Beep to binary.

Colombian manufacturer Coldecon is stealthily taking advantage of its market leadership in a simple technology--beepers--to break into the booming call-center business and to buy Internet service providers.

"We have witnessed, with much satisfaction, the trajectory of this company and the way in which it brought together a string of beeper companies that were going out of business, and who are today united as a single provider with very attractive cash flows," says Douglas Velasquez, president of the Colombian Association of Internet Companies. "This is an exemplary case in Colombia."

Recently Coldecon bought an Internet service provider with 21,000 subscribers in 17 medium-sized cities across the country. It already offers call center services to two of Colombia's leading supermarket chains, Olimpica and Cafam.

Even though mobile telephony has hurt the beeper business, Yolanda Chauta, Coldecon's sales director, says that because paging service is so effective and economical--about US$7 per month--the beeper market is very well positioned to succeed, especially in the healthcare sector and the logistics sector. "For example, there is a cost involved when calling a mobile phone and not all patients are prepared to incur that cost," Chauta says.

Coldecon execs say there is more room to grow. "With our beeper network we're trying to develop value-added services like telemetry," says Chauta, referring to data-transmission technology.

"In the future we're thinking about the development of Internet via satellite to reach rural areas."

Coldecon, founded in Call in 1998, began as a small beeper company and in seven years grew to be the sector's leader, with 100,000 subscribers in 230 cities, 1,300 employees and total sales of $10.5 million per year.