[VoiceOps] SMS apps, providers, and peers

[John Todd]

On Dec 10, 2009, at 12:26 PM, Peter Beckman wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Dec 2009, John Todd wrote:
>
>> For what it's worth, I found few people who were willing to pay for  
>> this service, though that could have been just due to Epic Fail on  
>> the part of our marketing department. (1)
>
> I've got a bunch of people asking for it, though they probably want an
> unlimited plan for $5, and though the carriers can do that since  
> there is
> almost zero overhead for them, we have to pay the carriers, and they  
> are
> not cheap.  $0.03-0.05 per SMS, both inbound AND outbound.

I'm sure I'm still under NDA with Syniverse and a whole slew of other  
people, so all I'll say is that this service can be delivered for far,  
far, far less than those costs, no wireless carrier involvement  
required.  Seriously.  Someone really needs to start reselling that  
capability and making a tidy sum in the process.  I would if I had $  
and a developer to create a provisioning interface.

On that note, the bandwidth.com stuff that they announced at ClueCon  
this summer looked very interesting (http://www.bandwidth.com/blog/the-sandbox/ 
) but I've heard nary a peep on their fixed/mobile convergence  
announcements, even after directly mailing them.

>> (1) I was the CTO and "inventor" at a company called TalkPlus,  
>> which did exactly what you're describing. Client software on the  
>> handset did data-channel call setup (bi-directional, Caller-ID  
>> correct,) text messaging on multiple DIDs, device independence,  
>> visual voicemail (before Apple), and a host of other cool  
>> features.  Couldn't convince anyone to buy it.  Company folded.
>
> I watched an interview with you somewhere on the Internet, and tried  
> to
> log into my account.  Obviously it didn't work, sorry to hear it  
> folded.
> You were CTO and Inventor, Jeff Black was Chairman and founder, right?
>
> http://vator.tv/news/show/2007-09-18-1-1-interview-with-talkplus-chairman-and-founder-jeff-black
>
> Beckman

That's correct.

JT