LCR for Mobile Phones? Showcased at the Upcoming Internet Telephony Conference & Expo in Miami

Internet Telephony Conference & Expo East will be taking place in Miami next week, on Feb 2-4. I had to be there to moderate a panel on customer service but unfortunately a last minute meeting in Italy is preventing me to attend.

Thanks to friend Andy Abramson who found out a replacement in a matter of hours, Shai Berger from Fonolo who is going to moderate that panel instead of me (thanks Shai!). I attended the West edition in Los Angeles and I can definitely say this conference is a must for everyone involved in the IP Communications. Thoughtful panels and sessions as well as very high level  profiled professionals make it one of the best conferences available to discuss and make business in this space. Among all the products that are going to be showcased in Miami  next week, one in particular caught my attention.

After some months behind the scenes, Moshe Maeir’s The Flat Planet Phone Company is on stage again, presenting a really innovative solution for the mobile space. The main problem solved by their solution is very well summarized by the following statement:

I have more than once met travelers who have come back from a trip with phone bills of 4-5 THOUSAND Dollars! Either they are not aware of the price saving options or more likely they do not have the time and patience to use them. For the last 2 years I have been looking for a mobile solution that is low cost but more important – invisible to the user! Most people hate to dial codes, install software, change SIMs etc. They just want to dial from their contact list and talk!

In a nutshell, their solution (developed by an Israeli startup, actually) relies on a dynamic address book which makes available the right phone number to reach a certain contact depending on the situation (i.e. where you are). The cool part of the story is that it works with any phone, even if not a smartphone.

How does it work? Pretty straightforward. It works on all cellphones even those that are not smartphones. The account manager defines on the LCR server his costs when dialing direct and when using cost saving options such as callthru, callback, SIP over wifi/3G etc. Then all his users receive a SMS text message and synchronize their contact list with the server. The server automatically configures each contact on the contact list to dial in the most cost effective way. The process is invisible to the user. The dialing method is the same. Pick out a contact and dial.

I definitely look forward to seeing it in action since it’s going to solve a huge problem faced by any frequent traveller. While in the US I used to use a local number together with a solution by Rebtel that, basically, let me use local numbers to call my remote contacts.

If you will be in Miami, go to Booth 924 and check them out. Good luck Moshe!

Tagged as: itexpo, luca filigheddu, Mobile phone, moshe maeir, Telecommunications