RingBranch

Checkin Out for a While

Dear RingBranch users:

The economy sucks and we are tired!  We appreciate you giving us a try.  

We may or may not be back.  But, for now, we need a long winter's nap. 

If anyone wants to get in touch, please do so via the contact page on our main website.

Peace out,

RingBranch

New RingBranch Access Numbers--Are they Gizmo5 Backdoor Dialing Compatible?

Short Answer--Some of the new local access numbers are--the majority are not.  The following RingBranch access numbers from the cities and area codes  listed below seem to be backdoor eligible at the time of this writing-(you can view the complete access phone numbers after signing up for RingBranch in the Member's Section):

Detroit (313)
Chicago  (312)
Phoenix (602)
Stamford CT (203
Boston (617)
Miami (305)
Ft. Lauderdale  (954)
Worcester (508)

For more info, read on:

Some of you may have seen our post from March that described how RingBranch can be used to effectively transform a non-eligible backdoor dialing number into one that is eligible.    At the time of that post, RingBranch was getting its phone numbers from a carrier that was interconnected and, as such, our numbers all seemed to be "backdoor eligible."    With our new provider, some of the phone numbers seem to be interconnected while most do not at this time.   Assuming that you use one of the access numbers from the list above, you should be able to receive a phone call on any of your phones from anyone using Gizmo5.  In other words, a person in the US that may have been otherwise unable to receive a Backdoor call could sign up for the free RingBranch service and then be able to receive a free Backdoor call from people outside the US.    Let's update the example that we used back in March to show how this is still possible with our new system:

• Assume Jack here in the US wants to receive a Backdoor call on his mobile phone from his cousin Ivan in Turkey.
• Assume Jack's mobile number is 713-555-1212 (just a sample number)
• From Gizmo5, Ivan places the call to Jack's mobile at 01017135551212  (note the 0101 prefix which is necessary to place a Backdoor call).
• Upon making the call, Ivan is notified that the number he is trying to call is not available for free calling at this time.  Darn it.  But wait, we can help!
• Jack signs up for a free RingBranch account.   From within RingBranch, Jack designates that all calls to his RingBranch number should ring through to his mobile phone.
• As a member, he is given access to all of the RingBranch access numbers. Jack determines that some of the RingBranch access numbers are backdoor dialing eligible. So, he tells Ivan to call him on the Chicago RingBranch access number.
• Ivan now calls Jack on the Chicago RingBranch access number at 0101312xxxxxxx.   When RingBranch answers, Ivan should PRESS 2 and then enter Jack's mobile phone number. And, moments later, Jack's mobile phone will ring and he and Ivan are connected.   The call to Jack that was previously ineligible for Backdoor dialing is now eligilble, allowing free calling from Ivan in Turkey to Jack in the US.

In-call Audio Advertising

In order to offer free calling, we here at RingBranch must subsidize the cost of each phone call that you make or receive with audio advertising. When you call into RingBranch to make a phone call, you typically will hear 1 to 2 short audio ads before we connect your phone call.   Additionally, if you give out one of the RingBranch access numbers and ask your contacts to call you via RingBranch, then the person calling you will hear 1 or 2 short audio ads before we connect the call to you.   

Also, if your call exceeds an expense limit for us, we reserve the right to gently interrupt your phone call with additional audio advertising in the neighborhood of 15 to 30 seconds that all parties on the line would hear.  Without getting into the details of the economics of this, it should be fairly obvious why we have to do this--we have real and significant costs each time you make a phone call. If you make a 45 minute phone call, that could cost us much more than the revenue that we make from playing 2 ads at the beginning of the phone call.

Some of our users have voiced their opinion that they don't think we should make non RingBranch users hear ads.  In other words, their opinion is if someone is calling a RingBranch user, that person should not have to hear the ad, only the RingBranch user should have to hear ad(s).      Well, we understand where you are coming from. And if we can come up with a solution that works technically and economically that will remedy the situation, we will implement it.  Until we do, though, we need to keep our current solution in place.    The alternative would be to eliminate the ability to receive phone calls and we think this is the worse of the 2 options.

If you have suggestions on how we can navigate this issue, please let us know. We are all ears!

Thanks for supporting RingBranch.

