I consider David Beckemeyer, not only a friend, client, but truly a genius at making technology approachable for the common man.
As background, it was Beckemeyer and his crew that made Earthlink the first national Internet Service Provider that made it easy for people, not geeks, to get on the Internet. AOL of course made it easy to get online, but for many years AOL was not the Internet any more than VoIP was phone service before the arrival of the ATA from Sipura.
So when Beckemeyer looked at VoIP, he invented PhoneGnome, an easy, and so much less painful way for consumers really to use the power of VoIP, without the pain associated with porting a local phone number, fearing the loss of 911 or having to give up real 411 (directory assistance). He did it by marrying the best of what Broadband VoIP could offer, applications, with an already in place PSTN phone line.
In doing so Beckemeyer really has built the better mousetrap. Sadly, the retail world is lacking in understanding what PhoneGnome can do, while at the same time it has been big on greed (i.e. pay me for the shelf space) so PhoneGnome has yet to have it’s day in the sun that it deserves outside of those of us “cult” like Gnomies who have plugged in and seen the light.
On Friday David told me about a new feature for PhoneGnome that lets you record a call that you initiate, something PhoneBoy has picked up on.
Let’s add up what David has done, on basically his own money and some smart seed capital from angels:
• Developed a hybrid low cost VoIP/PSTN bridge that brings the best of both into the home or small office that makes on net calls free between PhoneGnome users and dirt cheap through VoIP ITSPs (as low as a penny a minute via SipPhone)
• Produced an easy to install, no maintenance needed device that is the size of a deck of a small paperback which acts as a personal voice gateway that enables Voice 2.0 service to be used by anyone
• Provided a means to reduce the costs of phone service by providing free voice mail to email, three way calling, telemarketer blocking, Find Me, Follow Me, Click To Call and more.
• Integrated a soft phone, called SoftGnome.
• Enabled iotum’s Relevance Engine to be a consumer offering.
• Created the GnomeLink Plug-In For Skype that bridges the worlds of Skype with PhoneGnome’s SIP universe.
• Enabled simultaneous inbound ringing and outbound calling with Gizmo Project. This means the best darn softphone and the best VoIP platform now work together so as Beckemeyer adds features, you can be a Gizmo user and with a PhoneGnome take advantage of them.
• Launched MobileGnome, an XML routine that works on Symbian Series 60 phones like the Nokia N70 to trigger calls to people from your cell phone to phone numbers in your PhoneGnome Click To Call directory. This lets you call PhoneGnome customers anywhere in the world for the price of a local cell call.
• Provides a means for consumers to really pick and choose their long distance company to take advantage of calling rates based on where they need to dial.
• Offers Skype In like World Wide Virtual Numbers
So lets add it up:
a. VoIP Assisted Mobile Calling At Low Rates
b. Free Calling Between Users
c. Works with existing telephones
d. Softclient capable and working now
e. Interoperable PSTN, SIP, Skype Calling From One Service
f. Gizmo Project/SIP Workd Ready and Working
g. You can call a SIP number from a regular phone via the SIP area codes
h. Enhanced Call Screening from iotum
i. Pick your long distance carrier
j. Get a Number in Other places
k. Receive your voice mail by email or web
l. Record A Call
…and lots, lots more..
From where I’m sitting, and with what I’m using, PhoneGnome is Voice 2.0 today…not promises that others have made, but have yet to deliver on. It’s cheaper than Vonage, Packet8 to when you do the math. Unlike Vonage if you cancel you don’t pay $39.99 to leave, because you never left your local phone company, you just added VoIP to their service…and that’s a big time upgrade.