Happy Holydays! While you were doing your Boxing Day shopping yesterday you may had to call grandma or this old friend living abroad but did not want to spend loads of dollars on expensive overseas mobile minutes. If so, you should consider using one of these cheap mobile calling services such as Mobivox, Jajah or bOK.
As a matter of fact, dozens of such services are trying to get your business today. Last months, at the Canada Technology and Science Museum, we met Aydin Mirzaee, the young CEO of bOK Inc.. This Ottawa-based startup has invested the field of cheap mobile calling rates with a slightly different approach than its competitors. It relies on short text messages (SMS) to initiate calls. When a cheap SMS containing an international phone number is received, the system dials you back as well as that phone number, then connects both lines over the Internet for a fraction of the cost that your mobile provider would charge. Short and sweet, isn’t it?
Beside showcasing the bOK system, this interview shows the enthusiasm of a new generation of Web 2.0 entrepreneurs that are able to create leading-edge business models just a few weeks after graduating from the university. Aydin and his post-graduate fellows dare to shake the old PSTN business model. They are also aware that our economy move so fast now that the bOK system may have a short livehood. This is not a problem since they are already working on other ideas that will eventually turn into new business plans. That’s the way it is in World 2.0, folks!
This interview was published on Dec. 27, 2007 on Intruders TV Canada, a vlog that has been abruptly shut off by Thierry Béziers in March, 2009.