TalkDaddy VoIP Service Launches

TMCnet has learned of a new VoIP service launched yesterday, TalkDaddy Internet Phone Service, offering unlimited U.S. and Canada calling starting at $179 per year for residential service and $299 for business.

TalkDaddy was started by entrepreneur John S. LaTour and is headquartered in Fayetteville, Ark. TalkDaddy owns all its own equipment. The service's infrastructure, LaTour tells TMCnet, is "a fully redundant switch built on an Asterisk platform."

LaTour explains that the TalkDaddy business had its origins with a problem in his own tax preparation business, where he started using VoIP four years ago. "We had six tax preparation offices that we operated from January to April each year," he explains. "We would activate two POTS telephone lines (one voice, one fax) in January and turn them off in April." LaTour says each January they had to pay an activation fee of $150 per line, and the monthly fee was $85 before taxes and surcharges.

"I was complaining about all of this, like I still do, to my computer guru," says LaTour. "He suggested I install a 'VoIP' system. I said, 'A what?'  I had never heard of VoIP. He explained that we could use our existing (i.e., already paid for) Internet connections for telephone service. What? No more Southwestern Bell? My reply was, 'Do it!'"

LaTour continues: "The first year we operated, the system was unreliable. The second year, the software and firmware were upgraded and the system worked much better. The third year, I threw away my office PBX system and we went entirely with VoIP. The phone calls in our offices in the next state over sounded like they were next door. We never looked back."

He says last summer he gave an ATA to a friend in the Phillippines and asked him to try out the service from there. When the friend called, LaTour says, "He sounded like he was next door! It not only works in the next-door state, it works around the world!"

TalkDaddy allows calls to land lines and cell phones in the U.S. and Canada and to land lines in Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia,  Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey,  United Kingdom and Venezuela.

The TalkDaddy service includes voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, free 411 directory assistance and international calling from cell phones.

"We are ready and able to give the folks at Vonage a run for their money," says LaTour. "We provide more service for less money."

AB -- 2/24/06