Link: O2 starts charging for calls to non-places | The Register

With the world and his wife now seemingly having a non-geo number (0845, 0870, 0800), it’s curious to hear that O2 have become the last UK mobile network to drop these numbers from customers inclusive minutes packages.

According to The Register, O2 customers who’ve signed up since March have already had to pay for calls to these numbers, with older customers being notified last week by text of the impending changes.

O2 have also decided, rather kindly, that this change is “significant”, so much so that they’re offering users the chance to cancel their contract early. If you’re in that position, get your skates on - you’ve got until the end of September to cancel.

Link: Fueling the ‘Truemors’: SpinVox Voice Message Conversion System Powers Kawasaki’s Truemors.Com
Voice to text experts SpinVox have just announced a deal with Truemors.com, the news and social networking site.

The new system allows Truemors users to phone a number and leave their bit of gossip, news, rumours, and celeb sightings - with their message converted to text and posted on the site.

Founder of Truemors Guy Kawasaki commented, “Posting content in real-time is a key to the success of Truemors. News happens anytime and anywhere, most often it’s nowhere near a keyboard and Internet access. SpinVox extends our reach so users can ’speak’ a sighting or a piece of breaking news into any phone, enhancing the immediate nature of the site and its value.”

EasyCallRecording does-what-it-says-on-the-tin. You can record your outgoing and incoming calls easily with their new subscription service. If you work in an industry where call recording is legally required or if you need to regularly refer back to audio conversations you’ve had on the phone, their subscription service could be just what you’re looking for.

Here are the features:
- Record outbound calls to all UK and international numbers.
- Your own dedicated inbound telephone number to record incoming calls.
- Only £4.99 per month or £39.99 per year.
- Only 5.7p per minute for calls to UK landlines.
- Full access to our online portal to download, manage and publish your recordings

That looks like a good deal to me. I’m particularly enamoured by the fiver-a-month perspective — it would be rather useful for me to be able to record calls I make for SMS Text News for interview purposes.

But, if you’re not up for a long term commitment, EasyCallRecording also offers a straight-forward 0870 number service. 10p a minute from a landline, you call the system up, then type in the number you’d like to call and the recording begins. You can then get to the audio files via the online portal at www.easycallrecording.co.uk.

I particularly like the introductory text on their site:

Your telephone calls to your bank, your telephone provider, your builder - anyone you do business with - should be recorded for your peace of mind. Tell your banking advisor. Mention it to anyone who claims to deliver customer “service”. Inform the plumber who offers you a verbal quote. Or the builder who promises to meet “that” deadline.

“This call may be recorded” - five words that make a big difference. It’s amazing what happens when you say them.

Suddenly customer service representatives live up to their job titles. Call centre staff are super-polite and efficient. No longer are you passed from person-to-person, to another country and back again. Information provided is accurate and reliable. And, when you have grounds for complaint or dispute, you have the recording to prove your case.

No wonder it makes a difference.

I’m willing to bet it will make a substantial difference to customer service rep behaviour! Next time I have an issue, I’ll definitely try this out.

I know Ewan has written quite a bit about Rebtel in the past, so no doubt he’ll be pleased to hear the news that they’ve just launched their own Facebook application.

Reb Me allows Facebook users to create local numbers for global friends across their Facebook network direct from the Facebook site. The application allows users to add a ‘Reb me!’ box onto their profile so friends can instantly create a local number for them. New users receive 10 minutes of credit with which to try the Rebtel service, and another five minutes each time a friend they’ve invited adds the application and makes a call.

“Facebook is the world’s fastest growing online community, home to a new generation of globalized young people with friends and social networks spread across the planet. There is no reason in the world why they should be wasting their money on exorbitant rates for international calling,” said Hjalmar Winbladh, founder and CEO. “Reb Me was designed specifically for Facebook and is lean and clean. Like Facebook, Rebtel’s mission is to make communicating simple, affordable, and convenient as possible.”

To install the app into your Facebook profile, just click here. I’ve got it installed on my profile - although only having Ewan as a contact right now and the fact he’s only a few miles away from me doesn’t exactly make much sense

One of the world’s foremost mobile telephony geeks dropped me a note this evening to highlight that things are moving fast with Gaboogie. He, like a lot of people, has been watching the exciting teleconference startup closely.

