LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., July 15, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- ICM Telecommunications, Inc. (Pink Sheets:ICMH), which offers prepaid pin-based products through its Point of Sales Activation (POSA) terminals, today announced that the company has launched a major product expansion. It has 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.
"Based on current industry data, this represents a major advancement in our business plan," said ICM's President & CEO, Doug Hamby. "Now, in addition to our customers enjoying multiple prepaid services, such as calling cards and cellular phone recharging, 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. 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."
The CEO noted that just last week the company had advised that it anticipated making a major addition to its growing array of well accepted prepaid products, and to announce this new product within the next week.
"This is the announcement we were talking about," said Hamby, "and plans for it were finalized just last night with a major cell phone service provider. The nature of our agreement requires that we do not disclose its identity, but we can say that it is one of the foremost cellular telephone service providers in the nation."
The number of grocery and convenience stores now featuring the company's Electronic Payment & Inventory System (EPIS) has grown to 85, primarily in the Seattle/Tacoma and metropolitan Portland, Oregon markets. The company anticipates additional sales coverage extending to the northern and central regions of California in the next several months.
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 MasterCard transactions, and now prepaid cellular phones as well.
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 know this new product will be a big seller since, after initially introducing it to our merchant base, they immediately came back with orders for more than 200 phones before we could even get them in the stores," Hamby continued.
"This is a classic example of how ICM intends to treat prepaid products in a long-term fashion for its market segment," said Hamby. He 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. Just in the prepaid wireless industry, said the CEO, research analysts predict that prepaid wireless revenues will represent a continually growing part of this market, growing from $3.3 billion in 2002 to $4.4 billion in 2003 as its momentum continues to outpace other communications industry segments.
The CEO said that ICM believes that, with its current suite of prepaid products, its latest offering introduced today, 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.
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.