TalkPlus Raises $5.5 Million, Will Offer Multiple Numbers on One Cell Phone

TalkPlus has secured $5.5 million from the venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. The company plans to launch a service in two weeks called TalkPlus Number, which will allow consumers to have two cell phone numbers on a single cell phone.

This will be the beta version of the product; in early 2007, users will be able to use an assortment of numbers for a single phone.

The idea behind TalkPlus is that if you're single you'll be able to give out one number to potential dates you meet on line while retaining a more exclusive number for friends; if you're a lawyer or an agent you'll give one number to your most valued clients and another to the rest; if you're a working parent you can give one number to your co-workers and one number to your kids.

Pierre Nguyen, a Morgan Stanley analyst, told us he wasn't sure a TalkPlus number would be different enough from Skype mobile service to compete for users. "Skype has 20 million users, and Skype Mobile can be installed on most handsets," he said. "And on top of that, with Skype you can create as many numbers as you want."

TalkPlus CEO Jeff Black told iHollywood told us today that TalkPlus will work perfectly where Skype will barely function.

"In seven countries, including China and India,it's illegal to run encrypted voices on a data channel," he said. That would lock Skype Mobile out of those markets.

"Ninety-eight percent of the other carriers in the world, including in the US, have introduced little black boxes that look for Skype traffic and introduce jitter into the line if you're using Skype to make your conversations suck, because they don't want you to use the data network."

Unlike Skype Mobile, TalkPlus will run on cellular networks, he said, but it will allow you to talk to a Skype user.

One thing is for sure: there will be major TalkPlus drama here in Los Angeles. Imagine the torment of learning the number you have for your manager is his second-tier, everyday number. You get his TalkPlus number from your friend, another one of his clients, and find it won't let you through.

You can already envision the episode of "Entourage" that will build from this premise.

Another LA-friendly aspect of TalkPlus service: it facilitates both privacy and deception.   

"Let's say Paris Hilton's phone gets hacked, and now everybody has Paris Hilton's number," Black explains. "But let's say Paris has a VIP number, and if anyone calls that number besides the people she's given it too they get an out-of-service message."

If you want to play hooky from work, TalkPlus will enable you to use an "alias number," which will make your home number come up on caller ID when you call in sick, even though you're actually calling from your cell phone. 

You'll also be able to represent your phone call as coming from your company, not just a number--the name of your law firm can come up on somebody's caller ID when you place a call from your cell.

A niche product? Even if it is, with analysts predicting sales of 1.1 billion mobile handsets worldwide in 2007, a small fraction of mobile phone customers is a big market.

--Benjamin Nugent

Comments

[hipoym]

There was once a short story written by an author named Shirley Jackson called the lottery. In most of our lives lotteries are wonderful things that can make us filthy rich with the investment of a couple of dollars and some luck. Even when we don't win there is the fun of imagining what to do if fortune smiles on us and
suddenly we find ourselves in a situation where investment bankers are sending us muffin baskets and kissing our pinky rings. In the world of Ms. Jackson, lotteries are a far less enjoyable experience that can result in a large number of heavy rocks being chucked at the person who has the winning ticket. I don't know exactly where Shirley was buying her lottery tickets, but a more reasonable person would do their shopping elsewhere.

lotery

[Shannon]

This one is new to me. Two numbers in one cellphone? Is it a Dual Sim? I saw that one in the Philippines a year ago which two sim cards are place in one cellphone. But you can use one number at a time. It also depends on the phone you have, the bigger the phone, the better. In fact i got my big phone at affordable family cellular phone plans.