Phone Cards for soldiers

[Zshot]

This may be usefull to some people:

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AT&T makes it easier for soldiers to call home from Iraq

LESLIE CAULEY

USA TODAY

If you're thinking about buying a prepaid calling card for a loved one stationed in Iraq, do yourself a favor: Don't buy it at Wal-Mart, a gas station or any other place where calling cards are typically sold.

The reason: Those prepaid cards, which typically offer long-distance for a flat rate of 5 cents a minute or less, are geared for domestic calls.

If they're used to make calls from the war zone, there's a good chance the minutes will be drained before you can say, "Operator, please."

Thousands of those calling cards have been bought by people who mistakenly assumed they're suitable for use in Iraq.

The solution? The Global PrePaid Card.

The Defense Department has an exclusive contract with AT&T, which developed the card specifically for use by military personnel overseas.

The special card is sold on U.S. military bases around the world, but anyone can buy one online through the Army & Air Force Exchange Service.

The Global card works like any other prepaid calling card, with one difference: Unlike domestic cards, which are based on minutes, the Global card is sold in "units." The denomination was created by the calling-card industry years ago to try to make it easier for consumers to deal with international rates.

For Americans accustomed to buying calling cards by the minute, the unit system can be confusing.

A 10-minute call from Afghanistan to the United States will eat up 30 units (three units a minute). The same call from Iraq will also cost you 30 units. Cost of a 10-minute call back to the United States: 150 units.

Elaine Rogers, president of the USO of Metropolitan Washington, said her group has received thousands of calling cards donated by Americans who want to support the troops.

But many of the donated cards are of the 5-cents-a-minute variety, making them virtually useless to soldiers stationed overseas.

Role of USO

The agency has been distributing care packages stuffed with a range of donated items.

AT&T has donated $6 million in Global cards for inclusion in the packages.

"It's the No. 1 requested item from the troops," Rogers said.

According to AT&T, soldiers spend more than 10 million minutes a month using the Global card. Even so, AT&T said its profit margins are minimal because the service is so costly to provide.

"We basically break even," said Claudia Jones, an AT&T spokeswoman.

AT&T's entry into the Iraq war zone began in 2000.

The Pentagon wanted to enable soldiers to call friends and relatives from the battlefront.

That had never been done before.

Soldiers have long been able to use satellite technology to make and receive personal calls overseas.

But no one had ever tried to build the equivalent of a pay-phone center in the midst of a combat zone.

Even AT&T wasn't sure it could deliver.

The carrier earlier installed calling centers in such war-torn areas as Bosnia and Afghanistan. But those areas had infrastructure to work with.

Iraq was different. The combat zone was basically leveled.

AT&T assumed it would have no power lines and no infrastructure to work with. AT&T's solution: stand-alone calling centers.

The war-zone centers are self-contained.

Each is outfitted with 24 to 48 phones, which resemble regular pay phones.

Each unit has its own satellite receiver, power generator and safety gear.

Getting the centers to the right location on the battlefield is a logistical feat.

The electronics are assembled in the United States and shipped to Kuwait.

There, the centers are put together by technicians and loaded onto trucks.

The trucks are then attached to military convoys for transport to their destination.

"If we're lucky, they get there," said Bill Baumann, AT&T's director of military marketing.

Sometimes, they don't.

Once, Baumann said, AT&T lost track of a phone center for about three weeks.

The center eventually turned up.

"It's a war zone," he said with a shrug. "Things happen."

[Galen]

I have been given free phone cards periodically, each time that I served overseas.

They are nice to have.

Many business do give to the cause.

:-)