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The history of the prepaid mobile phone began in the 1990s when mobile phone operators sought to expand their market reach. Up until this point, mobile phone services were exclusively offered on a postpaid basis (contract-based), which excluded individuals with poor credit ratings and minors under the age of 18 (the typical age of contractual capacity). Nowadays the prepaid mobile phone is found across the world. ==First US prepaid mobile phone installation== A patent for prepaid mobile phones (Patent Number 5826185) was filed on November 16, 1994. Among the first, if not the first large metropolitan area implementation of prepaid mobile phone service in the United States was in the early 1990s at Houston Cellular Telephone Company, Houston, TX. HCTC was then an independent wireless carrier owned jointly by PacBell and BellSouth. HCTC introduced a service offering branded "calltrac" based on Voice Systems Technology, Inc.'s telephony platform with RPAC-2 billing during the first quarter of 1994. HCTC initially offered prepaid mobile phone as a non-advertised alternative way to provide service to the more than 40% of cash-carrying, walk-in consumers who were being denied cellular service each day due to lack of credit. The plan was very expensive for the day, most subscription plans were double that of their postpaid su bscribers and the prepaid subscriber still had to pay for their equipment (handsets) and anticipated call usage up front. HCTC used the Calltrack prepaid cellular program as a credit development vehicle until they developed subscriber reports intended to show that "Calltrack" was not a profitable venture. The reports showed that a Calltrack prepaid subscriber was actually more profitable than their traditional postpaid subscribers by a huge margin. This was because, at that time it cost an average of 17% of their gross proceeds to collect on their bad debt postpaid subscribers, plus HCTC paid for all the postpaid handsets. HCTC was poised to become the first U.S carrier to go primarily prepaid, but it did not happen. Voice Systems Technology Inc. was sold to Boston Communications Group (BCGI) and the subsequent sale of prepaid cellular platforms in the US was immediately curtailed and the prepaid cellular service bureau was born. U.S Carriers spent several years trying to catch-up and develop their own solutions but patent litigation has kept prepaid from becoming the dominant form of payment.〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the prepaid mobile phone」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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