FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
December 22, 2006
Do I Need One Number for Life?
Since a buddy of mine first told me about it, I've been trying to figure out what's behind GrandCentral, the VOIP (Voice Over IP) service that offers you one phone number for life. There's got to be more to it than that. Certainly it would be convenient to tie all of my phone lines -- land, cell, and work -- to one number. That way I can chose which phone I answer when I get a call. And to not have to alert all my contacts each time I change a number, either when I move jobs or homes, all sounds pretty cool.
Still. I don't get it. I mean not fully. Particularly with regard to what's in it for GrandCentral? I get to choose a number for free, for life. I get to receive all of my voicemail from one central location, that I can access via GrandCentral's site, from any of my phones, or by email. Most of all, the voicemail messages can be saved online, for life, for free. I even get to block unwanted callers, and upload MP3s to set customized ringtones for callers.
But there's got to be a catch. We were all in love with Skype, and then BAM, free calling in the U.S. was no longer free. Free tends to always be the promise when a new product is in beta. But how long is something cool and useful (or not so useful) going to be free?
In GrandCentral's FAQ, there's a question: "Will GrandCentral always be free?"
The response:
"Yes, we're excited to say that we will always offer a free version of GrandCentral, even after beta. Our free version will include unlimited inbound minutes, unlimited voicemail (up to 30 days old), and access to all of our core features. During beta, we're giving everyone unlimited access to our premium features. In exchange, all we ask is that you send us your feedback (good or bad) to beta@grandcentral.com. We'll read every comment."
But of course, a VOIP company can not expect to make any money, or compete with major phone companies, if services will always be free.
I truly don't expect GrandCentral to take off the way that Skype did. Being able to make free phone calls over your computer (or mobile phone) to anyone in the U.S., and to make cheap calls to anyone internationally makes a lot of sense. It's not just one of those cool new apps that only certified geeks get.
What GrandCentral is offering is something different. I suppose the fact of the matter is, I just don't get what's in it for me. Won't it just make anyone who works at an extreme job and uses their BlackBerry or smartphone while in bed appear even more ubiquitous?
Posted by Lynne d Johnson at December 22, 2006 5:06 PM | Category: internet + web |
6 Comments
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I'd guess that some of what you do with them would require you to go to their website, e.g., it has to be up to make your calls. Then, you'd be a set of eyeballs for advertisers. "Always Free" could draw a lot of customers.
There are companies like phonefusion however that offer this same things with many more fetures.
If yu have a cell phone, a home phone, and also an office phone, its much easier to give out one number than 3 for people to getholdof you. And in the case of phonefusion you can also record calls transfer calls and generallygettone of features that quite frankly the Telecoms showuld have been doing YEARS ago. hrrp://www.phonefusion.com
These voip companies that offer free services are coming and going. The only ones that last will be phone or cable services.
The Wait is Over for Malaysian Onliner
We all heard about the ever popular MySpace success story, also successful were, Facebook, Xanga, Yahoo360, BlackPlanet, Bebo, Classmates, Youtube and many more. Each catering for their niche segment, thus making all content, people, clubs becoming more relevant... and thats when where the exponential formula starts boosting.
When users goes online, majority of them are looking to meet new friends. They achieve this by participating in clubs, blogs, chat, photos...etc. In general people want to be known and be recognised and it become so much more meaningful when you know your audience i from the same local or origin as you. With this clear indication, we now start to see some prominent and reasonable social networking in Malaysia mushrooming. Am particularly fond with these particular sites like www.friendx.com for english educated, www.emeimei.com for chinese educated and www.ekawan.com for malay educated Malaysian. Thus is a testimony to the importants of relevant and targetted social networking, and their success speaks for themselves.
Will share more on my next posting, if you think you know a better Malaysian local communities... do share with us. Also if you are an existing users of the above social network, we would like to know your feedback and comment ;) drop us a line. Till then Cheers
Agreed, I much prefer to have several numbers I can drop at any time, for ebay or Craigslist, or simply to post on forums or dating sites.
Who needs a number for life to receive spam on it? Hello Google... are you ready for spam text messages?
It will be very interesting for the future.