Monday, May 17, 2010

eFax now eVoice

The people who brought you eFax (j2 Global Communications, Inc., a Delaware corporation) now off eVoice, which is similar to Phone.com and Google Voice. The eVoice service is just a virtual phone Number - local or toll-free - that does some call forwarding and routing. Big feature: Voicemail to Text. Six month free trial, then $13 per month for 300 minutes and 2 extensions. Nothing earth-shattering.

BTW, interesting Customer Agreement for eFax, especially the stipulations for the FREE version of the eFax service.

"YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THE FREE SERVICE IS SUBJECT TO j2 GLOBAL'S "FAIR USE" POLICY FOR FREE ACCOUNTS. YOU WILL BE IN VIOLATION OF THIS POLICY IF, WITHIN ANY THIRTY (30) DAY PERIOD, YOU RECEIVE MORE THAN TEN (10) FAX PAGES, EXCLUDING ADVERTISING OR INFORMATIONAL MESSAGES SENT TO YOU BY J2 GLOBAL, AS DETERMINED BY US IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION. IN THE EVENT YOU ARE DEEMED TO HAVE VIOLATED THIS POLICY, J2 GLOBAL WILL ATTEMPT TO NOTIFY YOU OF THE VIOLATION VIA EMAIL AND OFFER TO UPGRADE YOU TO A PAID SUBSCRIPTION. IF YOU ELECT NOT TO UPGRADE, YOUR ACCOUNT MAY BE TERMINATED OR SUSPENDED AT J2 GLOBAL'S SOLE DISCRETION, EXCEPT WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. ANY FAILURE BY J2 GLOBAL TO ENFORCE THIS POLICY WILL NOT PRECLUDE US FROM ENFORCING IT AT ANYTIME IN THE FUTURE, WHETHER FOR PAST OR CURRENT VIOLATIONS." Oh, and J2 gives you a non-local number far away so just they can send you advertising faxes until you break down and pay for the service. Another example of a Freemium model that is upside down.

In other news of the obvious, ISN's brand IPFone announced a Broadsoft based iPhone app, which is just a re-package of ISIP, formerly SIPPhone from OnSIP. [You can get it here for $7 for use with any Broadsoft provider like PBX-Change, Hunt Telecom, Callis, Telesphere, ISN and others.

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