Verizon appears to be preparing to release a new product dubbed “One Talk” that will allow mobile workers to easily direct their wired, desk phone calls to their mobile phones. “So no one needs to miss a call, no matter where they are,” the carrier said.
Vague details of the One Talk service appeared on Verizon’s website. “One Talk will make your office phones and mobile devices work as one, with just one number per person,” the carrier said on its website. “You won’t have to worry about leaving your desk thanks to features like voice conferencing and call routing. There’s even an automated receptionist to answer the calls you can’t take.”
The carrier also released a video yesterday that appeared to hint at the service. The video showed a business worker carting around a desk and a desk phone, apparently to highlight the need for a One Talk service. The carrier said that “running a small business is about to get a lot simpler - and a lot more mobile.”
A Verizon spokesperson declined to provide more information.
The “One Talk” product name is notable considering Verizon filed a trademark application earlier this year for a "One Talk" service that will provide "a unified system of integrated fixed and mobile voice services where landline and mobile communications devices can take the same calls, use the same telephone numbers and share the same calling features such as voice and text messaging," according to the company's filing.
It's worth noting thought that trademark and patent applications don't necessarily result in actual commercial products.
But a One Talk service from Verizon wouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise. AT&T last year detailed its "NumberSync" technology that is designed to allow customers to share their primary phone number with other connected devices such as smartwatches, even if their phone isn't connected to a cellular network.
And Sprint last year launched a new platform aimed at business customers that it said will meet all of their enterprise technology and communications needs without companies having to work with multiple vendors. The carrier is aiming the solution at small and medium-sized businesses with the promise of cutting their expenses and simplifying their operations. The offering, which Sprint calls Workplace-as-a-Service (WaaS), costs $200 per month per person, which the carrier says is about half the cost of comparable solutions.
For more:
- see this Verizon webpage and video
Related articles:
Verizon 'One Talk' trademark hints at mobile, landline unification
Sprint unveils 'Workplace-as-a-Service' platform aimed at simplifying enterprise communications
AT&T testing NumberSync technology on iPhones, other iOS gadgets