Link: Gaboogie Blog

Mike and I regrouping after Adhearsion Jay’s departure. We are looking very good now for a release of Gaboogie v1.1 which will include the Gaboogie Mobile feature set.

Version 1.1. should be interesting indeed. I am not sure if I’ll be able to play with it, being UK based (it looks very much a North American product set).

If you’re anywhere near mobile telephony in terms of interests, do keep them on your radar.

Link: webitpr | India’s Largest Service Provider, Airtel, Deploys BubbleTALK ‘Voice SMS’ over Fixed Line

India’s largest telco Airtel has teamed up with voice SMS pioneer Bubble Motion to deploy voice SMS to fixed line and mobile customers.

To use the service, the customer dials * followed by the mobile number of the customer they wish to send the Voice SMS to.  The recipient then receives an SMS alert on his mobile phone, notifying them that they have a new Bubble message.  The recipient then retrieves the Voice SMS by dialing *0* from their mobile. 

Sunil Coushik, President and Co-Founder of Bubble Motion said: “Airtel has become the number one service provider in India on the back of service innovations, which have successfully captured the imagination of India’s wired and wireless customers.  By deploying the best Voice SMS solution on the market, Airtel is staying one step ahead of its competition.”

Link: Half of European calls to be mobile by 2008 | The Register

Telecom and IT consultants Analysys are predicting half of all phone calls made in Europe will be made on our mobiles by 2008.

According to their report, Finland is the most mobile-using nation in Europe, with 74.6% of all phone calls made on the go during 2006. In Germany, 24.3% of all calls originated on mobile networks during the same period.

However, there’s a twist. This increase is not due to us making more calls on our mobiles - instead we’re relying on traditional fixed lines less. Good news for the mobile networks, but not so great for the traditional telcos. 

Link: Introducing foonzMobileTM - If You Have A Cell Phone, You Now Have Instant Free Conference Calling at Your Fingertips

From today US mobile users can now easily setup instant free conference calls with foonzMobile.

The service, available on all networks in the US, costs nothing other than the minutes used for a regular call. It’s easy to setup too - users just text START to FOONZ (36669) from their mobile. 

foonzMobile also offers address book and group setup via their website, so you can import your contacts and predefine groups (eg START family would conference all your family members together). 

Link: BBC NEWS | Entertainment | BBC to suspend phone competitions

Hot on the heels of the scathing report by Ofcom into broadcasters’ usage of premium SMS and telephone services - but apparently unrelated - the BBC has announced plans to suspended all phone-related, interactive and online competitions with virtually immediate effect.

All phone-related competitions on BBC TV and radio will cease from 0000 BST on Thursday, while interactive and online competitions will be taken down as soon as possible.

The BBC Trust said it was “deeply concerned that significant failures of control and compliance within the BBC have compromised the BBC’s values of accuracy and honesty”.

Link: Ayre inquiry reveals systemic failure by broadcasters | Ofcom

UK communications regulator Ofcom have today published the outcome of their inquiry into use of premium rate services by broadcasters - and they’re not pulling any punches.

The inquiry found that:

Compliance failures were systemic;
Revenue generation was a major driver in the growth of PRS;
Some broadcasters appeared to be in denial about their responsibilities to ensure programmes delivered on the transactions they offered to viewers;
There was an apparent lack of transparency through the supply chain - between telecoms operators, producers and broadcasters - resulting in a lack of clarity about responsibilities; and
Broadcasters are concerned that there is a lack of clarity between the regulators, Ofcom and ICSTIS.

There’s a great quote from Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards: “Phoning a TV show isn’t like ordering pizza. When you put the phone down nothing arrives: you just have to trust that your call was counted. If broadcasters want audiences to go on spending millions calling in, they need to show they take consumer protection as seriously as programme content.”

The inquiry is online here - worth a read if you’re in the business of providing premium SMS or voice services.

Link: T-Mobile Hotspot @Home Service Available Nationwide (MobileBurn)

Following a trial in Seattle last October, T-Mobile have today rolled out their Hotspot @ Home service across the US.

