

Sprint Launches StarStar Me To Replace Your Phone Number With Your Name - neya
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/08/sprint-launches-starstar-me-to-replace-your-phone-number-with-your-name/

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untog
This will be great for the first hundred or so people that order it. After
that you'll just end up with __SARAH1254. You might as well just have a phone
number.

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jonknee
Like email addresses? I'm glad I am not 2025551234@gmail.com...

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untog
It's better, but is "JON202555" $2.99 a month better?

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jonknee
No, but perhaps something like iMessage is better. No fee and it's also an
email address. Seems more useful.

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lysol
You can use iMessage with email addresses.

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jonknee
... I know. That's why I'm suggesting it's better than Sprint's new thing.

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DavidBloom
Guys - your should really try CallmyName app. It gives a much more
comprehensive solution - it includes phone number, email, address, skype ID,
Twitter, FB, picture, etc And most of all it is absolutely FREE...

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odddogmedia
Thought I'd give this a try to see how it worked. Upon registering and
agreeing to the Terms, I received an error page with instructions to call
customer service. When I called, the rep had no idea what I was talking about.
"Star what?" she said.

After I was transferred to a rep who knew what it was, he said I needed to
download the iPhone app for it to work. However, it states throughout the
FAQs[1] that the iPhone app isn't yet available. This was further confirmed at
the StarStar website[2]. His response: "That's wrong. It's definitely
available. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

I'll be opting out and getting a refund today.

[1] <https://sprint.starstar.me/faq>

[2] <http://www.starstar.me/iphone-app>

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uptown
Most people I know don't bother memorizing phone numbers anymore anyway - so
I'm not sure what problem this is solving.

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scott_s
This is entirely true, but our phone contact lists are essentially the
internet back in the day that everyone maintained their own /etc/hosts. That
is, it would be nice is there was some kind of DNS for phone numbers. I don't
think this is the solution, but I understand why they're doing it. (Well,
aside from the lock-in aspects.)

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bluehavana
I think facebook is the solution most people use now.

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uptown
I decided against that "solution" when Facebook took it upon themselves to
promote their @facebook.com contact information over whatever users had
previously setup.

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MattRogish
I have no idea why this isn't just your email address. For everyone I want to
phone, I likely have this in my "Address book" (Gmail, outlook, whatever)
already.

Let me define myemail@gmail.com -> some phone number (aka phone DNS?). Kind of
like how Apple does it with iOS Messaging.

If you're concerned about spam, you could in the phone (or in the provider)
set up a black/whitelist (allow calls from anyone in my address book).

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andyjohnson0
There is an ITU standard called ENUM [1] that allows uri->phonenumber mapping
to be represented in DNS, where a URI could be something like
mailto:name@domain.com. I've never heard of it being used though.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_number_mapping>

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geekfactor
_What happens to my StarStar number if I cancel it?_

 _If you have a StarStar number and then decide to cancel it, it will stop
working at the end of your current billing period. It will then be returned to
the pool of "available" numbers._

 _What happens to my StarStar number if I change carriers? Can I transfer or
"port" it?_

 _Your StarStar number cannot be transferred or "ported" from carrier to
carrier the way your regular phone number can. When you change carriers your
number will be returned to the pool of "available" StarStar numbers._

    
    
      https://sprint.starstar.me/faq
    

Um, no thanks.

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mratzloff
Customer lock-in in only four easy steps!

1\. Sarah gives out her new number to people she meets

2\. They add Star Star SARAH to their address books

3\. Two years from now Sarah wants to switch to Verizon

4\. But uh-oh! Because this is an add-on it probably isn't subject to the same
portability requirements as regular numbers, so now she is stuck with Sprint.

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ablefire
SIP[1] kinda solved this but adoption has been patchy-to-none partially due
Skype's proprietary system dominating the voice and video call space.
sip:user@gmail.com should call your device for voice and/or video.

1\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_Protocol>

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Timothee
To be clear: this is a consumer version of StarStar.co
<http://www.starstar.co/> which has been around for some time.

Like every namespace, it's great if you're early and you get something short
and simple, useless or at least annoying/convoluted later on.

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bicknergseng
I definitely think phone numbers are the IP address of personal
communications. Can you imagine if we had to type in <http://74.125.224.72/>
to hit Google.com? However, I would argue that cell phones have provided a
DNS-like solution for the phone number problem. It's not perfect; people can
change phone numbers, and we still have to exchange numbers to be able to call
each other, but this is somewhat by design. If there was a DNS for phone
numbers, which this Sprint StarStar sounds like, it would be too easy for
people you don't want calling you to call you (it's already fairly easy... I'm
sure Justin Beiber could testify to this). A phone number is like a crappy,
public password for people to call a number that may or may not be associated
with you.

