Multiple-Number Cell Phones

TalkPlus, a company that just received US$5.5M in venture capital, owns patent-pending technology that will offer a variety of services to mobile users, including the ability to have multiple inbound phone numbers. This means you can carry one handset but keep business and personal profiles separate. While this seems to be a hot story, I vaguely recall the ability to have two phone numbers on the same handset as being available in the late 1990s - although I could be mistaken. A more detailed explanation of TalkPlus’ services can be found at Unified Communications.

The interesting thing is that they seem to be aiming this multi-number feature at the online dating market, though of course there all types of people who could benefit from multiple numbers on a single handset. Having once carried around 2 cell phones and two pagers simultaneously, I can see how a TalkPlus Number would be valuable.

But as for the dating/ social market, if the handset can run VoIP, particularly Skype, there are Skype-enabled dating sties such as Verbdate. Obviously, in this case, you wouldn’t even need a second number. But failing that, a second number could be tied to a VoIP plan. Which means that you wouldn’t have to change your existing number.