The service, which relies on a handful of branded Wi-Fi compatible phones from Nokia and Samsung, allows customers to seamlessly roam between their home wireless network and the T-Mobile GSM network - and also gives unlimited free nationwide phone calls when in range of a compatible hotspot.

The handsets currently retail for $49.99 on a two year contract, and come bundled with a modified Linksys or D-Link wireless router. There’s a monthly charge of $19.99 for users on a standard plan, or $29.99 for family plans.

What’s not quite clear is whether T-Mobile are planning to launch a similar service here in the UK. Considering their current stand-off with mobile VOIP providers Truphone, it could be interesting times ahead.

 Mobile VOIP provider Vyke have just launched their new Java-based text messaging app, called Vyke Pro - which according to the company lets mobile users worldwide send free text messages worldwide, and radically reduce the cost of sending text messages for UK consumers.

It appears to be a similar offering to Hotxt or Tex2. Messaging between Vyke Pro users is free of charge (except for your data charges), and if you’re sending a text to a non-Vyke Pro user it’ll cost you from 1p.

There’s also a ‘dial-back’ service built into the software for cheap international calls. You enter the number you want to call in the Vyke Pro application, and their platform will call you back and connect the call.

Finally, did you know that NASA pay approximately £61.50 per MB for receiving data from the Hubble Space Telescope, whereas UK consumers pay approximately £750 per MB for sending a text? That’s according to Vyke, who actually featured that as the main part of their press release. Another useful fact you’ll be able to share down the pub tonight

Link: Men Chat on Mobiles More Than Women - Just

In recent research commissioned by American mobile network AT&T, it turns out that men talk more on their mobiles than women - but only just.

The survey of about 1,000 users found that men average 458 minutes usage per month on their phones, with women just behind at an average of 453 minutes.

Some other interesting information came out, including 45% of subscribers use SMS, 44% use the camera; 17% play games on their mobile and 11% access email from their phones.

AT&T Wireless, formerly Cingular Wireless (and before that AT&T Wireless, and then called something else before that..) have been busy of late, what with their store rebranding ready for the launch of the Apple iPhone, for which they are the exclusive US partner. It’ll be interesting to see what next years survey - which incidently has been running annually since 2001 - reveals about iPhone trends (if anything).

Link: AwayPhone » Destinations

Delegates at this week’s China-Britain Business Council’s (CBBC) annual Scottish reception will be the first to use a new enhanced mobile roaming service developed specifically for Hong Kong.  Created by pioneering UK firm AwayPhone, www.awayphone.com, an international MVNO for the traveller, the offering ensures users have a ‘local’ number and cuts dialling costs by up to 90 per cent.  The only one of its kind, the product was developed in conjunction with a network of Chinese partners and is available now.

To showcase the technology, AwayPhone is offering CBBC delegates a free SIM card with a Hong Kong phone number that they can provide to their contacts.

Any calls to that number will ring through on their home mobile line when they are not physically in Hong Kong.  The offer also includes the opportunity to register with AwayPhone at on a ‘no call no fee’ basis for three months.

I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation by AwayPhone founder Sherry Madera a few months back. She’s a great speaker, and the company has an interesting product. If you travel about a bit, it’s worth checking them out.

Link: Rebtel Blog » Blog Archive » Rebtel research: Cheaper to fly than to call

Some interesting research courtesy of Rebtel - in fact UK Sunday tabloid News Of The World found it so interesting they wrote an article all about it.

SKY-HIGH international mobile phone charges can make it cheaper to FLY abroad for a chat with a pal than to call them up.

Industry insiders have told the News of the World that UK customers are charged up to 50 TIMES what the networks actually pay for international mobile-to-mobile call time.

You got to feel a little sorry for the operators of late. If it’s not one thing it’s another.. but on the flipside, if they really are making such a ridiculously high margin, they’ve only got themselves to blame if the Government and EU decide to launch an investigation into it.

Link: Hutch 3G UK Appeals over Termination Cuts

Hutchison 3G UK has filed an appeal against a regulatory decision to reduce its termination charges by 45 percent, calling the ruling “absurd” and “‘anti-competitive,” the Financial Times has reported. The company has lodged the appeal with the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal.

