Google Voice has been making a lot of headlines lately, but not for the reasons you’d hope. The service is already running into frustrating opposition from Apple and possibly AT&T (depending on who you believe). Today, it’s getting opposition of a different kind: 3jam, a company that until now has primarily offered services that revolve around SMS messaging, is expanding to offer telephony services that will be going head to head against Google Voice.
3jam offers many of the same core features offered by Google Voice, including the ability to have one phone number ring multiple phones, as well as an online interface for managing voicemail and text messages, though there are some more advanced features that it lacks (more on that later). But it does have a few features that Google Voice doesn’t, like the ability to receive calls on Skype, AOL, and Yahoo Messenger (why waste minutes when you’re sitting in front your your computer anyway?)
3jam also has some impressive SMS functionality, which makes sense given the company’s history with SMS. One of these is a group SMS chat, that lets you designate a new phone number as a ‘group number’ and then pick out which of your contacts is in your group. Every time someone within the group sends a message to that number, it will be sent to everyone else in the group as well. Outsiders can attempt to send messages to the special number, but it won’t have any effect.
3jam is also trying to tackle one of the biggest problems facing Google Voice: number portability, which allows you to transfer your current phone number to the new service. We’ve heard that Google is trying to work out the details to get his feature out the door some time this year, but it poses many logistical problems. For one, users could potentially cancel their carrier contracts on accident, leading to hefty fees. And the wait to get a number transfered from the carrier to the service can take weeks. But that isn’t stopping 3jam. The company is letting users transfer their numbers despite these hurdles, though users will be warned that the process may take as long as 45 days.
So 3jam has some things going for it, but it still lags behind Google Voice in some key areas. 3jam lacks many of Google Voice’s more advanced features, like call filtering options — Google Voice lets you set up lists of users and filter calls accordingly (for example I could send certain people straight to voicemail after 6PM but let my family call me at any time), while 3jam doesn’t offer any similar features. And 3jam costs money, with plans starting at around $5 a month (Google Voice is free for most features).
Of course, the market for this kind of service is huge, so 3jam may have a chance even with Google Voice in the same space, but it still has many obstacles ahead. The concept is still quite novel to most people, and some may resist putting their telephony service in the hands of a startup. And 3Jam is going to have to face the same problems Google has when it tries to bring its service to smartphone handsets, though carriers may be less intimated by a startup than they are of Google.
Despite these challenges, 3jam is off to a fairly good start. The company is offereing a white label product that has been licensed by Peek, a company that makes small mobile communication devices. Now for the bigger challenge: getting normal people to understand and sign up for the service.
For more, check out the site’s presentation here.
This looks promising.
And so does Google Voice. And Jajah. And all the other breakout Telephony 2.0 services.
AT&T, Pay attention:
Rather than WHINING and blocking people’s access to these types of Telephony 2.0 services, which we all LIKE, why don’t you simply OFFER THEM YOURSELF? And lower your freaking prices so we don’t have to CIRCUMVENT you?
That way, you see, people don’t have to DUMP YOU.
Sincerely,
Customer bored with your sales-infested website and lack of modern services
Simply because corporate America these days is not about innovation: it’s about hired imbecilies preserving wealth for aristocratic shareholders. Especially the Eastern part of it. For innovation, you need to go to Hong Kong or Shanghai.
Either Google will buy out this company or it will go bankrupt. I’m guessing the later… you don’t go up against Google, you either need to innovate or go home.
bullshit. when google voice is sitting in “invite only” status for as long as it has, that’s pretty unbe-fucking-leivably lame.
Another start-up trying to give away free minutes in the US in exchange for users FAIL
Did you read this at all? Your comment doesn’t even make sense.
Your two names are almost identical??? But your viewpoints are opposite. Pretty strange.
yes, he/she missed the $5/month part… but wtf, it’s just the internet; you can say whatever you want, Glenn Beck does, why shouldn’t Heidi?
Google is giving away the same service they are trying to charge a monthly fee for. Very unlikely that this service will take off. They are unknown and asking for money. Google is a global brand that isn’t even advertising on google voice.
With Toktumi, you can port your number in less than 15 days, you’ve got much more powerful business features, you can set up multiple lines in one account, you get a softphone, blackberry and iphone apps (called “Line2″ – pending approval) and you’ve got customer support.
I give it a chance against Google Voice but not many will use it when Google Voice is free
The price plans are
$8.99 per month for 1 month
$5.99 per month for 3 months
$4.99 per month for 12 months
phone.co.s Virtual Number is cheaper, has the GV filtering etc. functions and can be free if you refer 5 friends. In fact you can earn credits. http://www.phone.com
Is their long-term plan to a) become profitable or be b) bought out?
VOIP is a very tough industry to survive in, so (A) isn’t likely going to happen.
More likely, their exit strategy is acquisition. Google certainly won’t buy them, and Microsoft/Yahoo/Amazon would only buy them if they had critical mass or developed something new & innovative. The problem is that they aren’t doing anything unique or innovative and are charging for it when there is a free alternative, which makes gaining critical mass difficult.
Best of luck though.
3jam charges for sms also, even over the web. that’s big advantage for GV.
Are you saying if I get a call on my 3jam number from a contact dialing from their landline or cell phone that it will ring my Gmail, AIM, Yahoo and Skype voip screen-names?