Receiving Calls from Friends using RingBranch's new local access numbers

As mentioned in our last post, we have moved to a model where we provide new RingBranch users with shared access phone numbers in over 70 area codes.   Prior to this, we used to provide each user with a unique phone number.   Not having the bank roll of a company like Grand Central (owned by Google), we could not continue with this practice as it is cost prohibitive for us.

However, you can still use RingBranch to receive phone calls as well as make them.   So, if you are not paying for long distance but someone you talk to is, then he or she can benefit by calling you on a RingBranch access number that is local to him or her.

We have had a few questions about how this works in the context of the shared access numbers so we wanted provide an example to clarify how this works.   For this example, assume that you (the RingBranch user) in Atlanta GA want to give your RingBranch user to your mom in NYC so that she can call you and eliminate her long distance charges (we are assuming that your mom still uses a land line from home and pays for long distance). 

For your mom to call you using RingBranch, here are the steps she would take: 
Step 1.   Since your mom lives in NYC, you would tell her to call the local access number in NYC with 646 area code as presumably this would be a local call for her. Note that she could call any of the other access numbers and still get through to you.  When she calls, she will hear an option to press 1 if she is a RingBranch user or otherwise to press 2.   She should Press 2! 

[By the way,your mom could call into a RingBranch access number from any phone. So, she could call you from her home, her work, a hotel room, her neighbor's house, etc.]

Step 2.  After she presses 2, RingBranch will then try to automatically determine (through logic that we have written) who she is trying to call.  If RingBranch can make that determination automatically, we will ask her if she is, in fact, trying to reach you.  If she confirms that she is by pressing 1, then RingBranch will connect your call. 

If not, then RingBranch will ask her to enter the phone number of the person she is trying to call.  You get to register up to 3 of your phone numbers with RingBranch so there is a good chance that whatever number that she enters will help us recognize that she is trying to call you. 

Step 3. After she enters your phone number and we can match it with one of your 3 registered phone numbers, we will then connect your call.   Note that we will forward your phone call to whatever phone number you have designated under "Receiving Calls from Your Friends."  

Please note that your mom (or whoever is calling you) will hear audio advertising before the call is connected.  Please see follow up post on this issue.

We're Back and Still Free! RingBranch once again open to new signups.

We are happy to announce that we have reopened our beta and now once again are accepting new signups at RingBranch.com.  Yes, we are late but we have been working hard!  Please come check us out at www.ringbranch.com.

Here are some of the highlights of the new system:

• Unlimited free inbound and outbound calling within the domestic US and Canada.
• We now have local access numbers in over 70 US cities.  If you are still paying for long distance, we can help transform your long distance call into a local call.
• When you sign up for a RingBranch account, you will then be able to call into any 1 of these local access numbers.   Before, we used to provide unique phone numbers for each RingBranch user. This proved too expensive to maintain if we were going to grow our business.  However, the shared local access numbers function the same as the unique DID's did.

Please review our new FAQ for more information on details regarding other changes and enhancements.

Thanks for your support of RingBranch. 

Where's RingBranch?

We're here; we've just been running silent and off the radar for the past month as we build out our next beta release? We hope to make it available by June 2. Here's a peak into the new features:

• Ad-supported platform. Many of you have already started hearing the ads when making and receiving calls via your RingBranch number. We're just getting this service up to speed, so please bear with us as we work out the kinks and incorporate relevant and interesting content.
  
• Local access numbers in a number of top cities (e.g. Austin, New York, Miami and Los Angeles). This means that your RingBranch number may also be a local call for you and your friends in these select cities. Moreover, you will be able to use this number, if available as a call-in number when traveling to any of these cities.
• A couple of new countries to call for free

Those are just a few of the enhancements we're making here at RingBranch. All existing features such as free long distance in the Continental United States and Canada will remain. Please feel free to send us an email with any questions.

What an "in-call audio ad" sounds like

As mentioned below, we are testing out a new business model in an attempt to keep RingBranch a free service.  When you call into your RingBranch personal auto-attendant to make a call to a friend, you will hear an ad before we connect you.   Likewise, if your friend calls your RingBranch number, he/she will hear an ad before we connect him/her to you.   

Would you like to hear an example of what an "in-call audio ad" might sound like?  If so, feel free to give me a call on my RingBranch number at 678 717 5001.  You will hear an audio ad before the call rings to me. This is a live ad so only interact with the ad if you are interested in the offer.  After the ad plays, this call will forward to my phone and I will try to pick up and chat if I am available.

As always, questions and suggestions are welcome.

