Another prepaid lawsuit settled. This time, it was lawsuit of Locus Telecommunications, Inc. The company announced that they had agreed to a settlement in a national class action settlement suit brought against them in New Jersey Court. In the lawsuit, plaintiffs alleged that Locus distributed or sold prepaid and rechargeable calling cards without fully disclosing the applicable rates and charges associated with those cards. While Locus did not admit to any wrong doings, they did agree to settle this claim.

Locus agreed to provide $3,663,520 of replacement pins to eligible consumers in the form of a replacement pin with a value of $0.50 each ($0.10 a minute to US and $0.25 a minute to certain international destinations). For each $5 card purchased, consumers are entitled to 1 $0.50 pin. The kicker here is that the customer must have their original pin in order to claim more than 1 replacement pin. Customers wishing to receive the replacement pin(s), must make a request within 6 months from the date of the settlement and can do so by visiting their web site.

In addition to the replacement pins, Locus agreed to donate $300,000 to charity and agreed to use another $200,000 in product discounts in the upcoming months. IDT had a similar suit which they settled in much the same way a few years back.

A week before this settlement, Locus Telecommunications announced that it has signed a deal with Best Buy to sell it's prepaid wireless Universal SIMcards and recharge cards, branded O2 Wireless, at all Best Buy locations throughout the USA.

"With this new O2 Wireless service, cost-conscience consumers can ditch their expensive cell phone contracts and purchase as much or as little airtime they want."

The SIM cards work with any unlocked GSM phone and is ideal for business traveler and students who do not need the heavy cost of monthly plans and want something for which they only have to pay for what they use! O2Wireless also has a very significant coverage area supporting all major metro areas and much of the East Coast and West Coast (they do not have much coverage in the Midwest.

This deal is sure to be huge for Locus as it will give their MVNO business a huge amount of eyeballs which is relatively hard in todays comepetitve landscape.