SANTA BARBARA - In an industry infamous for complicated pricing schemes, Santa Barbara-based Blue Casa Communications is finding success building a focus on simplicity into their phone company. In fact, Blue Casa’s CEO says that offering one price for unlimited local and long distance calls is the new standard for serving customers.

“It is a very powerful concept. The idea that customers know exactly how much their phone bill will be every month no matter how much they use the phone changes everything." said Don Oas, founder and CEO of Blue Casa. He continued, “Once you’re on an unlimited plan you never have to worry about your bill again. No more surprises. You’re done. You call where and when you want, for as long as you want.”

Predictable pricing schemes were pioneered by America Online in the early internet days, and have recently transformed wireless offers with blocks on minute pricing. However, home phone service has not kept up this trend and clearly consumers expect and want it to. Blue Casa started with fixed blocks of Long Distance included in the monthly price to our customers. However, many customers indicate they want even more minutes. Unlimited goes one step further.

“Our goal is to create a platform of phone capabilities that encourage our customers to find ways to use their phone. We have included the top calling features in all our packages and now unlimited long distance minutes all for one simple, predictable price. And the whole process is incredibly easy - it takes just ten minutes, customers maintain their same phone number and our billing system does the rest, Oas said.

“And for people who use their home phone a moderate to heavy amount, unlimited is clearly a time and money saver. It’s only a matter of time until flat rate phone service is the norm and every company will offer unlimited in some fashion,” continued Oas who is a 15-year veteran of the telephone industry including 12 years with GTE/Verizon before starting Blue Casa.

Blue Casa launched in June 2003 offering customized bundles of local and home telephone service to people on the Central Coast. They were first in the area to compete with GTE/Verizon for local service.

And Blue Casa’s recent success suggests their low prices and unique approach to business is striking a chord with customers. “We were very confident that we could win customers because GTE/Verizon as a monopoly was not innovating on price, packaging or service at the rate consumers expect. People were ready to switch and love the savings, simplicity and customer service Blue Casa offers. We are different than the big phone company and our customers are now our biggest advocates. Still we have been astounded by our success so far and are encouraged to continue to lead the charge to change the way phone service is offered.”

For example, each Blue Casa customer is assigned a personal customer service specialist who will assist that customer from sign-up and throughout the life of the customer-company relationship.

“Customer sign-ups have been beyond our wildest estimates in the first two months, Oas said. He continued, “We’re different and people have responded. “We design all our bundles and processes with the customer experience in mind. That’s why we’re introducing the Blue Casa Unlimited Option. We believe that if we treat customers well they will reward us with their business.”

Blue Casa offers local and long distance home telephone service on families on the Central Coast of California and is based in Santa Barbara.