« Verizon CEO Derides | Main | Patented Signal Handoff Hype, Promise »

April 16, 2005

Excilan in Bankruptcy

By Glenn Fleishman

Hotspot payment system provider enters bankruptcy, halts services: I obtained information yesterday that Excilan, a Luxembourg-headquartered firm that offered a unique method of payment for hotspot services, has entered bankruptcy in that country Friday. The service will halt operations Monday at noon local time according to details I received.

Excilan allowed cell phone users at a Wi-Fi hotspot to enter their number on a gateway page and receive a confirmation call that they could use to agree to pay for the service. Customers of cell operators that hadn’t agreed to work with Excilan were granted short, free sessions which Excilan used as a market-research tool to find partners.

I don’t know the details of why the company has gone into bankruptcy; they were privately held. The company has been remarkably upfront about its usage, however, posting statistics on its home page. The most recent quarter saw 7,098 sessions, which at the highest possible commission and split might have meant just a few U.S.$10,000s.

Sean O’Mahoney joined the firm last year as CEO. O’Mahoney was formerly a founder and the CEO of Vancouver, B.C., Canada’s FatPort, which was an early Excilan partner. I was unable to reach O’Mahoney for comment since obtaining the news.

Posted by Glennf at April 16, 2005 9:55 AM

Categories: Financial, Hot Spot, Roaming

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:

Comments