Meanwhile they’re planning to start charging for SMS termination here in the UK from 1st July. A source tells me that certain operators will be paying 4.3p for deliverying texts to Three customers - which is considerably higher than the usual 3p for Vodafone, O2 and Orange.

Link: Noodle for cheap calls

Had a tip in from an SMS Text News reader earlier about a service called Noodle. The concept is quite simple - you get a new number which you use instead of your existing mobile number, and everytime you make or receive a call you earn 2p a minute cash. Is it too good to be true? My source has done a bit of digging..

- - - -

First of all - lets look at the ‘UK’ number range. According to
 
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/numbers/numbers_administered/s7.xls
 
the 07000 range is allocated to Wire9 telecom, based on the Isle of Man.    Wire9 (or Cloud9) offers a portioned soft switch service which allows third parties to basically operate as MVNOs using Wire9’s number range.  As Noodle themselves happy admit (http://www.noodle-oodles.com/question.php), the Noodle service (driven by Wire9) falls under the FM06 interconnect range - lets just say that Three weren’t the only operator managing to extract +15ppm rates from other networks.
 
Now, I’m not quite sure how Ofcom’s latest ruling on interconnect rates affects Wire9, but I believe that they will likely still be extracting 15p+ per minute during peak even though Three has be regulated to 5.9p.
 
So, this explains how Noodle can both provide free international calls AND a rebate on your outgoing and incoming MoU - they receive such high interconnect payments that they can afford to give a little back.
 
What does this mean to you as a mobile punter?
 
You have to check if 077000 numbers are included in your bundle.  I can categorically say that as of last month T-mobile do not consider these numbers as part of a bundle, and you are charged quite a bit for making these calls.  Two example calls:  A 56 second call costing 39.7p and a 105 second call costing 74.5p
 
Now I have heard that other operators are including these calls in their bundles - I fail, however, to see how this can be sustained if the interconnect rates exhibit such asymmetry.
 
So, if you plan on going with noodle
a)  check that your network treats 07000 calls inclusive of your bundle
and
b) Tell your friends to check or else you may very well end up costing them a tonne of money!

- - - -

Interesting. Anyone else use Noodle, or have experience of using their service?

Update: Just signed up for a Noodle account and tried calling it using my office VOIP provider. It couldn’t route the call. Then tried using Skype - the charge came up at 14.4p per minute. Curious..

Link: BBC NEWS | Business | Phone-in confidence fall hits ITV

ITV has warned a string of high-profile scandals surrounding premium rate phone lines has hit the number of people using the services, knocking revenues. A lack of consumer confidence had led to a 20% fall in income from the phone lines in March and April, it said.

According to ITV’s Chief Exec Michael Grade: “The poor execution of these services across the sector has reduced consumer confidence and is having a material impact on premium rate telephone services revenue”. The company also said that “concerns remain about when consumer confidence in this area will be restored.”

Cast your mind back to the first few weeks of January this year. Whilst most of us were recovering from the rather large financial (and health) dent of Christmas, SMS Text News regular Pat Phelan and his team of merry techies had just launched a service in the USA called Allfreecalls - which gave you free international calls to umpteen different countries. Finally, it looked like the big telco Goliaths had been felled by the entrepenerial Davids.

Then, something went a bit wonky. The Goliaths woke up, and realised that services like this were cutting into their traditionally high margins, and depriving them of their retirement homes by the sea and corporate jets - so they gave Allfreecalls 90 minutes to close the doors. And that, as they say, was that.

But wait, every cloud has a silver lining. Pat’s just been in touch to say that the service is back and firing on all cylinders - and it’s now called Yak4ever. It’s a simple to use service - just sign up for an account, register your 10 favourite overseas numbers, dial the access code, and voila - free international calls. No limits, no flaky call quality, no cut-off after an hour - in fact there appears to be no catches at all.

Incidently, you can use a similar service in the UK at www.allfreecalls.co.uk or in Ireland head to www.allfreecalls.ie.

Someone buy that man a pint of Guinness! Well done Pat!