Just a few thoughts I had based on the last paragraph: the problem is that
phone numbers are arbitrary--nothing connects people and the numbers they hold
temporarily. However, a DNS system for individual phone numbers is also
suboptimal because it allows everyone access to everyone. What about a
password protected DNS system? Everyone gets a phone number/ip address and is
able to password protect access to it? Snowball with me here people.

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r00fus
> A phone number is like a crappy, public password for people to call a number
> that may or may not be associated with you.

A phone number is just an address. That most numbers don't have ingress
filtering due to standard operating procedure (and our public commons being
owned by private ad-spewing corporations) doesn't change this fact.

You can try all you want to call my GV number, it will route all callers to
voicemail except for whitelested numbers.

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ncavig
This isn't really solving a problem. Phone numbers are already unique, so why
replace with another unique based system that has a one to one correspondence?

I'd really like to see something like DNS. You can register a "phone number"
or "phone name", upon calling something, it sends a lookup to your phone
provider, which then provides a lookup to whatever server houses the data for
said name which resolves a unique name or series of characters (not limited to
alphanumeric increasing combinations) that responds with data that the phone
can digest and create an active connection. Imagine being in control of your
own data, who can call you, what sort of data a subscriber can obtain when
calling you, etc. Sort of an app.net for your own contact info.

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gallerytungsten
For anyone with a name that's prone to mis-spellings, this service doesn't
seem like such a great idea.

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josh2600
See this is a temporary solution and shows off all the problems with a global
routing database.

If I could dial __sarah and it knew that I was referring to my Sarah, that
would be great, but another individual identifier of global significance isn't
helpful.

What sprint needs are truly separate routing databases for each client. If I
dial 101 on my cellphone, I want it to ring my dad; why isn't this possible
today? The answer is that it is, but it's too much of a headache for existing
equipment within core carrier networks.

In short, bring on the real unified communications, woe to the impostors.

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corin_
_"If I dial 101 on my cellphone, I want it to ring my dad; why isn't this
possible today?"_

Is this more useful than ringing "Dad" from your cellphone, which is already
possible?

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josh2600
In some capacities, yes.

I meant generically, being able to remove identity from phone numbers. I want
to call someone, however I want to call them, and reach them because the
network I'm a part of already has enough information to divine who I'm trying
to talk to.

This isn't fantasy, you could realistically do this right now with all of the
signals we have online about who people are. It's just that no one sees value
in aggregated routing databases, only in adding additional routing databases,
like star star me.

Calling 'dad' and calling '101' are just placeholders for the real intention,
reaching the person who is your father. However I want to get ahold of them
should be reasonable and possible to do with today's technology.

Not trying to be combative, only trying to clarify my point :).

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mdesq
The ability to have two (or more) accounts per number might be good for
separating business/personal uses on one device if they can track it that way.
The limitation of (generally) one phone number per device is restrictive.

Yes, I know you can work around this a bit w/Google Voice and such, but I
would prefer my phone to act more like an email client where I can
send/receive from multiple accounts seamlessly.

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DavidBloom
Why the heck should I pay $36/yr for a service that can work only on Sprint's
network when you can register your call name for FREE with a great application
like CallmyName. Me and most of my friends have call-names with CallmyName and
it works superbly well. I highly recommended to try it and get you call name
ASAP....

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e1ven
So, trying this, it doesn't seem to work for Text messages, at least across
carriers.

It does work for Phone calls, however.

Out of curiosity, I checked, and the major services that you might want to run
over a phone - __FLOWERS, __PIZZA, etc, seem to be taken.

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randallsquared
Text doesn't work sprint-to-sprint, either.

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sethbannon
For me the coolest feature is the "reply with contact info". You meet someone
new and before parting, they ask for your contact info -- instead of standing
around as they type in your cell or email, you just say "call __MYNAME to get
my info."

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icebraining
That's what business cards are for.

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Turing_Machine
I'm assuming that this only works if both parties have Sprint? It seems pretty
pointless if so, even without taking the namespace collisions into account.

Also: who remembers phone numbers nowadays? I already have a phone that does
that for me.

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bwilliams
"Calls may be made to StarStar numbers within the United States from any
Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T mobile phone." from their official report.

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silentific
" __GOOGLE ( __466453) is in use." I wonder how many squatters are already
holding these hostage. PS, I wouldn't have gone through with it.

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verelo
i think email tried this theory already, people still dont memorize everyone's
email address. Auto-complete is what we all live by, seriously, this wont
last.

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mullingitover
What we really need is straight up DNS for phones.

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GotAnyMegadeth
This will make it really easy to spam people too

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eli
It's already quite easy to spam people via their phone number. Just iterate
through a block of mobile numbers.

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lurkinggrue
People still dial and remember numbers?

