Billshrink, the new startup that aspires to simplify the often painful process of choosing and comparing mobile plans (and eventually other services), has launched in beta. While promising, it still needs a lot of work.
The site offers an ostensibly impressive feature-set. Upon entering a cell number and the password associated with a mobile account, the user is presented with a comprehensive usage analysis, including a listing of the user’s most-called contacts and networks. Those wary of sharing their personal information can manually enter data such as “minutes used”, though this is a somewhat more tedious process. Data is compiled and analyzed, at which point a list of comparable (and hopefully less expensive) plans is presented.
Billshrink also offers maps with visual representations of each carrier’s cell phone strength. Users can even enter their home and work locations to determine a “Commute Rating”, which analyzes connection strength over a route calculated by Google Maps.
Unfortunately, many of these features are still buggy. While the usage graphs presented after entering our bill information were impressive, the resulting phone plan comparison was anything but. Our top suggestion featured a T-mobile plan with a data charge of over $185M (obviously in error). The signal-strength map never seemed to materialize over the standard Google Maps view, though the “Commute Rating” feature worked fine. (Update: We’ve tried the phone plan comparison again and it works well now)
Despite these shortcomings, the site is still useful and allows the average beta tester to save $225 annually according to company statistics.
Billshrink is headed by CEO Peter Pham, a former Photobucket executive who joined the company in February.
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Just curious, what happened to no longer linking to Crunchbase in posts?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....runchbase/
Jason’s new around here, things happen =) All better now.
How does their usage analysis compare with skydeck.com?
@Mark: Cool. No harm, no foul. Just caught me off guard after all those months of direct linking goodness.
Why pay any money?
Gizmo + Grandcentral = $0
Does it expect to give over the cell-number ?
http://www.meetingflex.com/index.html
Internet Web Meeting + Web Chat + User Management
I think it is a good idea. but do they expect me to go there once every 2-3 years?
I personally won’t compare the plan every once in a while when I am locked up with a contract.
Another useless app
hilarious
there was a company back in 2000-2001 called decide.com that did this. Morgenthaler dumper a bunch of money into it. They had a van that drove the country collecting signal strength data, and then compiled it along with all the plan data and presented the data online.
At the height there were 80 employees. Do you know what there revenue was? About $1,000 per day. How sad is that.
I think this is a fantastic idea!! More power to the creators!
Looks cool.. But there are not many options to choose as most of the competitors provide same plans. Site is very good.
can somone stop this guy on #12 to stop posting and spamming his crappy link.
LowerMyBills that actually can lower all my bills?
I saw an early version of this in Bessemer’s incubation lab and have to admit, its really got some potential, as much for its ability to save dough but perhaps even more so for its ability to organize/present information necessary to making wise consumer spend decisions. Nothing like solving real problems with real solutions!
With Schwark and Peter behind it, I’d say its worth keeping an eye on. Good luck guys!
needs a lot of work to be useful. might work for some people though. skydeck seemed more appealing and that doesn’t even try and save you money.
What is everyone problem with spamming stick to the topic please!
Yea, so I tried it out and it is a little bit of a buggy interface. A window would not close when I clicked the X. Also, I was a little bit confused as to what I was comparing. For example, when the results come up, I practically got the same plan recommended to me as the one I have and I couldn’t understand how they came up with it. I would have liked to see it clearly explained somewhere so I get what I am looking at without having to analyze it too much.
Congrats Peter! Well done.
Roy
For all the german speaking community - have a look at telfish.com, same USP, different approach. telfish does automatic bill parsing (at least for german carriers) and bill optimization. Cool analytical features anyways - Kudos!
Love this idea. too bad I can’t get the damn thing to work. I imported my cell bill. It recommended a plan for me that cost $650+ per month. (I pay $200 now).
Reminds me of Mint.com — a very useful and seemingly simple idea. However, really complicated to pull it off on the backend. The end result is a mess.
Hey! There is http://www.yourbillbuddy.com for more than a year in India that does the same as above!
http://www.yourbillbuddy.com or YBB as we call it is in existence for last 2 years for the Indian Market.
Check out the website. It helps you to really optimize your mobile bills (both for pre paid and post paid users)
-Shanky
#19, I’d love to figure out why the system recommended that plan to you, please do email us so that we can debug that.
We are building a service for consumers to help bring some transparency to some of the complicated services out there that really dont’ want you to figure out what the best deal is for you. There’s over 180 plans with an average of 25 add ons you can get, bringing that to about 10M combinations..
We are also the only site that has pulled in all 4 carrier coverage maps and normalized that so that you can really figure out which carrrier is best for you. Interesting enough, people care about coverage, then price, then who their friends have. http://www.comscore.com/press/.....press=2145
I’d suggest importing your bill so we can also figure out who you call the most to maximize free mobile to mobile calling. Don’t forget we also calculate your early termination fee in your savings.
Let’s all make sure we support the Consumer Cell Phone Empowerment Act of 2007 http://klobuchar.senate.gov/ne.....0&
We will be launching other verticals soon and are here to help everyone figure out how to save some money, which as we all know in this economy is going to be important.
Thank you!
Peter
Sat morning. Went to try it out. Site is down for maintenance.
Thousands of wireless subscribers are saving an average of 22 percent off their plans by locating and eliminating unnecessary charges when their cell bills are analyzed through http://www.fixmycellbill.com by a company that I work for called Validas. When you upload your bill, you find out for free if you’re one of the eight in ten wireless customers paying more than you need to and, if so, by how much money your carrier is overcharging you. If you choose, Validas provides an additional highly detailed and personalized adjustment report that, for five bucks, is emailed to your wireless provider in industry specific format in order to implement Validas’s cash saving changes to your plan. If Validas can save you more than $5 on your bill (the average customer currently saves $482 annually through Validas), then this obviously provides a cost effective remedy for reducing cellular expenses.
Validas is becoming known as the preeminent advocate for the wireless consumer. Check out a feature about Validas on The Big Idea with CNBC’s Donny Deutsch at http://www.cnbc.com/id/22782456/. Validas has also been profiled in the New York Times and Business Week.
Happy holidays, and good luck to everyone reading on actually effectively trimming down wireless expenses in this tough economy.
Dylan
TO; PETER PHAM
A few minutes back, I had sent a “COMMENT” under Crunchbase. Hope it reaches you!. I can understand you need the monthly $amount currently spent with a carrier like AT&T. BUT I DO NOT SEE THE REASON BEHIND ASKING ME FOR DETAILS OF THE ” 6 or 7 frequently dialed
phone numbers” . Perhaps it makes more sense by asking me: Are you on a “National Plan” or a “Local/Regional Plan” so that you can include
potential “roaming charges” ? PLEASE REPLY!,,,and Thanks!