Business idea: Cell phone service for Bitcoin -- What do you think?

[tkeith]

Hello everyone,

I am a software developer/consultant and a small business owner. I am involved in a couple of businesses that sell prepaid cell phone service in the US. I have been reading a lot about Bitcoin recently and it seems like an ideal currency to couple with prepaid cell phone service since both have goals of free trade and anonymity.

I am considering starting an online business that would sell prepaid cell phones and refills for Bitcoins. I would have no need to collect any personal information from the buyer, apart from their shipping address for the initial purchase of a cell phone. While it would not be a Tor-only site, Tor traffic would definitely be allowed.

The rates I could offer would initially be around BTC 0.012 to 0.03 per minute and BTC 0.015 per text message sent or received.

Before I spend time and money to get this running, I'd like to get an idea whether there is enough interest to make it a successful business. Would you be interested? Do you have any questions or suggestions regarding this idea?

Thanks for your feedback,
Trevor

[Stephen Gornick]

Until about two months ago, there had been many requests for this type of service, but nobody offering it.

Now there is:

 - http://btcbuy.info/CallingCards.cshtml
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78254.msg874391#msg874391
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=79669.0

Doesn't mean there isn't room for competition -- wireless airtime is a huge market.  60 million prepaid subscribers in 2011, at about $250/year means about $15 billion USD worth of payments to the providers each year.
 - http://www.atlantic-acm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=653

If you were considering outside the U.S., those markets are, in total, much much larger even.

For instance, just Mexico's prepaid wireless market has more subscribers than the U.S. does:
 - http://www.rcrwireless.com/americas/20120423/carriers/feature-report-mexico-a-complex-wireless-market-with-strong-perspectives/

[tkeith]

Until about two months ago, there had been many requests for this type of service, but nobody offering it.

Now there is:

 - http://btcbuy.info/CallingCards.cshtml
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78254.msg874391#msg874391
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=79669.0

I guess I'm a bit late to be the first to offer prepaid refills for Bitcoin. But the links you posted are all refill codes only for multiple providers. Do you think there would be a demand for a business offering cell phones as well as the associated prepaid refills, which would be more integrated and convenient for customers, for a slightly higher price?

[Stephen Gornick]

Do you think there would be a demand for a business offering cell phones as well as the associated prepaid refills, which would be more integrated and convenient for customers, for a slightly higher price?

There are customers wanting to acquire and use a mobile phone using bitcoins.  I've no idea what size that market is.  You could try testing by selling on BitMit or even easier, you could simply start offering this now.  Of course, though, these things don't necessarily organically grow fast.

[jago25_98]

There's been a few times now where I've been unable to topup my mobile because of some kind of security related problem.

Once I was able to trade some BTC for a topup and this got me out of a tight spot so it's a very useful service. Mobile phone companies put a lot of hassle, ID checks and everything into it as a lot of carding goes on there. Cash transactions could make it a lot more straight forward.