For those of you who've been reading here for any length of time, you know I count Andy Abramson among my close friends. Beyond that, Andy's been blogging in this sector for a very long time. He's involved, engaged and very knowledgeable about voice and data services of all kinds. And he's a road warrior. Now I've been a road warrior myself and spent 35-40 weeks a year on the run. I know how demanding that can be physically, personally and professionally. And I know what a challenge it is to find the right technology mix.

One of the companies Andy represents at Comunicano is MOBIVOX. I've always been intrigued by what they're doing and you'll find a number of posts here about them and a couple of podcasts with Stéphane Marceau, MOBIVOX President and CEO. Sheryl and I sat with him at a dinner at the ITExpo last September and found him to be a incredibly nice man, but also his insights into how MOBIVOX fits and brings value are really on target.

Andy sent an email this morning talking about MOBIVOX, and I'm taking the liberty of quoting it here. I do that partly because while those of us inside and around the industry recognize how smart Andy is about things, casual readers may not notice just how insightful he is. This note shows some of the things he thinks about.  More below.

eBay's quarterly report, released last week, shows a cooling off in the historic growth rate of Skype, the company's acquisition of 2007. While the VoIP giant has 6 percent of the addressable market in international calling, that leaves a large market of people who want the cost savings and convenience benefits of Skype, without the hassle.

Most people don't want to change their regular calling habits or be tethered to a PC. Neither do they want to deal with headsets, calling cards, software downloads, or fancy phones that need to be connected to a computer. Many may not even have frequent access to a PC, or broadband Internet access. These same people, though, would love to talk for free from the phones they already use.

Enter Mobivox. Based in Montreal, Mobivox offers an international telephone service that can be used today from any of the 5 billion mobile and landline phones in the world. Mobivox has the ubiquity and economy of Skype - free international calling between members and a few cents a minute to non-members. In addition, users do not have to remember phone numbers; they simply say the names of the people they want to call.

Here's how it works: After registering for free at www.mobivox.com and uploading contacts, members dial a local access number. "VoxGirl," Mobivox's clever always-present, speech-recognizing assistant, asks the user for the name of the person they want to reach. The member says the name and they're instantly connected. If the call connects to a fellow Mobivox member or a Skype buddy the call is free. If it's not, the charge is 1.9 cents a minute to over 40 destinations, and greatly reduced rates to practically everywhere else. VoxGirl tells you before connecting if the call's not free.

Members can also dial by number. Voice quality is clear and has received multiple kudos from the telecom press and the blogosphere.

Since the launch of its flagship product in October 2007, Mobivox's user base has grown to half a million, found in more than 107 countries. VC funding has come from top investors in China, the U.S., Vietnam and Canada.

While there has been some movement in making VoIP mobile, these approaches have mainly required users to download software to high-end smart phones, and to access broadband data wireless networks. Unfortunately, only a handful of devices available today (and even fewer in North America) can download the required software. Wi-Fi networks aren't everywhere yet; neither is 3G. In addition, many of these calling services charge connection and monthly maintenance fees.

To address the needs of a true mass market, Mobivox has come out with a call-from-anywhere, from-any-phone offering without any recurring costs or calling-card-style hidden fees. Calls around the corner or around the world can be dialed by voice through VoxGirl, the cheerful assistant powered by Mobivox's interactive voice response system. And because Mobivox works with any phone, the service is completely independent of Wi-Fi hotspots, Wimax, or 3G wireless networks.

What I think is the single most important factor in the note is the idea that we as users don't want to change our habits. I think that's the single biggest driver behind MOBIVOX's success. And it's the single biggest failure factor for many entrepreneurial companies.

There are a number of solutions that are creative and innovative in the voice communications space today. Some are fantastic in what they can deliver as a value-added service. But many of them force us as users to change how we operate the phone - to change our habits. The truth is that we're human and old habits die hard.

I find MOBIVOX's approach to be really insightful because they simplify the habits we already use, but don't force change that make us think about the impact of change. And a business level we make a conscious decision about these solutions. Companies consider return on investment (RoI). As users, we more frequently consider return on effort (RoE). Is the investment of our effort worth changing our habits for? Companies that don't meet this RoE evaluation struggle.

Kudos to MOBIVOX for not just delivering a brilliant service approach that's clean and well implemented. Stéphane and team have also done a great job of thinking about the impact of using their solution and made it a real pleasure to work with on a daily basis.


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