Saetec, Inc., a student-run firm, recently entered the market for College students' long-distance and international telephone business and is challenging the monopoly over student telephone service at the College.
The company gives customers an option other than Dartalk for long-distance and international telephone service. Dartalk currently provides telephone service to all on-campus buildings.
Jeremy Katz '95 said he founded Saetec, a worldwide brokerage, marketing and telecommunications corporation, in January.
"I give the same fiber-optic service that the big companies give at prices that you can't get dealing directly with the big companies, because they take advantage of you eventually," Katz said.
Katz said about 200 to 300 students at the College have already switched from Dartalk to Saetec.
"What also makes it attractive to a lot of students is that the charges can be billed directly to your parents at home," he said.
Saetec requires no monthly charges and no minimum usage, but students at the College must still pay the $15 monthly charge to Dartalk in order to place and receive telephone calls. Saetec offers the same rate 24 hours a day.
Katz said he got the idea for Saetec, which he named after his fraternity, while working as a press secretary for a congressional campaign last summer.
"I had to fax out almost 180 press releases everyday and my fax bill was about $900," he said. "So I came up with a better way of faxing that would reduce costs."
Katz then developed a new routing technology, which he is currently seeking to have patented.
While trying to sell the technology in telecommunications markets, Katz said he came across other opportunities and started Saetec, of which he is the sole owner.
Katz said the start of the business was grounded in providing service to international students at Dartmouth.
Currently, he is trying to hire international students to return to their home country and sell the service.
Students generally seemed very pleased with the service they got from Saetec.
"I switched to Saetec because my boyfriend is in Japan for the term, and I knew I'd want to call him a lot," Tori Arnold '95 said.
"I compared different rates for calling Japan from here, and AT&T costs more than three times as much as Saetec," she said.
"I use my account to call Japan as well as every other long distance call I make now," Arnold said. "I definitely plan on using my account at Saetec long after I graduate."
"It's just as convenient as any calling card but much cheaper," Arnold added.
Katz said he signs contracts directly with major telecommunications carriers, who offer Katz wholesale telephone service rates.Katz said he then passes on the savings to his customers. Wholesale rates are cheaper than if a customer dealt directly with the carrier.
Katz said he currently takes care of all marketing and support for the major carriers.
"It's actually very innovative, because most people don't care about offering services to college students and let them suffer with AT&T or Dartalk," he said.
"I was able to access a lot of students, small businesses and residential accounts that were generally getting ripped off by phone companies," he said.
Saetec is an independent company, Katz said. There are approximately 20 Saetec branches nationwide, including a branch in Hanover, as well as New York, Florida, Texas and California.
Katz said he hopes to subcontract branches in London, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney and Sri Lanka.
Katz said he hopes to bill more than $1 million of telephone service this year and then increase his business tenfold by next year.
Katz has deferred a full scholarship to Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government to continue running Saetec.
"It's also important enough to me that I have dropped most of my courses," he said.
"I'm only taking two courses my entire senior year," Katz said.
