Summer calling cards

If you looked toward the Santa Ana Mountains Monday, they might have appeared hazy and indistinct — the result not of smog or wildfire, but of a thick marine layer that some feel has lingered far too long.

“Typically, we have a maritime layer of some type out there,” said meteorologist Mark Moede of the National Weather Service. “It’s just that in August, it starts to convert a little shallower than it has been this August.”
calling cards
The reason? The same lasting low-pressure air that lingered long adequate last month to make it one of the coolest Julys on book for coastal Southern California.

And it lingers still.

Much longer, Moede said, and we’ll be transitioning into the Santa Ana wind flavor, which comes as early as late August but commonly in September or October. The warm winds blowing out of the dozenses can greatly increase wildfire danger.
pushline calling cards
The lingering low-pressure coulded another transition: between El Niño, a periodic calefacient of equatorial Pacific waters, to La Niña, a periodic cooling, which is bechancing right now.

Climatologist Jan Curtis of the Natural Resources preservation Service in Oregon traced the statistics backward, and ascertained the pattern. In years when El Niño was making the changeover into La Niña, the low-pressure “trough” along the West Coast dawdled longer than normal as well.

El Niño can mean added to winter rains for Southern California, while La Niña canful bring dry conditions, though it's too soon to tell how this winter’s rains will turn out.

The cool temperatures, meanwhile, could soon be shifting.

This week’s forecast calls for clouds in the morning, sunny skies in the afternoons, with a gradual warming toward the weekend that could acclivity inland temperatures as high as 91 Saturday and Sunday.

New Calling Card - Online Investment

Republic of China Voice Holding Corporation (CHVC) (OTC: CHVC) announced today that it has established a new calling cards service distributed through its wholly possessed subsidiary, Wize Prepaid Inc., to be sold to various ethnic groups placed within the U.S. who are looking for a cost-effective way to call family and friends in their country of origin. The service is marked as "Wize Family and Friends" and is sold through the Company's current Wize Prepaid master allocators.

Wize Family and Friends is a new calling card that deports exceptional value to the caller, enabling very long calls, across international borders, or exceedingly low prices. This innovative product allows a caller to dial out to the a people of his choice, provide the called party with a PIN and a local access number and connect them for hours of talk time. Both callers use a local number; therefore, no additional long distance fees are incurred. Each call enables up to 8 hours of talk time for $1.00 per call.

Bill Burbank, CHVC's CEO, said, "Wize Family and Friends is a armed service that we expect to have a huge effect in the Calling Card industry. The flexibility of the service, also as the value delivered, is unprecedented."

Jose Ferrer, CHVC's COO, stated, "Wize Family and Friends bids a new way to unite people across the world, and it coulded as we know it today. This service is backed by carrier-class alternating systems and a proven and solid IP Network infrastructure. The first product offering is based on $2, $5 and $8 denominations. For example, our $5 card provides 5 calls, each up to 5 hours in length. Initially, we're offering country specific cards to connect with Guatemala, United Mexican States and El Salvador. Additional countries are in our future tense plans and will be announced at a later date. Today, Wize Family and Friends boundaries callers to call to and from the U.S. to a specific country. At a after date, we expect the service to allow callers to accept the ability to call to and from commonwealths other than the U.S. Our initial launch is in Florida this week, then with our master allocator in the Northeast, to be followed quickly throughout the U.S. and select International dispersion partners."

China Voice Holding Corp. ("CHVC") is a U.S. publicly-traded holding company headquartered in South Florida with a portfolio of next-generation communications products and services doing business in the U.S. and People's Republic of China. Through its subsidiaries, the Company provides Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") telephone services, office automation, wireless broadband, unified messaging, video conferencing, VoIP wholesale termination services, prepaid calling products and other advanced voice and data services. China Voice Holding Corp. trades Over-the-Counter and is listed in the Pink Sheets under the symbol "CHVC". CHVC files required financial and disclosure reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional information may be found at www.chvc.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
The foregoing, including any discussion regarding the Company's future prospects, contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to risks and uncertainties associated with economic conditions in the telecommunications industry, particularly in the principal industry sectors served by the Company; risks and uncertainties inherent in the operation of businesses outside the United States; changes in customer requirements and in the volume of sales to principal customers; the ability of the Company to assimilate acquired businesses and to achieve the anticipated benefits of such acquisitions; competition and technological change; and the ability of the Company to control operating costs and maintain satisfactory relationships with existing and potential vendors. The Company's actual results of operations may differ significantly from those contemplated by any forward-looking statements as a result of these and other factors, including factors that may be set forth in the Company's anticipated filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Calling Cards Come In Many assortments

Online Calling Cards offer VOIP online calling. This is the newest type of phone card. You want to be sure you read the find print called for to know that you are purchasing the best service for the type of calls you place.

