Over the summer, a little gizmo dubbed "ooma" was rolled out and promised free VoIP services for the price of the hardware. Industry experts said it resembled a previously introduced product known as "PhoneGnome."

FierceVoIP last week asked ooma founder Andrew Frame how his company's free VoIP device compared to PhoneGnome (Sept. 4, "ooma chief talks with FierceVoIP [0]"). This week, PhoneGnome founder (and co-founder of EarthLink), David Beckemeyer, responds.

FierceVoIP: Tell us a bit about your company….
David Beckemeyer: I founded TelEvolution in 2004 with the mission of removing the barriers holding VoIP migration back. The PhoneGnome global service is our flagship product that lets anyone with a telephone number and Internet service quickly augment their phone experience with next-generation Internet telephony capabilities. It's VoIP for the rest of us.

FierceVoIP: Where is it located and how many folks work there?
DB: The headquarters are located in Danville, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are a typical early stage startup, running very lean and mean. We don't have any Hollywood actors and we don't have a big pile of VC cash to burn. We have less than 10 people working full time, and many, many, terrific folks who work with us, outsourced and under other arrangements to allow us to operate without large capital requirements as we strive to expand and grow organically.

FierceVoIP: Is it privately held, and whom, if any, are the investors?
DB: We are privately held, and many of our investors prefer to remain behind the scenes; however one of our most active investors is Bob Packer, founder of Packeteer.

FierceVoIP: What is PhoneGnome and how does it work?
DB: PhoneGnome is a service attempting to bring VoIP to the mass market. Our objective is to make sophisticated and powerful open standards-based VoIP capabilities available to, and usable by, mainstream consumers.

Beyond that, PhoneGnome is also a VoIP service platform that can be controlled via web APIs. Our telephony web services makes it practical to deliver new Voice 2.0 to traditional, VoIP, or cable phone subscribers worldwide with rapid time to market and low capex, pay-as-you grow economics.

FierceVoIP: Is it more oriented toward tech savvy users who understand how to make a phone call using a SIP address?
DB: In the early days of consumer Internet, there was a choice between user friendly, but closed (AOL, for example), or open, but very difficult to use for regular users. In my days at EarthLink in the mid-1990s, our mission was to bring the advantages of the real open, interoperable Internet to mainstream users, making it as easy as AOL, without forcing proprietary, closed systems upon people.
At TelEvolution, we are trying to do the same thing with PhoneGnome and VoIP. The idea is that PhoneGnome is easy enough for anyone to use, while providing open, standards-based, interoperable, real VoIP at the same time. Users just dial real phone numbers and don't have to download software, learn new handles, nicknames, or new numbers.
At the same time, PhoneGnome does give the sophisticated user the capability of placing a call to a SIP address, for example, but the average user doesn't even need to know that capability exists to use the service.

FierceVoIP: When ooma rolled out, some compared it to PhoneGnome. Last week, we asked ooma chief Andrew Frame to tell his device differed from yours. It's your turn. How does the PhoneGnome stack up against the ooma?
DB: There are some things about the ooma product that we think are good ideas. That's why we introduced them in our PhoneGnome box in 2005--automatic 911 and power-outage cutover, more intelligent voicemail with web and email integration, and consumer-friendly set-up.
We introduced the first completely plug-and-play VoIP device that would automatically configure itself and let users dial regular phone numbers to make free and cheap calls. Users could even make free calls without ever signing up for any service, simply by plugging in the PhoneGnome box.
The key distinguishing aspects of the two products, as we see it, are:

Ooma:
- Prepay for hardware plus a bundle of services/features up front
- Service options defined by ooma
- Proprietary, closed, architecture
- Available to users in the United States
- International calls at ooma rates

PhoneGnome:
- A la carte model, with lower up-front costs
- Customers pay less up front and pay for the services/features they want
- Open, expandable and interconnects with other VoIP services/systems
- Embraces open-standards, interoperability, and industry standards
- Available to users anywhere in the world
- Free software extends PhoneGnome-enabled service to a PC or mobile phone
- PhoneGnome box works with VoIP, cable and landline phone service
- Compatible with a variety of international and domestic plans

FierceVoIP: (Regarding Andrew Frame's discription of PhoneGnome as a "resold Cisco ATA device, not true plug-and-play, no control of the software.")

DB: The existing PhoneGnome box is a customized version of a hardware platform produced by Linksys/Cisco. We see this as an advantage. We have no intention of becoming a premiere hardware manufacturer.
PhoneGnome is fully self-configuring. A buyer can plug in the PhoneGnome box and it will automatically set itself up and be ready to make and receive free calls in a few minutes, just by dialing ordinary phone numbers.
PhoneGnome is fully managed and receives updates and bug-fixes totally automatically and transparently to the user.

FierceVoIP: Does it allow for free domestic VoIP calls to any type of phone?
DB: PhoneGnome includes free calls to everyone with a PhoneGnome box; everyone with a free PhoneGnome account around the world; users on compatible VoIP services, including Gizmoproject, FWD, Earthlink, and many more; IM users on Gtalk, Yahoo!, and MSN; and millions of numbers reachable free through our extensive peering relationships; and software for free calls to Skype users.

FierceVoIP: Does it require a landline?
DB: The PhoneGnome box is for augmenting an existing telephone service with VoIP.

FierceVoIP: How are 911 fees handled?
DB: Since the PhoneGnome service augments an existing service, it automatically works with the 911 service provided by that existing phone service and there are no additional fees - and this applies to emergency services outside the U.S. as well (112, 999, etc.)

FierceVoIP: What do I get from PhoneGnome for $99?
DB: The PhoneGnome service can be used free without the box. The $99 PhoneGnome box augments an existing fixed line service with new capabilities, the three main ones being free calls, cheap calls and cool features, [e.g., voicemail, voice-to-email; call logs; audio files; Skype software, and more.]

FierceVoIP: How many PhoneGnome hardware users are there?
DB: We don't disclose actual sales figures, but the hardware went into beta in 2004 and is in use in over 40 countries worldwide today.

FierceVoIP: How many PhoneGnome software users are there?
DB:We again don't disclose this number, but it is currently growing at 400 percent annually and we are serving customers in over 100 countries worldwide.

FierceVoIP: What handsets are compatible with the PhoneGnome mobile plug-in?
DB: We don't maintain a list because it is just too long. It is a Java app (J2ME MIDP 2.0) and so it should work on just about any phone sold today. However, a data sevice of some kind is required. The application isn't needed to use PhoneGnome service on a mobile, but it provides some cool features and makes some functions more convenient.

FierceVoIP: What, if any, are the future developmental plans for PhoneGnome?
DB: A great deal of marketing dollars have been thrown at VoIP and a lot of investor value has been lost as a result. We have not seen wisdom in spending vast amounts of money to try and rise above that noise. That makes PhoneGnome one of the best kept secrets of the industry.
We have revenue and extremely low customer acquisition costs, meaning that new customers actually add value to the company, rather than take value away.
We've been quietly building a platform and peer technology that is now in use in over 100 countries. ooma coming on the scene has been a blessing for us, helping to raise awareness of our achievements.