Private Phone, a service provided by netzero, has sent notice to their members that they are disconnecting service as of 19 February 2008. The service gave you a free inbound telephone number with voicemail, which was then emailed to you as a WAV file. Nice idea, but I guess it didn't get a lot of traction.
If you've become attached to your Private Phone number, never fear, as they've worked out a deal with Packet 8 to transfer your number to them, provided you sign up for their $20/month service. Packet 8 has been around for 20 years and they own the patents for their service, so it's not like they are going anywhere or are going to be sued out of existence for patent infringement.
{ 9 } Comments
it is very disappointing that netzero made a deal with packet8 instead another free of charge operator’ perhaps grandcentral would have agreed to port the numbers and would be a much more consistent replacement.
It’d be nice, but companies trying to make money providing free service don’t think like that.
grandcentral.com is now being aquired by google. i just checked it out. its cool but only private users can sign up now because its in beta state so new users are not able to until a later date… who knows when.
This is really disappointing. This idea was awesome, I wish it had caught on and that netzero offered more options.
In regards to Grand Central, they will be charging eventually, so it wouldn’t matter if the PP numbers were transferred there.
As far as I know, there are no plans for Google to charge for Grand Central. Not a guarantee, of course.
Our company does provide a free voice mail service. It can either be a single voice mail or a voice tree. If you go to http://simplevoicebox.com you can check it out. I hope this helps out.
Bob
I loved Private Phone, but that “deal” they worked out with Packet 8 is bogus. I wanted to keep my number, so I signed up with Packet 8, requesting to keep my Private Phone number. Well, it is total BS! I now have a Packet 8 account, but not my number! Packet 8 kept promising and promising that the transfer was “in process” and other BS promises. Time is up. It’s now up to the court.
@Dr. Wiley: I hope you get your number back. Sounds like you got a raw deal.
14 I am grateful to the webmaster
Post a Comment