Thanks for the comment, Ryan. That’s correct. If you get a call on a 3jam number from a contact dialing from their landline or cell phone, 3jam will simultaneously ring the phones you’ve added to your account (ie cell phone, home phone, etc) and your choice of your Gmail, AIM, Skype or Yahoo voip screen-name.
“in front your your computer”
I think you accidentally the sentence.
hehe
This is great + GOOGLE MUST BE STOPPED!!!
Having GV connect to my Skype and/or Communicator would rock (and I can’t quite work out if GV is a VOIP client or not … I guess without a native WIndows Mobile app it’s not so I’m stuck using minutes
right now I have GV connecting to Skype via SkypeIN, just waiting for GoogleTalk intergration then I’ll remove Skype from the equation
Two reasons this will probably fail:
1 – Google is one of the top 3 most established internet brands. People know them, trust them, and know they will be around forever. The point of GV is that your number is “permanent”. You get it, you have it forever. Some random company I’ve never heard of, offering the same service, just doesn’t sell me because this should be a permanent thing – you have this number for the rest of your life. I don’t trust some no-name company to provide that for me.
2 – Google’s offering is free. Now that doesn’t mean they can’t compete, but it’s hard to compete with a huge company whose services are all free. I myself do that with my service getclicky.com, which costs money for all the cool features, but Google Analytics. However, the lesson I’ve learned is, as long as your product kicks ass and has a reason for existing (e.g. we’re not just a GA clone, we do so many things that they don’t), then it can compete successfully against Google. The benefits listed in this article for 3jam don’t really amaze me.
I am tired of this “Goggle is working on number portability” bs. Since when has Goggle become a mobile phone operator company?
any support for sip?
I am surprised this story made it to TechCrunch.
Seen many startups fail in this area and its so sad that another one is trying this out. So long there are free services available, its impossible to charge for them and hope for an exit. Just doesn’t make sense. What if sooner then later, google starts portability? Where does that leave 3jam. And who wants to port there mobile number to 3jam?? You got to be really special to risk loosing your number to a startup that has its days numbered.
Oh my god! How could 3jam just NOT think these basics??? And for TechCrunch claiming this to be a mighty big market. Boy that’s the biggest joke for TechBusiness community that treats TechCrunch like Bible.
Be bought by google.. heheh, that sounds like a dream for everyone these days.
I had better respect for TechCrunch but these days its all about Facebook, Twitter, iphone apps, and lame startups. As a matter of fact, another twitter story on Techcrunch and I am seriously thinking of turning off. Not that it matters to anyone here but its likely that others are thinking the same.
@Sean. Exactly! It’s not going head to head with google, it’s going head to fist! Free vs, $60/yr. FAIL!
LetsCallMe offers a more simple, social media-oriented solution for way less than 3Jam. They have a URL based solution which makes it much easier to use/remember. I’ve found it to be reliable and embed it in my social media profiles instead of my phone number.
Lots of froth in the market but there seems to be a lot of attention at least. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out…
TechCrunch is about breaking businesses and cool technologies, and this is what they’re doing. What… if someone has decided to launch a free service that no other paid services can survive?
You guys are missing the point here… I’m going to stand up for the little guy here because it seems like the haters aren’t even looking at what 3jam is offering that’s unique or better than GV. I’ve used 3jam for its group text messaging (it’s been around for a while) and it kicks ass.
Think about it… Grand Central has been around for years… did everyone scramble to give up their phone numbers in exchange for a Grand Central number back then? Now that GV has added simple SMS, this makes GV the ultimate in one-number services?
How many FREE companies have gone belly up? How soon we forget about the dot-bomb days when everyone was trying to give away free stuff in exchange for advertising? Yeah. Exactly. And you say Google has the bankroll to fund money-losing businesses? Sure… but add on the YouTube burn and soon executives will have to cut costs somewhere.
Personally, I’d rather pay a company and know they have a business model that can support a reliable service than to rely on a free service that could be shut down because it’s costing too much (yes, Google has shut down products before). The more successful GV is, the more money it’s going to lose. And if you know anything about the voice and SMS world, you know that it’s *much* more expensive to support a free GV user than a GMail or other web-based product user. Estimates of $60/year by the CEO of Simulscribe means if GV has 1 million customers (the number of phone numbers GV has been said to have reserved), it will be losing $60MM per year.
Just wait ’til your callers have to start to listen to ads in order to reach you (see http://bit.ly/2ZahG2 ). Innovate, startups… innovate! You have supporters too.
Nobody is taking anybody “head on.” they are charging for what GV gives 4 free. Unless this is designed to be an infomercial, the the title is misleading
I normally expect TechCrunch articles to be well researched and properly reflecting the reality. There are multiple other services that offer such solutions, some with more features for SME’s. To highlight just one and put it against Google voice is moronic!!! And frankly GV is not all that either, it’s just one of the offerings but it has a lot of $$$ behind it which most small startups do not have specially now with the VC’s clamping down! The whole article seems fishy!! I wonder if Jason has had some kick backs from 3Jam! Reminds me of the fat bastard, called Jeff Pulver, who used to ask VoIP companies to give him stock options so he would promote them in his shows/etc. May be Jason just some type of man love for the 3Jam guys!