Ooh my.

Eckoh have certainly got a roasting in today’s Sun newspaper. If you’re into serving clients who deal with consumers, it’s the sort of press you don’t really want. Pulling the sensation apart from the facts (if any), well, that’s rather difficult.

Here’s the article: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007100754,00.html.

VIEWERS are losing out DAILY as computers handling hit ITV phone-in votes crash, a whistleblower revealed yesterday.

The worker from ITV’s quiz operator Eckoh said shows including I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! Soapstar Superstar and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? were involved.

She told how thousands of viewers’ votes are not all counted because computers regularly go down at peak times — but the callers are still charged

Now, ‘regularly go down at peak times’ could be dramatic license. It’s not unheard of for systems to crash, but if they’re doing it regularly, the IT guy either needs more money, more support or a good kick to fix it.

She said the computer server could go down for up to five minutes at peak times — and thousands of calls could be lost.

During quieter periods — when there were fewer technical staff on hand — it could go down for up to 30 minutes.

The operative word there is ‘could’.

After the shocker, they’ve put in the obligatory quote from the company:

A spokeswoman insisted the system could cope. She said: “Eckoh can handle 500,000 calls per hour. It uses 300 computers and there are occasional crashes, as with any system.

“But issues are identified and addressed immediately. Any isolated computer crash would have no impact on vote registration.”

The moment The Sun gets hold of anything, there’s usually an issue. Particularly because so many people read it — in terms of copies sold and in terms of copies being handed around the office.

To the right of the main article, you’ll see a header, ‘Suspect line-up who are quids in’:

Suspect line-up who are quids in

A STRING of shows are caught up in the phone lines scandal. Here are the main culprits.

Richard and Judy (Channel 4, weeknights at 5pm). Fans were encouraged to ring in for You Say, We Pay at £1 a time AFTER the winner had been picked. Production firm Cactus also tried to rig the National Telly Awards.

X Factor (ITV1, off air, but was Sat 7pm). More than 1.3million viewers ripped off to the tune of £200,000. Every live show of last series was affected. Fans who pressed their remote’s red button were charged 50p instead of 35p.

… and there’s a ton more of those.

This isn’t good for the telecoms industry at all. It’s creating a climate of mistrust. A few more splashes like this and continued headlines for 2-3 weeks and it won’t be long before the public automatically assume that they are ‘being ripped off’. How many of us do the calculations when the TV presenter squeezes with delight at telling everyone ‘we received over ONE POINT FIIIIIIIIIIIVE MILLLLLLLL-YIN VOTES THIS EVENING’…. (”Ok, 1.5m x 0.50? Geez that’s a lot of cash”). We’ve all been doing the calculations already. Some of us, no doubt, have already thought it’s a bit of a swizz — the whole concept.

It is, however, a really fun thing to do. If the programme makers have done their job, they’ll have created an air of excitement and expectation — and an air of ‘It’s up to you, Mr & Mrs Viewer’. You’ll have your favourite soapstar or contestant and you’ll want to see them do well… and, you know, what’s 50p (plus the cost of a standard text), when you’re supporting your favourite? And away you go, text, text, text. It’s exciting. But if there’s any doubt that my text or call won’t be counted? If there’s any hint that I might be getting screwed? Oh dear.

If you’re sat there with your family watching the TV — as a lot of people often are — and the daughter takes out her phone to vote for her boyband — all it needs now, is her ‘informed reader of The Sun’ father to calmly explain to her that she’s blowing her credit on nothing. If she takes that as the informed viewpoint, and you extrapolate this kind of behaviour across the nation, that’s not good. Not good at all.

One of the biggies with the X-Series from Three is the ability to use Skype on your handset. As part of the X-Series deal, you get 5,000 inclusive (”unlimited”) minutes worth of Skype calls — around 2.5 hours a day.

I wasn’t expecting much from the service.

In fact I was expecting nothing short of rubbish.

I have a rather practical outlook when it comes to mobile devices and services that consumers are meant to be using. When my friend James was desperate to show off Skype running on his M2000 Orange Windows Mobile handset, I was only too happy to oblige. I called him, he stood next to his wireless router, answered the call and, hey presto, we were talking. But, the echo from his speaker rendered the service more or less unusable unless he got himself a headset. No problem, the technology worked ok.

