TMCnet Feature

EcoCarrier, based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, caught the attention of me and my colleagues at the ITEXPO (News - Alert) West show in Austin back in September where it won the “Best Consumer Offering” award for its TopUP360 prepaid PIN-based or PIN-less airtime credit transfer program and its Mobile Broadband on Demand Service (MBBoD), an inexpensive mobile roaming data and SMS service. The company is at it again here at ITEXPO East in Miami this week, with two new capabilities:

• WiFiHotzone Services:   Providing  low-cost data access to public WiFi (News - Alert) services in 300,000+ locations worldwide.
• Personal WiFi Hotzone: Enabling a user to create a personal WiFi hotspot on any 3G mobile network worldwide.

As with the previous offerings, dramatic cost savings and wide availability are service features. Public Hotzone Service is offered in various packages to allow users to find a package that fits their travel plans. For example, customers can purchase the following:  

• 60 minutes for  US$10, validity period: Five days
• 150 minutes for US$18, validity period: 14 days
• 500 minutes for US$50, validity period: 30 days
• 1000 minutes for US$80, validity period: 90 days

Personal WiFi Hotzone is a local WiFi hotspot that individuals create via WiFiHotzone’s MData-MiFi. This is a device that automatically selects the least cost available 3G network(s) to use to connect to the Internet It typically can achieve Internet access bandwidth of approximately 800 kbps which is sufficient to share with up to five people.

Users of both services can add the Ecocarrier (News - Alert) MobileDialer360. This is a dialer app that goes on most smartphones that enables the making and receiving voice calls by IP telephony, to registered users of WiFiHotzone Services. Again, inexpensive (and it should be noted secure) voice calls are the attraction here. A call from the U.S. to Europe or vice versa is US$0.18.

The calls are carried to the dialed Destination Numbers by Ecocarrier’s service platform for telephone service provision which also offers to the service subscriber additional useful features such as Alias Number for use as international roaming number and voice mail.

MasterAgents

Ecocarrier also is looking to expand its footprint. It announced a MasterAgents Service Program for prepaid PIN-less telephone service which is now incorporated with its:

• TopUp360 Service for Airtime Credit Transfer Service, www.topup360.com
• RemitMoneyNow Service for Targeted Money Transfer Service 
• WiFiHotzone Services for Low-Cost Data Service for access to the Internet

The goal is to enable resellers and sales agents to provide customers the complete suite of Ecocarrier capabilities including its RemitMoneyNow Service for target money transfer service, and the new WiFiHotzone services. Master resellers will be able to operate under their own brand and labels and all data on usage, billing, invoicing and accounting and sales commission are available on-line and on-demand for all periods of operation.

A good deal and a good deal more

We are all always on the lookout when traveling of a way to access the Internet and make inexpensive voice calls to any phone anywhere in the world. Ecocarrier’s new capabilities allow road warriors to do just that, and to do so with added functionality from virtually anywhere in the world at any time so long as you are near a WiFi hotspot and or have access to a 3G network. Check them out at ITEXPO East booth 616 or online.