By Susan Rush
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Online wireless services seller InPhonic is teaming with rival Amazon to sell more wireless plans and handsets. The companies have agreed to a multiyear deal that will allow InPhonic to become part of the Amazon wireless store.
InPhonic products and services will make their debut on Amazon.com during the third quarter of this year through an integration of InPhonic's Wirefly into Amazon's wireless store.
InPhonic also has established partnership with Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft's MSN portal.
The deal enables Amazon to offer wireless phones that are ready to use right out of the box. Prior to this agreement, phones purchased through Amazon's wireless store had to be activated by the appropriate carrier after purchase. "We're pleased to add InPhonic to our wireless store as our first third party merchant to offer activated cell phones with service plans," said Amazon Senior Vice President Kal Raman.
Officially, the multi-year contract was forged with Amazon.com's wholly-owned subsidiary Amazon Services.
News of the deal pushed InPhonic shares up 4 percent at one point during noon-hour Eastern Time trading. In the last 52 weeks, InPhonic shares have traded as low as $5.02 and as high as $21.25.
In March, InPhonic expanded the reach of its Wirefly wireless comparison-shopping site to small businesses with the launch of Wirefly.biz. The new site is dedicated to helping small businesses make informed wireless decisions, according to the company. Specifically, the site is designed to assist small businesses in comparing available services and discounts, as well as provide customer support.