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Putting a mask on the mobile
Virtual phone numbers are seen as a safe way of meeting people in public spheres such as MySpace and Match.com. These free numbers give their users a way to be reached without actually giving out their personal mobile phone numbers.
March 20, 2007
PrivatePhone.com in the US is one such service. It offers free phone numbers with voicemail storage of 10,000 messages and a limit of 500 messages a day. Users are alerted to voice messages by e-mail or SMS and can retrieve voice messages on the web, by e-mail, or using a phone.
After listening to voice messages, a user can pick and choose who they want to call back without being bombarded with calls on their mobile phone. It is less intrusive and safer than mobile phone numbers because PrivatePhone.com lets users pick area codes throughout the US. This makes it harder for potential stalkers to track down their victims, often a concern for online community users and parents of kids using these sites. The numbers are not listed in phone books, but because they are directly connected to voicemail, calls cannot be made from a virtual number.
Jangl.com offers a different take on virtual numbers by providing users with social numbers for each person they want to call. Callers find each other through Jangl IDs. Jangl has about 275,000 users.
Match.com promotes the Jangl service where online daters can talk on a common social number without revealing their home or mobile numbers. It takes some of the risk away from online dating. The Jangl website says: "The Jangl Number is a normal looking phone number; it's just not your real number."
Safe Phone Calls is similar to Jangl in offering mutually anonymous calling. The service is kept free by including messages from advertisers that both callers hear when they connect.
The potential for operators to capitalize on this trend is evident in users' need for secure, easy-to-use virtual numbers.
On GigaOm blog, contributor Dave writes: "It's only a matter of time before Sprint, T-Mobile and the big carriers come forward with an alias-for-security offering that runs across landline and VOIP - and for that I would pay real money (for example, keep your real cell number and use up to five alias numbers, keep them or toss them)."
Matt Wisk, chief marketing officer at United Online, which owns PrivatePhone.com says in a press release: "We launched PrivatePhone primarily as a way for people to give out a phone number without compromising their privacy. While many of our members do use it for that purpose, it has really morphed into a way for people to communicate by voice online.
"Bloggers are putting their PrivatePhone number on their blogs to allow readers to post voicemails instead of comments, people are adding it to their MySpace pages, and DJs, bands and other entertainment types are recording outgoing messages to tell their fans where they're playing or what they're up to. We took a look at what these members were doing to promote themselves online and came up with three new features to help them do it."