Trying this over GRPS or 3g… well… it was just appalling.

So, it is with no small amount of interest that I downloaded Skype on to my N73 and tried it. I activated the X-Series service on Thursday — but couldn’t dial out on Skype via the handset until the next day. Fair enough. Everything had to be activated and whatnot.

‘How the hell does it work, though?’ — That’s what I really wanted to know. Surely it’s not going to use 3g data to transfer the call? Although Three is fast, I wasn’t sure it would be quick enough, well, actually, I was worried about the inherent latency. I needn’t have worried though. The solution is this: Three acts as the voice gateway between your handset and Skype.

So when I click on ‘Ed’ to try and call him, Skype initiates a GSM call (or, well, what looks like a GSM call) to a ‘Skype Services’ number (which looks like a standard +44 mobile number). Then — I imagine — Skype Services rings Ed’s Skype on his laptop… he answers… we’re connected. At least, that’s how it looks like it works to me.

Anyway — Right… Let’s have a look at it then…

I’ve clicked on the Skype logo and that’s it loading…

Now let’s sign in…

That’s it updating and seeing who, from my list of contacts, is online…

That’s the list completed an update… so let’s click the green call button on the handset and see what happens…

That’s it initiating the call…

Now it’s initiating the GSM portion of the call, to call Skype Service…

That +44 number quickly changes to ‘Skype Service’…

…

And guess what, I’m talking to Ed. At no charge. Wooosh! Wow!

He reckoned the audio quality was more or less perfect. There was a bit of static now and again on the line, but nothing that interfered with our conversation. Very cool.

Now, it works the same way if someone’s calling you. I forgot that I’d left Skype running on my N73 when I was out yesterday afternoon and was astonished to see someone calling my Skype via the N73. Love it.

This is very, very, very good.

It works and I am impressed.

Now, what I’d really like to try: Three-to-Three Skype call. No one I know has a Three N73 yet, though, so I’ll need to wait to try this out.

Skype via X-Series: Officially shit-hot!

Update: Some Skype Mobile features missing that I hope to see soon:
- Ability to send a chat message to someone
- Ability to view missed calls
- Ability to set your status (away, busy, so on)

Update2: If you send me a chat message via Skype whilst I’m using it on the N73, you’ll get this sent automatically in reply:

Ewan @ SMS Text News 03/12/2006 21:10
Auto reply: I am using a version of Skype that does not support receiving chat messages. Try calling instead.

Nifty!

Link: Vodafone Chief Predicts Flat Rate Pricing at MobHappy

Rather an odd story in Friday’s London Evening Standard. Hard on the heels of 3’s announcement on pricing for its X-Series, Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone “predicts” that flat rate monthly pricing would be the norm “within a matter of years”.

To someone who doesn’t work for an operator, this is a little puzzling. I mean, if it’s truly inevitable, as Mr Sarin suggests, why not just do it? What purpose is there to delaying the inevitable and particularly when any analyst and pundit you speak to agrees that it’s holding back the usage of the mobile web.

I like Russell’s perspective. Heh.

Come on Arun, why isn’t it the ‘norm’ today?

I reckon I know why. The reason we don’t have flat rate pricing today is that this nation is quite content paying, for example, 35p or 40p a minute to call mobiles on other networks.

If I was running a network operator, I’d be absolutely wetting myself with delight when I woke up every morning. My policy would be, ‘as long as they’ll pay it, charge it.’

Why bother swapping to flat rate pricing when you’re customers are stupid enough to just put up with it?

Sure, Arun and his colleagues at other operators will eventually need to move to flat rate, obviously. But our major cities don’t yet have blanket wifi coverage. Indeed, our lumbering giant, British Telecom is still charging people PER MINUTE to use it’s BT Openworld service. So it’s going to be a lonnnnnnnnnnng time, a good few years, before the majority of

We’re so indoctrinated into the expectation of paying-per-minute that the mums, dads and associated oldies — even the young’uns actually — don’t think twice about signing up to a service plan that includes 40p a minute charges to call other mobiles. I’ve been in many a Carphone Warehouse or a Vodafone store, witnessing folk signing up and looking over price plans and NOT ONCE has anyone ever said, ‘hold on a minute, 40p/min to talk to my mate on T-Mobile? You’re having a laugh! Change that, mate!’

