ONLINE PLANET (TM) - Press Room

Announcements

July 5, 2000

CallSense.com report shows how every American can call anywhere in America for 6 cents or less, anytime.

April 25, 2000

Online Planet delivers CallSense for Windows, the first personal finance software that enables you to see true cost comparisons of AT&T vs. MCI vs. Sprint vs. the most popular 10-10 dial around numbers based on how you actually use your phone. You just enter your calls, or a specific call, and CallSense does the rest for you. Today, we are not aware of any other solution on the web that is even close to what CallSense enables consumers to do; in fact, if you know of one, please let us know.

Why CallSense

For AT&T, MCI, or Sprint residential long distance customers who want to spend less money on their long distance phone bills, CallSense is personal finance software that simplifies and automates the process of accurately comparing the true costs of using one calling plan versus alternatives. Other comparison solutions can lead consumers into spending up to 400% more because those solutions will say that two calling plans are nearly equivalent, when in fact they are not even close. CallSense saves consumers time and money by automating the process of accurately calculating true cost comparisons based exactly on how the consumer actually uses their phone. With CallSense, the consumer simply enters their calls, and CallSense accurately calculates the true cost comparisons.

Information Links

Quickly Jump to

Long Distance Calling Plan Quality Standards
CallSense is part of the 10%
Several Quick Notes on CallSense
The Only Limitations are Those of Imagination

Long Distance Calling Plan Quality Standards

Online Planet only adds long distance calling plans to CallSense that we could conceivably recommend to our own families and friends. We spend our own money and time to 100% independently research and verify each long distance calling plan that we have in CallSense, and we repeat this process for each monthly release. Our focus is on having the most accurate rates, the most accurate true cost calculations, the best calling plans, and the best solution.

CallSense is part of the 10%

CallSense is part of the 10% of the residential long distance comparison solutions that does not accept 1 penny, directly or indirectly, from the long distance phone companies for carrying their calling plans. We estimate that "at least" 90% of all of the long distance comparison tools you find on the Internet are either owned by a long distance phone company, or receive payments from at least one of the phone companies they list calling plans for. This typically means that these web sites bias which calling plans they carry, or how they are presented, so that the consumer is more likely to select one of the calling plans where the site's owner is paid by a long distance phone company.

Several Quick Notes on CallSense

The CallSense product family now includes
- CallSense USA for Windows
- CallSense International for Windows
CallSense accurately calculates and compares costs that vary by each phone company to the penny: Universal Service Fund Charges, PICC charges, call charges, call surcharges, minimum call charges, minimum billing period charges, monthly recurring charges, etc.
To calculate true costs, CallSense accurately simulates the billing and account management systems used by the major phone companies on your desktop computer.
With CallSense you can
- know the least expensive calling plan for you
- enter all of the long distance calls from your most recent phone bill, and see true costs calling plan comparison for all of your long distance calls
- see how calling plans compare for an in-progress call while you are on the phone
- know the least expensive way to make each call: should you use your calling plan, a dial around number, or a prepaid phone card?
- know how much a call is going to cost before you call
CallSense includes
- most of the current domestic calling plans offered by AT&T, MCI, and Sprint
- six of the most popular 10-10 dial around numbers:
  - 10-10-811, 10-10-220, 10-10-321, 10-10-345, 10-10-297, and 10-10-432
- six prepaid cards for comparison purposes:
  - two AT&T cards; three MCI cards; one Sprint card
- rate information for long distance services from seven phone companies:
  - AT&T, MCI, Sprint, Talk.com, Vartec, Qwest, and Excel.
CallSense International adds a selection of fee-based international calling plans for each phone company. Click here to see the complete list of calling plan combinations now supported by CallSense International. Each international calling plan option is paired with the domestic calling plans that the customer would most likely order it with. For example, for AT&T One Rate 7 Cents Plan, there are now four different combinations that the user can choose to compare using CallSense International:
- AT&T One Rate 7 cents Plan with AT&T One Rate International No-Fee Plan
- AT&T One Rate 7 Cents Plan with AT&T One Rate International Plan
- AT&T One Rate 7 Cents Plan with AT&T One Rate International Plus 2 Plan
- AT&T One Rate 7 Cents Plan with AT&T One Rate Online International Plan
CallSense includes calling plan information for calling-from U.S. residential households: state-to-state long distance, in-state long distance (beyond local toll), and international.
CallSense does not use short-term (teaser) international promotional rates, and so when you use CallSense if you see the international rate computations differ from what you calculate when using the international rates that Sprint, MCI, or AT&T give you, our rate calculations are what the call will cost when the promotional rate expires, which could be tomorrow, or when otherwise not available to the consumer. Often the long distance customer service representatives will not even know when the promotional rates expire, or that a specific international rate is in fact promotional.
We recommend a Pentium II or better system for fastest performance: this is a software product that can use all of the power on your desktop. CallSense will work on systems down to a Pentium 90 with 20 megabytes of memory.
CallSense can only be licensed to a U.S. residential household.

The Only Limitations are Those of Imagination

In 1996, Online Planet's founder, embarked on the mission to create software that would enable consumers to easily and accurately "compare", "select", and " use" the best long distance services for them.

Online Planet's founder received his BSCS from Purdue University, and his MSCS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He created the first version of NASA's CLIPS expert system language that is now in use throughout the world to create smart systems. He worked at NASA's Mission Control support building in Houston to help automate the processes associated with the Space Shuttle and the future Space Station. He founded Intellipro International in 1988, which created the first C++ product for Microsoft Windows and the first interpreted C++ implementation (similar to Java). Next, he went to work for Oracle Corporation where he was first the Product Manager for Oracle's first products for Microsoft Windows, and then later he was the Director of Oracle's Pen/Nomadic systems efforts: Oracle for Sharp Wizards, pen-based systems, mobile systems, sub-desktop devices, ... After Oracle, he joined Microsoft where he worked in the Microsoft Systems Division. He also has consulting experience at telecommunication infrastructure firms, portal software vendors, ...