Apr 28, 2008 12:00 AM,

SMS, 411 latest to go free

By Rich Karpinski

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First came free (ad-supported) voice-over-IP calling. Now even more telecom services are going the free route, including short message service, along with an ever-growing array of free 411 providers.

Making SMS, a big telco money-maker, free is certainly an attention-getter, even if its impact is limited — at least for now. The free text messaging service comes from alternative VoIP provider Jaxtr, which began offering advertising-supported, free SMS service earlier this month.

The new service is available on Café Jaxtr, the company's online social network. Members can use a Web-based interface to send free text messages to any cell phone worldwide. Jaxtr displays advertising on the Web pages as well as in a short text ad as part of the SMS.

With advertising on Café Jaxtr and the new SMS ads, Jaxtr is demonstrating its belief that Web and text advertising is preferable to in-call audio ads. (Rival Jangl, for instance, recently turned on in-call audio ads, and VoodooVox is focused specifically on in-call ads).

“We prefer to stick to more traditional advertising [types] that have already proven out,” said Konstantin Guericke, CEO of Jaxtr. “If you've got a page [impression], Google will find an advertiser for you.”

Free 411 dialing isn't new, but the market is getting more crowded by the day. Market-leader Jingle Networks landed $13 million in third-round funding earlier this month for its “1-800-Free-411” service, which already touts more than 150,000 advertisers (and also is rumored to be up for sale). Another contender, V-Enable's FreeMobile411, launched in early April, featuring live operators (versus Google's voice-recognition system). FreeMobile411 offers access to 140 million residential and 14 million business locations. Sprint last week was announced as the first service provider to offer FreeMobile411 to its users.