Client overview
Snapfon® / Excellus Communications / BuyBackStore
Snapfon® is a telecommunications brand purpose-built for an underserved market: seniors, and consumers with low vision, low hearing, or dexterity impairments who need a phone that is genuinely easy to see, easy to hear, and easy to use — not just marketed that way.
The company traces its roots to 2008, when the founding team began planning a phone specifically designed for older adults. Handset production began in 2010, and Snapfon launched its own cellular service in 2013 — making it one of the few companies to control both the hardware and the wireless service for its target demographic. The brand expanded into smartphone handsets and service in 2017, broadening its reach while maintaining its core accessibility mission.
Snapfon® is the principal brand of Excellus Communications LLC, a privately held company originally based in Chattanooga, Tennessee and later headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. By the time 305 Spin engaged with the company in 2022, Snapfon had served more than 250,000 customers and built a recognized reputation in the senior mobile market — with an A+ Better Business Bureau rating maintained since 2011 and a New York Times recognition among the best cell phones for older adults.
Snapfon’s product line covers the full senior mobile experience: the ez4G and ezFlip 4G feature phones with large buttons, talking keypads, and hearing-aid compatibility; smartphone options for more tech-comfortable users; budget-friendly no-contract service plans with unlimited talk and text; and sosPlus, the company’s proprietary 24/7 emergency monitoring response service. The sosPlus system is a particularly distinctive product — pressing the SOS button on any Snapfon device triggers an alarm, sends emergency texts to up to five contacts, and automatically initiates speakerphone calls to each of them.
The business model is direct-to-consumer: customers purchase devices and plans directly through Snapfon.com or through retail and affiliate partnerships. Managing that model at scale — activations, fulfillment, billing, customer service, account management, and the full subscriber lifecycle — requires a technology platform sophisticated enough to handle the complexity of a licensed wireless carrier while remaining operationally manageable for a lean team.
In late 2025, Excellus Communications sold Snapfon® to BuyBackStore LLC, an Alpharetta, Georgia-based provider of refurbished electronics and accessories founded in 2008. BuyBackStore continues to operate the Snapfon brand and its full suite of digital infrastructure — with 305 Spin continuing as the technology partner responsible for hosting, development, support, and maintenance under the new ownership.
Since 2022
Technology partner
250K+
Customers served
5
Interconnected applications
Ongoing
Hosting, support & development
WHY THIS ENGAGEMENT MADE SENSE
Built on a decade of telecom infrastructure experience.
Snapfon came to 305 Spin in fall 2022 with a significant infrastructure challenge: the company needed a complete, modern telecom business and operations support system — a B/OSS platform — to run its wireless carrier operations end-to-end. Building one from scratch is a substantial undertaking. Having done it before is the difference between a multi-year project and an accelerated delivery.
305 Spin brought direct precedent to the engagement. Our telecom infrastructure work spans multiple carriers and platforms:
Budget Mobile
Telecom platform development.
Airvoice Wireless
B/OSS systems and web infrastructure.
Assurance Wireless (T-Mobile / i wireless)
Lifeline enrollment applications, back-office systems, and subscriber management platforms.
Telrite Holdings
Enterprise SEO and digital strategy for Lifeline-focused telecom brands.
That body of work meant 305 Spin understood the specific complexity of running a wireless carrier at the application layer: activation workflows, fulfillment integrations, subscriber account management, customer service tooling, billing systems, regulatory considerations, and the multi-vendor API ecosystem that makes a modern MVNO function. Snapfon didn’t have to explain the problem — we already understood it.
THE WORK
A complete telecom platform. Built from the ground up.
305 Spin designed and developed the full suite of digital infrastructure that Snapfon needed to operate as a modern direct-to-consumer wireless carrier — from the consumer-facing marketing site through the internal CSR tools, the eCommerce platform, subscriber account management, and the headless API backbone that ties it all together.
Fall 2022 Engagement Begins — Discovery & Architecture
305 Spin began working with Excellus Communications in fall 2022. The engagement opened with a thorough discovery process: understanding the existing infrastructure, mapping the business operations that needed digital support, identifying third-party vendor integrations required, and designing the overall system architecture. The decision to build a headless .NET backend — a single API layer serving multiple independent front-end applications — was a deliberate architectural choice made to enable long-term scalability and operational flexibility.
Phase 1 Snapfon.com — Marketing Website Redesign
The public-facing marketing website was rebuilt from the ground up — a new design and development of Snapfon.com on WordPress, designed to convert visitors into customers and communicate the brand’s accessibility mission clearly and compellingly. The site connects to the central headless backend for lead capture, plan browsing, and eCommerce integration, while remaining independently manageable by the Snapfon marketing team.
Phase 2 Full B/OSS Suite — CSR, eCommerce, My Account
The core platform build: a full suite of interconnected applications built in WordPress and Angular, each serving a distinct function in Snapfon’s operations. The CSR (Customer Service Representative) portal gives Snapfon’s support team the tools to manage subscriber accounts, process service requests, and handle escalations. The eCommerce platform handles device sales, plan purchases, and order fulfillment. The My Account application gives subscribers self-service access to their account details, usage, plan management, and billing — reducing inbound support volume and improving customer experience.
Architecture Headless .NET Backend — The Central API Layer
All business logic lives in a central headless .NET backend, accessible via API. This architecture means every front-end application — marketing site, CSR portal, eCommerce, My Account — draws on the same data layer and business rules through a consistent API interface. Changes to business logic happen once, in one place, and propagate across all surfaces. It also means the platform can scale: new applications, new interfaces, or new third-party integrations can be added without restructuring the core.