International reliance calling card are found in gas bases and store everywhere. These cards are sold for a specific dollar amount and mayhap restricted to a certain country or region. As you place calls money is deducted from the balance. Some of these cards can be reloaded with funds.

Prepaid phone cards are great for many people as they offer the freedom and flexibleness to make calls to and from a variety of locations. But many have hidden fees so make certain to read the fine print.

Calling cards are one of the most affordable ways to keep in touch with family and friends or with your company if you are traveling on business. Prepaid international calling cards are one of the most economical methods to stay in touch.

For calling long distance the prepaid phone card has been the biggest advancement in the industry. Calling cards will keep you in touch with business associates, customers, friends and family.

Calling cards have been around since 1975 and have grown into a billion dollar a year industry. Today you can purchase cards anywhere. Cards can be purchased to place calls from anywhere to anywhere. Different rates will apply depending upon the restrictions of the card you choose. The more specific you can be the best rate you will receive.

Prepaid phone cards come in handy during emergencies. If you are traveling you may not have cell service or perhaps you cell phone battery had died. You will not be stranded if you have a prepaid phone card.

Be sure to check the terms of the card. Read the fine print. There may be different fees and rates dependent upon when and where you place your calls. There may be an expiration date or minimum and maximum amount of minutes you can use during specific times. Be sure to compare the cards you are considering prior to purchase.

Cost per minute is not your only consideration when purchase a prepaid phone card. There may be surcharges for using pay phones or for every call placed. Be ware that the lower the cost per minute the higher the hidden fees.

Next cost per minute is the connection fee. This fee is charged for every call you place. The connection fee can greatly increase your actual cost per minute especially if your average call is short in duration.
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International calling cards fly off the rack

For $2, she can call her sister in Guatemala for their weekly half-hour chat. For more loquacious relatives, Tovar buys a $5 phone card with more than an hour of talking time.
As Tennessee's foreign-born population has grown to nearly 200,000, the international calling card market has grown rapidly. Groceries that carry immigrants' favorite treats from home also hang colorful signs in the window to advertise the best price per minute on international calls. Some promise a 20-minute call to Egypt for $2, for instance, while others offer calls to Bangladesh for 6 cents a minute.
The cards bear names such as Guatemala Gol, a reference to the next World Cup tournament, or Cotorron, Spanish slang for talkative people. Customers buy cards specific to landlines or cell phones. Before dialing the number, they punch in an access code that tells the phone company the call is prepaid.
For Tovar, a native of Guatemala who became a U.S. citizen, the cards are 60 percent to 70 percent cheaper than using the local phone company's international long-distance service.
"I'll buy the best ones with the most amount of minutes," Tovar said. "This way I don't have to worry about a monthly bill. I have a lot of sisters to call."
Illegal immigrants sometimes are forced to use the cards because they don't have the identification needed for home phone lines.
Many American-born locals first heard about the cards after the shooting death of Malith Wiek, a Sudanese Lost Boy who worked as a custodian at Montgomery Bell Academy. He sold calling cards on the side to earn money for a trip home. His relatives say they don't know how he got into the phone card business, but they wonder if he was killed last month so someone could steal his supply.
The case remains unsolved.
Ajuang Ajuang, Weik's uncle, says his nephew used the cards to call home to Sudan and sold them to other local Africans. "It's the only way the African community can call back home," Ajuang said. "It's so expensive (otherwise). We all use it." The scramble for the international calling card market started in the late 1980s and early 1990s with some pitfalls, said Alfredo Polo, owner of Tele Discount in Atlanta. Polo's company distributes to stores in the Nashville area, plus locations in Alabama, Louisiana and the Carolinas.
"It first started with calling cards in Europe and then here," Polo said. "You saw a lot of people calling back home to Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. The business really took off with little regulation, but it's more stable now."
As the market was getting established, fly-by-night operations advertised deep discounts but then sold worthless cards, or cards with only a few minutes on them. The government had to make sure companies offered disclaimers and listed all fees. More native-born Americans — those who travel and those with friends abroad —also are using calling cards, Polo said. Domestic and international long-distance cards are a $4 billion industry, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Recently, to make money off the increase in international calling cards sold in the U.S., foreign countries receiving the calls started charging their own fees, tacked onto the cards' price. Colombia has started charging; Honduras, after a coup, increased its rates.
Still, locals go to grocery stores to get their cards.
On Tuesday, Osmar Garcia stood behind the counter of La Vaquita, a Mexican market on Nolensville Pike, naming in quick succession the cards people buy based on their countries of origin. Guatemalans, Hondurans and Mexicans use a prepaid calling card called Domino. People from the Caribbean like a different one. All the cards hanging on the rack were $2 or $5.
Garcia uses calling cards every so often when his cell phone rates become too much.
"People would rather pay 7 cents a minute than the 25 cents the cell phone charges us," Garcia said. "It comes down to money and keeping in touch with family and friends."
source: tennessean.com