Until the mobile users in this country (and beyond) indicate they’ve actually got a real problem with the ridiculous pricing structures of mobile telephony, then why bother changing?

At some point, one of the operators will break ranks… but, as Arun points out, it won’t be a for a wee while yet. They’re all making too much cash. Don’t rock the boat…

Stop all the clocks for a moment and have a read of this.

I recently met up with Dan and Jay of emerging telephony service, BlackFin. They’ve been in stealth mode for some time but were kind enough to show me the demonstration for their virtual exchange service a few months ago.

Within seconds of watching their introductory video, I was blown away. Phenomenal. I was requested to keep it to myself until they had created the next version and got further along their maturation curve.

Essentially, BlackFin’s VX (”voice exchange”) service enables you to create and manage a telephone service via a brilliantly conceived flash interface. So, for example, if you call 0845 130 5838, you’ll get the main line for my new company, DCMI. But if we want to change that from being answered by our receptionists, we have to wait 24 hours for the network to ‘do something’ so we can redirect it to… Well, … Another landline number.

What if I want to have the number redirect to my mobile between 6pm and 630pm? Can’t do it. What if I want incoming calls to ring simultaneously on my colleague Hetty’s mobile, her landline and my mobile? ‘Canny be dun,’ as they say in Scotland. Or if I want to create a welcome message and stick it up — but just for today, asking people to press ‘2′ if they’re calling about our press announcement or ‘3′ to speak to accounts. Nope. We can’t do this.

There are some services out there that KIND-OF allow you to do this. Sort of. Maybe. But not quite. There are plenty of ‘personal number’ services that, with the aid of a web form, allow you to change the redirect of your number on the fly. But that’s it. In fact I remember buying a rather expensive ‘virtual PBX’ style service from YAC (”You’re always connected”) which was so difficult to screw about with that we ended up just paying for it for 3 months then dumping it. I apparently would let you configure ‘press 1 for’ sort of services, but I couldn’t be arsed. It really was nothing short of telephony programming. Ridiculous. I can’t quite believe we bought it actually.

So having explored a lot of potential services out there, when I caught sight of what BlackFin are able to do — live updates and live deployment of telephone numbers, IVR services and so on… I was floored, and very, very excited for them. Their technology will, deployed right, change the marketplace. I’m convinced of that.

They’re running the only live implementation of Voice Exchange as a virtual PBX — their first products being virtual in nature. But that’s only one implementation of the technology. It wipes the floor with a whole array of personal number redirection services and very much consigns anyone offering PBX style services to the dustbin of history. ‘Redirect your 0845 number within 24 hours’ exclaim some of them. Oooh dear. Wait until the market sees this.

Exclusive, baby!
Here’s the rub. I’ve got an exclusive! Talking to Dan and Jay on Friday, they agreed to allow me to post a link to one of their really old video overviews. As they’re still very much in stealth, they wouldn’t allow me to publish their latest mind-blowing video overview. The latest stuff is absolutely wicked but I can’t give further information.

I can see Google delivering a service such as this and giving every subscriber a voice number which works directly with their Google Talk username — but which can also be upgraded to let desktop nomads (like myself) configure virtual pbx services. Anyway. Just an idea.

BlackFin are currently privately held, self-financed and their founders Dan & Jay are two of the biggest telephony-geeks I’ve met. They’re on the hunt for funding — although with a few huge telecoms companies (and I do mean huge) circling, I’m not quite sure if they’ll need it.

You can see the old video, for a limited time, here: http://www.blackfin.co.uk/demo/. Have a look, it really is rather smart. I saw it working live on Friday. You know my favourite bit of the whole thing, apart from the simplicity of it all? Those little stringy things for connecting elements.

If you’d like an introduction, mail at ewan@smstextnews.com or call them direct on 0800 047 0380 (ask for Dan).