Best of the ISP-Lists

An Unserved User Base

The major ISPs are not friendly to customers who don't have a checking account, leaving a niche opportunity for local ISPs.

[July 7, 2005]

On the ISP-Marketing list in June, PR posted a link to an article, Telecoms Target Minorities, that said that telecom providers are marketing more aggressively to minorities, as a recent research study shows.

[JB replied] "I know of an ISP in California, that caters specifically to a Spanish speaking low income market. Their model is simple too. You come in at the end of the month with your ISP membership card, show your card with your account number on it, you pay for your access account by cash, check, or cashiers' check, and your Internet stays on. Of course they can mail in the money if they want, but one of the partners tells me they get a lot of people that prefer to pay in person in cash for whatever their reason. Now some would call this a cumbersome model, but they get to see their customers at least once a month, and there is no accounts receivable either.

The company is owned by a couple of guys that saw an opportunity where there was a hole in the market and now are doing very well. Nothing like being in a cash business, I guess!

Granted—it goes against the concept of automating, but I think these are subs that do not have checking accounts or other means to pay their bills. Generally speaking of course. "

[DL responded] "It does go against automating, but since the ISP will need office space anyway, why not let clients walk in and pay? No billing, no going to the bank to cash a car-load of checks (okay, so credit card billing would be pretty easy too, but you have those nasty merchant account fees), and it would even be very easy to create a script that automatically discontinued non-paying accounts when they were past-due, displaying a message telling the user where and what to pay."

[TC advised] "Another way—and very convenient—check with Russ Ferguson at AASP about putting your ISP on a vendor network for a payment system like Western Union. There's no cost to you and the customer can pay at tens of thousands of places around the country. Just an additional thought: you could even become a pay station for other bills and get a buck per transaction. A company I'm working with is adding their name to the vendor list. You don't have to be on the vendor list to get payments, but if you are, then it costs the customer and the merchant less for processing."

[JB concluded] "To my knowledge that is pretty much how they accomplish the task. When the client is past due, and they log on to the system, a message comes up and tells them they are 10 days past the payment date (or something like that), and they should come in to pay their bill.. Thought it was pretty smart to attack that market. Still proves everyone "wants" to be in the net!"

—End