Front Page: CallKey Delivers New Take on Callback

Startup CallKey has a new take on international callback service. Rather than providing users with a special call-in number, the company’s technology relies on wireless text messaging,Web or Outlook-based communication to initiate the calls.

Although the company is uncomfortable being referred to as a callback service provider, CallKey’s value proposition is basically the same as those used by more traditional callback companies: to bypass originating longdistance carriers and their often exorbitant charges to provide customers with lower international calling rates.

Director Richard Freeman says CallKey will offer international rates that average 70 percent lower than an incumbent carrier would charge. A cellular call from the United Kingdom to the United States typically costs about $1.36 per minute, he says, but using CallKey it’s more like 20 cents a minute. A U.S.-to-U.K. call using T-Mobile, he continues, averages 27 cents a minute, while the CallKey rate is about 5 cents a minute.

With a Nortel DMS-250 switch in New York’s 60 Hudson carrier hotel and a U.K-based hosting site, CallKey will be able to offer its services anywhere in the world, with all services completely localized for the country in which they are offered, says Bryan Millhouse, director of wholesale. (He says the CallKey technology relies on packets to set up calls, although the calls themselves do not rely on VoIP technology.) The company is beginning its marketing effort in Greece and Britain this summer. Greece has the highest density of cell phone users in the world. Michael Mercer, director of sales, says the new international calling service is an especially attractive market to be in as Greece prepares to host an Olympics. In the British Isles, meanwhile, three international banks are interested in the service, says Millhouse.

In addition to businesses, which can access the CallKey services through corporate intranets or PBX connections in addition to the other methods, CallKey intends to target wholesale and residential users with its services. Freeman notes that CallKey creates a new opportunity for wholesale carriers in the form of cellular users. The company continues to look for agents and other distribution channels — such as cell phone distributors — to reach all potential customers.

CallKey, which is funded privately through its directors, also plans to offer conferencing services for less than 5 cents a minute.

The company also has developed a special router to enable it to offer ship-to-shore communications in concert with Inmarsat, cutting out the local provider typically involved in such communications.

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