeting was held in August, and seven people turned out for the event. We spent a couple of hours chatting (on a beautiful day), compared collections, did some trading, and even gave some cards away! Afterwards, we ended the meeting by having dinner at TGI Fridays just up the road in Oxnard. If you are in the Southern California area, or are going to be next weekend, consider joining us! Everyone is welcome, regardless of how long you have collected. You can e-mail me for details, including directions. Hope to see you there. The meeting is scheduled to start at 2:30 PM, and will end after dinner.

Frontier Calls it Quits

NEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Frontier Corp., the nation's fifth-largest long-distance carrier, said Tuesday it will sell nonstrategic operations, lay off more than 700 employees and take a one-time charge of $55 million as part of a major restructuring.

Frontier, which provides local and cellular telephone service as well as long distance, said its third-quarter income would be below analysts' estimates due to costs associated with its prepaid calling card division and high network costs.

The company said it is soliciting buyers for its prepaid calling card unit and should be able to reach an agreement on selling the "assests and contracts of value" by the end of the year. Any remaining operations in that unit will be phased out during the first quarter of next year, the company said.

The restructuring was announced by Joseph Clayton, who was named chairman of the company in August, replacing Ronald Bittner, who stepped down due to ailing health. Bittner died Aug. 31.

"Over the past 100 days I have formulated a plan to jump-start the momentum this company has built up over the last 100 years," Clayton said in a statement announcing the move.

"We're trying to be fast, focused and forcibly driven."

Frontier is also phasing out its low-margin, price-driven consumer long distance products.

"Product lines that distract from our core business and inefficiently utilize our resources can no longer be part of our business portfolio," Clayton said.

Frontier declined to comment on its profit goals for the core business, but said it expects to begin 1998 as a stronger company.

"We feel that we are making significant progress today, and as we move into 1998, we'll be able to hit the ground running,"

Clayton told Reuters in an interview.

He said he believed the restructuring announced Tuesday will be the extent of changes at the company.

"I believe we've taken most of the action that I can envision right now. We'll spend the next few months stabilizing the company," Clayton said.

Analysis of the Frontier statement

For me personally, this is a huge loss to the hobby. The first card I ever purchased was a $5 Pronto card in 1994 at Wegman’s Supermarket. The card was by RCI, which is the company we know as Frontier. Many promotional cards are done by Frontier, and a lot of user cards as well. I hope this is more of a statement of the condition of a specific company more than the condition of the phonecard industry. 1997 really has been a tough year, losing companies and magazines dedicated to phonecards. It will be interesting to see if they are able to sell the phonecard unit of the company, and to whom they sell it to.

Another interesting aspect of this is how it affects Scoreboard - They have a deal to license athletes on Frontier cards, and Scoreboard products now generally use Frontier for phone time. With Scoreboard in relatively bad shape when you look at their stock value and earnings statement, this has to really affect their business.

NYNEX Update

For those of you who are new to this situation, NYNEX abruptly canceled their prepaid phonecard business by removing special phones that accepted their cards. Since the cards are not remote access, you need a phone to use the card. Without the phones, the cards are worthless, at least in a monetary aspect. There still is a strong collecting community for these cards. It appeared that NYNEX would not give refunds for their cards, but now it appears they will. The following was submitted by Steve Schwartz of Sears Phone Card Department:

"Bell Atlantic has announced that it WILL provide refunds (until 1/31/98) for all unused NYNEX change cards (except promotional $1. cards).

If you have cards to return, you might first call (800) 545-3279 for redemption centers in New York City, or you may mail the cards directly to:

NYNEX Change Card Refund Center
c/o Change Card Administration
230 W. 36th St. (10th Floor)
New York, NY. 10036

Be SURE to include your Name, Address, and Social Security number. YOU must be responsible for the insured delivery.

They have already destroyed thousands of cards, and the intent as I understand it, would be for them to destroy all others that they receive. This can only help the collectiblity of NYNEX phone cards."

Dealer Profile

This newsletter adds dozens of new subscribers every week, and occasionally I like to offer the new (and older) subscribers a chance to have access to phone card dealers, and their price lists. The requirements for dealers to be listed is that they must offer a price list free of charge that is sent via postal mail. If you are a dealer and meet this criteria, then e-mail pol@cardmall.com with your information, so that you can be included free of charge in this special edition of POL.

Washington DC Phonecard Collector’s Group

The second anniversary meeting of the Washington DC Phonecard Collector's Group (WDCPCCG) will be held on November 5th at 7:00pm until we get tired. it's at the Pentagon City Mall, near the gazebo. The agenda is open, but you can expect us to discuss the New York Telecard World '97 show, the Moneycard Catalog, the state of the hobby, magazines and web sites and other stuff. Contact Del Deligianis at jdeligi@umd5.umd.edu for further information.

Survey Contest

As part of Telecommute Week 1997 (October 20-24), Telecommute America will be randomly awarding an AT&T "Technology helping the Environment" 10 minute prepaid phone card to people who fill out a telecommuting survey. The card has an edition size of only 338.

Beginning the week of October 27, two other AT&T promotional cards ("People helping the Environment" and "Research helping the Environment")will be added to the Giveaway section of the AT&T Environment, Health and Safety website. Both of these 10 minute cards also have an edition size of 338.

You can find links to both the above sites from the AT&T Environment, Health and Safety web site at http://www.att.com/ehs

From: Joe Roitz

Staples Duracell Offer

I was at Staples office supply store Saturday and found specially marked boxes of Duracell AA batteries with 10 minute free phone cards inside.

From: Joyce Fine

Doan’s

Free in specially marked packages of Doan's Back Pain Medicine - a five minute paper phonecard picturing a guy and "his aching back" as well as three packages of Doan's. Service provided by Innovative Telecom Corp. The card is part of a paper folder that also contains coupons.

From: Jim Silva

Best Buy Batman

Batman & Robin videos go on sale October 21st at Best Buy Stores. There will be 95 movies at each store with a Batman phonecard. The card looks like it is by MCI, and there are five different 10 minute cards available. There is a limit of 5 movies per customer though.

From: Elizabeth Cohen

Until Next Week,

Alan

Distribution

Phonecards On-Line is written and distributed by Alan Cohen. It is a weekly newsletter devoted to phonecards - Current news, viewpoints, and reviews of new issues. It is distributed free of charge, and available two ways.

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