Integrations Vendor Ecosystem — Activations, Fulfillment, Billing & More
The Snapfon platform integrates with the full ecosystem of vendors and systems required to operate a wireless carrier: wireless activation partners, device fulfillment systems, accounting platforms, customer service applications, and data exchange partners. Each integration runs through the central .NET API layer, maintaining a clean separation between business logic and vendor-specific implementations — making it straightforward to swap or add vendors as the business evolves.
Infrastructure Azure Cloud & AWS S3 — Client-Controlled Hosting
All web applications and SQL databases are hosted in client-controlled Microsoft Azure infrastructure — ensuring Snapfon’s ownership of and access to their own data and platform. Public and private file storage runs on client-controlled AWS S3. The client-controlled emphasis was a deliberate design decision: Snapfon owns the infrastructure, not 305 Spin — ensuring full portability and continuity regardless of the vendor relationship.
Late 2025 – Present BuyBackStore Acquisition — Continuity of Service
When BuyBackStore acquired Snapfon in late 2025, 305 Spin’s role continued without interruption. The platform 305 Spin built is now the operational backbone of Snapfon under its new ownership. 305 Spin continues to provide hosting, development, support, and maintenance services — maintaining the platform, supporting BuyBackStore’s team, and evolving the infrastructure as the business develops under new direction.
PLATFORM IN DEPTH
Five applications. One backbone.
The Snapfon platform is best understood as an ecosystem of interconnected applications, each purpose-built for a specific user — consumer, customer service agent, subscriber, or internal operator — all drawing on a shared backend.
1. Snapfon.com — Consumer Marketing Site
Built on WordPress. The public face of the Snapfon brand: device catalog, plan comparison, accessibility features, SOS Plus information, affiliate program, and conversion-oriented content. Connects to the headless API for real-time product and plan data. Designed for clarity — Snapfon’s customer base expects straightforward navigation and plain language, and the site delivers both.
2. eCommerce Platform
Handles the full device and plan purchase workflow: device selection, plan pairing, checkout, payment processing, and order submission to fulfillment. Integrates with fulfillment vendors for device shipping and with the activation layer for new wireless activations. Returns and upgrade workflows are also managed through this surface.
3. My Account — Subscriber Self-Service
Built in Angular. The subscriber-facing account management application: usage tracking, plan management, payment and billing, device information, sosPlus subscription management, and support request initiation. Designed to reduce inbound CSR contact volume by giving subscribers the tools to handle routine account tasks themselves — a meaningful operational lever for a lean customer service team.
4. CSR Portal — Customer Service Representative Tools
The internal application used by Snapfon’s customer service team. Built in Angular on the same headless API as all other surfaces. CSR agents can view and manage subscriber accounts, process service requests, make plan changes, handle escalations, issue credits, and access customer history — with role-based access controls that govern what each agent can see and do. Designed around actual CSR workflows rather than generic CRM templates.
5. Headless .NET API — The Central Backend
The architectural foundation of the entire platform. All business logic — subscriber management, activation processing, fulfillment coordination, billing operations, account data — lives here, exposed via REST API to every front-end application. Third-party vendor integrations (activation partners, fulfillment systems, accounting, customer service platforms) are implemented at this layer, keeping vendor-specific complexity out of the front-end applications. The headless architecture means any application that can call an API can be added to the ecosystem — new surfaces, new channels, and new integrations don’t require rearchitecting the core.
TECHNOLOGY STACK
Modern, scalable, and client-controlled.
Front-End Applications
WordPress (Marketing Site) · Angular (My Account) · Angular (CSR Portal) · Responsive Design
Backend
.NET Headless API · REST Architecture · Role-Based Access Control · Business Logic Layer
Database
Microsoft SQL Server · Centralized Data Model · Multi-Application Data Layer
Cloud Infrastructure (Client-Controlled)
Microsoft Azure · Azure Web Apps · Azure SQL Database · AWS S3 (Public & Private Storage)
Integrations
Wireless Activation Partners · Device Fulfillment Systems · Accounting Platforms · Customer Service Applications · Data Exchange Partners
WHAT THIS ENGAGEMENT REPRESENTS
A full telecom operating platform. Delivered.
The Snapfon engagement is one of the most architecturally complex projects in 305 Spin’s history — a complete, from-scratch telecom B/OSS platform for a licensed wireless carrier serving a quarter-million customers, built and delivered in a compressed timeline by leveraging deep prior experience in exactly this domain.
What makes it particularly notable from a 305 Spin perspective is the architecture decision at its center. The headless .NET backend — a single API layer serving five distinct front-end applications — was the right call for a business that needed to scale without technical debt accumulating in every corner of the platform. It was also a decision that required experience to make confidently. 305 Spin had built telecom systems before. We knew where the complexity lives, and we designed around it.
The client-controlled infrastructure decision is equally significant. Every piece of Snapfon’s digital infrastructure — Azure hosting, SQL databases, AWS S3 storage — is owned and controlled by the client, not by 305 Spin. When BuyBackStore acquired Snapfon in late 2025, the transition was operationally clean: the platform, the data, and the infrastructure all transferred with the business. 305 Spin continued in a support and development role under the new owner — which is exactly the outcome good infrastructure design should produce.
The engagement continues today. BuyBackStore is operating and evolving the Snapfon platform, and 305 Spin is the team making that possible.
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