Sitofono

Hat’s off to Andy Abramson for his piece A Natural Hattrick… not the least for the hockey reference, and we’re hoping Dany Heatley pulls off another tonight when the Sens meet the Lightning.  In any case, Andy pulls together the trio of iotum, Sitofono, and Grand Central, showing how each complements the other.  At this point, of course, it’s all speculation because none of the three companies have actually made announcements of any relationships.  You can’t actually buy anything this good… yet.

I want to drill in a little on one of the points Andy made.  With any find me/follow me service, a portion of the cost of the service is born by the recipient of the call.  In North America, you’re likely going to pay a small amount of money to receive the call on the service provider (although, that’s not true with either AIM Phoneline or GrandCentral, who give away the origination), plus a charge to terminate that call on your mobile.  In Europe, it’s much worse, because the calling party pays.  So, the calling party is going to pay to reach the find me / follow me service, and then suddenly you, as the user of the service, are going to be faced with paying the freight on the termination leg (from the find me / follow me server, to your mobile).  Across the pond you could be looking at as much as 50 cents per minute, whereas if the caller was to simply call your mobile, they would pay.  Pretty grim. 

It’s only with services like iotum, where you can control who reaches your mobile, that you will have any ability to manage that cost.

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