Cincinnati Bell's new class of home phone proves that old technologies can learn new tricks.
Ever ahead of the curve, Cincinnati Bell (CB) unveiled a cutting-edge new product on November 24: the Smart Home Phone (SHP).
This new breed of home phone allows users to send and receive text messages, review voicemail from a list, play or delete them in the order of choice, even convert them to text for their reading pleasure.
“The inspiration behind [the SHP] has been a long-standing one,” says Dave Heimbach, Vice President of Product Development at CB. “We, for a long time, have been trying to bring relevance back to the land line.”
And with customers leaving behind their land-line service at a rate of 9 to 11% a year, this is a goal born of necessity.
And for “folks with young kids who don’t want their son or daughter to own a cell phone yet, but want to give them the ability to text, they can text from this device,” Heimbach says.
CB is the first US carrier to offer text messaging and SpinVox features for home phones, all in one package.
And these features reach far beyond home.
The wireless SHP headset can send text messages to any phone capable of texting, anywhere in the world.
The SHP also allows users to access the Yellow Pages and stay up to date with local weather and sports reports.
“A lot of carriers are looking at deploying this type of technology,” Heimbach says. Fortunately, he continues, CB is “one of the first one’s out there with this one.”
Lisa McLaughlin, Senior Public Relations Consultant at CB, adds, “one of the neat things about Cincinnati Bell is its business model, which has the land line, high speed internet and it has the wireless network.”
This combo culminates in SpinVox capabilities, which allow users to convert voice mail into text messages, and peruse them in whatever order they choose.
This nifty upgrade runs on CB’s ZoomTown high-speed internet and home phone service. For those already subscribing to both services, the SHP handset is available for a modest $29.99. Its regular retail price is $129.99.
To sweeten the pot, the first three months of text messaging and SpinVox use come free for SHP users. After the trial period, unlimited text messaging is $9.99 per month, and SpinVox $5.99.
Writer: Jonathan DeHart
Sources: Lisa McLaughlin, Dave Heimbach
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.