Guest chucky.egg Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 Just saw this in "IT Week" (17 Jan 05) It's not for everyone, but it could have potential for arranging drinking sessions just as much as those tedious business phone calls I seem to keep getting. Can't find it online at www.ITweek.co.uk (so I've quoted the whole article here), but there's more info on the 2buzz website: www.2buzz.co.uk UK startup Mobix has launched a new service to allow ad hoc conference calls via mobile handsets. The service could be particularly attractive for staff who travel frequently, or work away from the office. Users can setup a voice conference by sending a single text message to the 2buzz service listing the phone numbers of attendees. Each party is then sent a text message with a number to dial to join the call. Participants are charged according to their carrier's standard cross-network tariff. "There's no PIN number, no account to setup, and you can do it on impulse whenever you need to speak to several colleagues at the same time" said Mobix managing director Peter Courtney. Smartphone users can also download a free applet that links to their contact list and automates the process of setting up a conference call.There's more info on the 2buzz site, but this seemeed particularly relevant: Each participant in the conference call is charged at their network's normal charge for a cross network mobile to mobile call, exactly the same as when you call someone who is on a different UK network to you. In most cases where you have a monthly 'bundle' of 'free' minutes as part of your subscription this call will be included in the 'bundled minutes'. The app is available for Palm, Symbian (UIQ, S60 and S80), PPCPE, and Smartphone, but it's not essential - people without the app still get the 2Buzz invite message by SMS, and it lists the number to call to start the conference. The Smartphone version is a "proper" Smartphone app (not a Java applet, as the article implies) and works quite nicely. Definable lists of "attendees" let you select the hard-core drinking buddies quickly, T9-selection in the Contacts, and you can add a message to the invite so people know what they're going to be talking about. For those of us with loads of bundled minutes this could be quite a nice facility to have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dade Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 Glad Im not the only one to read IT week! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest atonks Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 Presumably Orange will get around to launching their Gatherings service soon, which offers the same sort of service, plus being able to send texts to groups for the price of one message. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brody Posted January 20, 2005 Report Share Posted January 20, 2005 I wouldn't be so sure that each sms will cost the price of one sms, that was just for the trial i believe. Certainly my feedback call was suggesting a higher price on launch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bnoc Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Presumably Orange will get around to launching their Gatherings service soon, which offers the same sort of service, plus being able to send texts to groups for the price of one message. Link <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Doesn't this exist already? If you have one of the newer SIMs (say a series 14 or fifteen, the blue ones) then you can set up 'group text messaging'. I can't remember how it works or is costed off-hand but I'll see if I can find out. Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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