Allen
Co-Founder, RingBranch

RingBranch Will Attempt to Remain Free!

Over the past few months, we have polled our present user community and overwhelmingly heard from you that you would like RingBranch to remain a free service.   Well, we have taken that advice to heart and are now trying a new business model that we hope will enable us to keep RingBranch free indefinitely.

Starting today, we are now inserting audio advertisements from various advertisers into the calls. If you are a RingBranch user, you will hear a short ad right when you call in and a second ad right before your call is connected. Additionally, if someone calls you on your RingBranch number, the caller will hear a short ad before the call is connected to you.

We are hoping that we can make enough money from the advertising to cover our expenses, which are not minimal. We will see--this is an entirely new business model that has been discussed but not really pursued, at least not yet.

Obviously, we are trying this model so that you can use our service for free. Our goal is to expand and offer international calling for free in this ad supported manner as well.  We know and understand that not everyone likes advertising. So, in the near future, we will roll out an ad-free option that will enable you to pay a small monthly fee to use RingBranch without advertising.

Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions.

The RingBranch Team

Temporarily Out of Numbers

Our apologies, but we are temporarily out of dedicated telephone numbers and so we're presently not accepting any new beta users for the next couple of days. The good news is that we're growing rapidly, but those of you that would like to try our service may have to wait a few days. Please stay in touch as we will post an announcement when we open up our service to new users again. Please note, existing RingBranch users are not affected.

Again, many apologies for the inconvenience. We appreciate your support and understanding!

The RingBranch Team

Btw, we've been busy working on the next release of our product offering and we'll be announcing some exciting news soon!

Using RingBranch in conjunction with Gizmo5's Backdoor Dialing for free calls to the US

Do you live outside the US and need to reach people here in the US on their mobile or land line?  Would you like to be able to make this call for FREE! If so, you may want to check out Gizmo5's Backdoor Dialing (Gizmo5 is the new name for Gizmo Project).  From Gizmo5's website, here is an explanation of Backdoor Dialing:

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"Approximately 11% of US telephones, including mobile numbers and land lines from carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc., are connected via VoIP. Working with telecom partners we are now making it possible to dial these numbers without going through the traditional phone system.

This means you can call certain mobile and land line numbers from any computer connected to the net and talk for free. Because these calls are bypassing the traditional phone network entirely there is no per minute fee or other charge for the caller regardless of where they call from."
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While the Backdoor dialing offered from Gizmo5 is free, there is a limitation in that approximately only 11% of US phone numbers are eligible to receive a free Backdoor call from Gizmo.  In fact, from Gizmo5's website, you can test and see if the number you are trying to call is "Backdoor dialing eligible."

But if the phone number is not eligible, do not despair!  RingBranch can help turn a non-eligible number into a "Backdoor dialing eligible" phone number.   RingBranch can greatly expand the number of people that can use Gizmo's Backdoor dialing to a number approaching 100%. 

RingBranch currently gets its phone numbers from a carrier that is interconnected and, as such, our numbers seem to be "Backdoor eligible."    Consequently, a person in the US that may have been otherwise unable to receive a Backdoor call could sign up for the free RingBranch service and then be able to receive a free Backdoor call from people outside the US.  Here's a quick example to illustrate this point:

• Assume Jack here in the US wants to receive a Backdoor call on his mobile phone from his cousin Ivan in Turkey.
• Assume Jack's mobile number is 713-555-1212 (just a sample number)
• From Gizmo5, Ivan places the call to Jack's mobile at 01017135551212  (note the 0101 prefix which is necessary to place a Backdoor call).
• Upon making the call, Ivan is notified that the number he is trying to call is not available for free calling at this time.  Darn it.  But wait, we can help!
• Jack signs up for RingBranch and is given a RingBranch phone number such as 678-717-0000 (just a sample number). From within RingBranch, Jack designates that all calls to his RingBranch number should ring through to his mobile phone.
• Ivan now calls Jack on his RingBranch number at 01016787170000.   And, moments later, Jack's mobile phone rings and he and Ivan are connected.   The call to Jack that was previously ineligible for Backdoor dialing is now eligilble, allowing free calling from Ivan in Turkey to Jack in the US.

Now, there are some other ways to use RingBranch with Gizmo5 that we will discuss in the coming days... very technical and lenghty, but will try and provide step-by-step instructions too, so stay tuned!