Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products, subscriptions or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call. Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches programmed to be played over the phone via automatic dialing.
A voicemail system is a computer-based system that allows people to leave a recorded message when the recipient is unable to answer the phone. The caller is prompted to leave a message and the recipient can retrieve said message at a later time.
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible computer. Text messages may be sent over a cellular network or may also be sent via satellite or Internet connection.
Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as direct response marketing. In contrast to direct marketing, advertising is more of a mass-message nature.
Fido Solutions Inc. is a Canadian mobile network operator owned by Rogers Communications. Since its acquisition by Rogers in 2004, it has operated as a Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) using the Rogers Wireless network.
Google Talk was an instant messaging service that provided both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service was variously referred to colloquially as Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage among its users.
Thuraya is a United Arab Emirates-based regional mobile-satellite service (MSS) provider. The company operates two geosynchronous satellites and provides telecommunications coverage in more than 161 countries in Europe, the Middle East, North, Central and East Africa, Asia and Australia. Thuraya's L-band network delivers voice and data services.
Amp'd Mobile was a cellular phone service launched in the United States in late 2005, and in Canada in early 2007. The company was a Mobile Virtual Network Operator offering 3G voice and data services over the Verizon Wireless EV-DO network, including text and picture messaging, push-to-talk, and over-the-air downloadable applications and content from its Amp'd Live service. Its primary non-venture capital investors were MTV Networks and Universal Music Group. The service targeted 18- to 35-year-olds, and was the first integrated mobile entertainment company for youth, young professionals and early adopters, similar to Helio.
BT Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) provided by BT Consumer; a division of BT Group in the United Kingdom that was launched in March 2015. It uses the EE network via an MVNO agreement signed in March 2014 as well as using the spectrum BT won in the 2013 4G auction. EE is now owned by BT following a successful acquisition that was officially completed on 29 January 2016. BT Mobile operates alongside BT Business Mobile which is provided by the BT Business and Public Sector division. BT Mobile launched as a SIM-only service and had more than 400,000 customers as of 5 May 2016. BT Mobile stopped accepting new consumer customers in October 2023, as part of plans by the BT Group to make EE the main brand of the consumer business.
Google Voice is a telephone service that provides a U.S. phone number to Google Account customers in the U.S. and Google Workspace customers in Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the contiguous United States. It is used for call forwarding and voicemail services, voice and text messaging, as well as U.S. and international calls. Calls are forwarded to the phone number that each user must configure in the account web portal. Users can answer and receive calls on any of the phones configured to ring in the web portal. While answering a call, the user can switch between the configured phones. Subscribers in the United States can make outgoing calls to domestic and international destinations. The service is configured and maintained by users in a web-based application, similar in style to Google's email service Gmail, or Android and iOS applications on smartphones or tablets.
Yahoo Voice was a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC telecommunications service. It was provided by Yahoo via its Yahoo Messenger instant messaging application.
Visual voicemail is direct-access voicemail with a visual interface. Such an interface presents a list of messages for playback, as opposed to the sequential listening required using traditional voicemail, and may include a transcript of each message. In 2007, Apple's iPhone was the first cell phone promoting this feature.
Ooma, Inc. is an American publicly traded telecommunications company based in the Silicon Valley, California area. Ooma offers communications services including Voice over IP (VoIP) calling for business, home and mobile users.
The LG VX10000, also known as the Verizon Voyager or LG VX10K, is an Internet-enabled multimedia smartphone designed by LG Electronics and carried by Verizon Wireless in the US, Telus, and Bell Mobility in Canada, and Reliance in Asia. The external screen is touch enabled with a virtual keyboard and buttons. It features an internal screen for use with the included full QWERTY keyboard. Both screens of the Voyager have WQVGA resolution. The Voyager's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player, in addition to text messaging, and Internet services including e-mail and web browsing. It is a dual-band mobile phone that uses the CDMA standard. It supports the EVDO data technology.
PrivatePhone was a free voicemail service developed by NetZero on June 1, 2006 as a way for users to get their own voicemail for free. Originally the service only allowed 10 voicemail messages in the main inbox at a time, and it gave the notice "Please leave a message for this Privatephone.com subscriber after the tone"; however, this was later changed to just "Please leave a message after the tone". On February 19, 2008, PrivatePhone ended its service.
eVoice is a telecommunications service owned by j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:JCOM). The company manages incoming and outgoing calls using virtual phone numbers. The service was initially founded by Wendell Brown, Mark Klein, and Craig Taro Gold in 2000 and re-launched in March 2010 with an expansion of services that include both individual, personal uses as well as services for businesses.
Koodo Mobile is a Canadian mobile flanker brand started by Telus in 2008 and mostly oriented toward younger customers. Koodo differs from its parent Telus by not requiring a fixed term contract. Koodo currently provides postpaid, prepaid, and wireless home phone services. Being a subsidiary of Telus, Koodo has been able to offer extensive coverage and a strong presence in mobile retailers. This allowed Koodo to gain a presence nationwide.
Ribbit was a telecommunications company based in Mountain View, California. It was acquired by BT Group on July 29, 2008 for $105 million.
YouMail is an Irvine, CA-based developer of a visual voicemail and Robocall blocking service for mobile phones, available in the US and the UK. Their voicemail mobile app replaces the voicemail service offered by mobile phone service providers, and offers webmail-like voicemail access and voicemail-to-text transcriptions. The company also compiles the YouMail Robocall index by monitoring automated call patterns and behaviors, and verifying that activity against numbers that its customers block, or report as spam.
Phone hacking is the practice of exploring a mobile device, often using computer exploits to analyze everything from the lowest memory and CPU levels up to the highest file system and process levels. Modern open source tooling has become fairly sophisticated to be able to "hook" into individual functions within any running app on an unlocked device and allow deep inspection and modification of its functions.
