another telco con .. $.001 soon., page-11

This must be one of the most logical and well presented string on ATC in ages.

One major issue that no-one seems to have covered is the present card opporunity in Shanghai.

After all this was the primary reason why the FNT aquisition was pursued (and in my opinion luckily fell over - though through no skill of the ATC board).

To recap, ATC still has a license to distribute phone cards through the Shanghai province (population 19 million) and distribute those cards through Shanghai Telecom shops (approximately 2000 or so). The card platform would be based in Shanghai, and all calls generated through the cards would then interconnect into ATC's Shanghai switch.

The end result is that ATC gains retail revenue, and carries the calls on a wholesale cost base, thus maximising net revenue.

Retail rates (as anyone who has made an international call out of China would know) are relatively high, a reflection of, amongst other things, no competition (only six licensed carriers), official price setting, and the fact that China wants to get a China Telecom float away at some stage. This provides a healthy market for a phone card product.

This opportunity has not been discussed recently by ATC, but it is still on apparently. Look out for some changes to be made within ATC, and this to be pushed to the front burner just after that.

After all, why hire a calling card expert for COO if you just run a wholesale voice company?