1995 onwards

Foreword

While in Bankruptcy, I had penty of time to consider my next move.

It seemed to me that the UK telecommunications industry continued to offer a good business opportunity, despite the failure of NPC. I still had the names and private contact details of the original Shareholders. I reasoned that since they knew the history of NPC, and that I had been proved correct in forecasting the demise of that company if I did not have Shareholder support, then some of them may have been prepared to give me a second chance.

Phonecard Services Ltd. (from 2002 easy-dial Ltd)

In April 1995 I formed a new UK Company – Phonecard Services Ltd – with my wife Michele and Gideon Goldschmidt ex NPC as the two initial directors: obviously I could not be a director as I was still “serving out” my time in bankruptcy.

However, I did not want to make the same mistake of relying on an independent software consultant to control the Telecoms Exchange we would be using: time had moved on and more reliable systems were available with 24/7 service contracts. There would be no need to use Telehouse or the equivalent, as the providers of the Exchange (or Switch) we would be using had their own “server facilities” and so there was no role for Gideon Goldschmidt who resigned as a director in September 1995.

The principal product and market for the new company was the same as before – a “prepaid phonecard” service, serving the tourist industry, students, and anyone else who wanted to reduce the cost of their international telephone calling. Although the Mobile phone networks had made rapid progress in 2/3 years, prices were still high and network coverage not always reliable. And the Internet was only just beginning to be a factor – it was not until 2000 or so that I had to change course and move away from the Phonecard concept. What happened to the phonecard market and how it evolved to the 21st Century Calling Account is explained in the Power Comms website at https://callingaccounts.com

Structure and Funding – Initial Capital of £25000

During the next six months I canvassed my previous NPC Shareholders and obtained support immediately from 10 former Shareholders including, of course, Charles Sayer. 

Several meetings were held at the private homes of two of the Shareholders – Peter Bolt and Raymond Bridges – and the company structure and Board appointments were agreed.

The list of Initial Shareholders in the new company were:
Peter Bolt: Experienced Company Director and Chairman elect
Raymond Bridges: Entrepeneur and Finance Director elect
Charles Sayer: Director elect
John Chapman: Friend and business partner of Ray Bridges
Colin Morley
Veronica Goldberg-Steuart
Peter Doye
Chris Sykes
Stuart Foulser
Christopher Hill

In late September 1995, the structure of the new company was in place with £25000 of startup capital provided by the above Shareholders, and trading commenced.

Board Meetings were held on a regular basis to monitor progress and sales, and I reported to the Board of Directors. Our Accountants were Handley Roberts, a local London firm introduced by Charles Sayer.

Because I was the only “salesman” as such, and at the time solely responsible for all marketing and technical issues, I asked Jackie Peat to join the company as administrator and Customer Service Manager. At the time we were both based at home, so enquiries and customer support were dealt with by diverting calls to landlines or mobiles as required.

Company Progress – The First 5 years 1995 – 2000

After one year of trading, the company had acquired a nnumer of customers including the London Tourist Board and a number of Universties and Colleges, and had done enough in sales terms to prove it’s viability. I recommended to the Board that all previous NPC shareholders should be awarded gratis an equal number of Founder Shares in the Company as a goodwill gesture and to establish our credibility. The cost of issuing these Founder Shares was minimal, and met by the Company, but it was appreciated by many of the original NPC investors.

As a direct result of this forward thinking, over the next five years to 2001, Phonecard Services Ltd – later easy-dial Ltd – raised approximately £250,000 in additional working capital from its own shareholders by staging regular Share Issues.

Company Progress – 2000 and beyond

Danger Signals.

By 2000, the UK telecommunications market had undergone a drastic change, caused by two things: firstly the rise and rise of Mobile Networks – driven by the ever-decreasing size, cost and capability of the handsets – and secondly, the Internet, with the hugely important impact it was beginning to have on sales and marketing. There was also a third factor at work, and that was that increased competition from the new Mobile Networks – Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile to name but four – also meant that national and international call prices were falling.

The “phonecard” was no longer such a necessary product – most customers could now afford mobile phones, national call prices were reasonable, national network coverage had drastically improved and the new handsets could do a lot more than the standard phonecard.

Steps Taken To Remain in Business.

The first thing I did  was to change the name of the company from Phonecard Services Ltd – which by now was giving the wrong message to new and potential customers. From 2002, the company name was changed to easy-dial Ltd, which better represented our product: I also obtained a  number of domain names to establish our Brand on the Internet, which included easy-dial.com, easy-dial.co.uk and easy-voip.net.

The second step was to re-brand our lead product from a “phonecard” to a “Calling Account”. In reality, our old phonecard product used exactly the same technology, which was a VOIP based telecoms switch, and so apart from adding further access numbers to the service which were Local numbers (not Freephone numbers) we had a 21st Century product.

The third step was to set up a number of commercial websites so that we could take advantage of the Internet Revolution and tailor our  new business to these websites, which would mean that from 2005 there was no real requirement for an office location where customers would actually visit. The  Registered Office is now at 85 Great Portland Street London W1W 7LT.

Our new “internet presence” in turn led directly to another source of business, which was international reselling, where our customers were telecom resellers, either selling directly to their own customers or using callshop technology. We provided services to resellers in countries including the UAE, Zambia, Libya and Angola. 

Today, the company remains very much in business  and has a number of working sites which explain in detail the current products and services available – including https://www.easy-dial.com and https://easy-voip.co.uk

The company also has its own You Tube Video Channel – primarily provided for its customers to explain how the Calling Accounts can be best used and the features available.

I also recently built an independent website – https://callingaccounts.com – which explains how the calling account became the successor to the phonecard.