CallDigits has just launched a new service called Ring-To-Number, which is a tool that lets you offer tool free ways for people to call you, without you giving out your real phone number.

This product is being promoted as a way to protect your identity from people online, but this can be used for off line purposes as well. The biggest difference between Ring-To-Number and similar call-me tools like Jajah and Jaxtr is that this isn't a web-based service that requires callers to use VoIP in order to contact you.

There are two different types of accounts you can get with Ring-To-Number: the free account provides you with a non-local number that people can call, along with the necessary shortcode to get in touch with you directly. The paid account gives you a local number with no required shortcode. This will cost you about $5.00 per month. These calls can be directed to a landline, a mobile phone, or a VoIP service of your choice. There are also widgets that display your Ring-To-Number assigned number that will also let site visitors see if you're available to take call.

Ring-To Number, a new service to safeguard a person’s identity and privacy when interacting on social networks, auctions and online dating services, has been revealed by WebPoint Communications LLC.

This next-generation communications service provider launched this free widget to provide a private channel of communication to receive phone calls without divulging the person’s actual number, address and location.

"In the emerging Web 2.0 generation of online users, privacy has become a premium for people that wish to connect and interact with others on social networks yet want to protect their personal information, especially their phone numbers," said Kha Phan, president and CEO, WebPoint Communications, LLC in a Monday statement.

"Our new FREE and paid versions of the Ring-To Number service bridges this communications gap while simultaneously offering a safe haven for secure connections."

The Ring-To Number is an extension of WebPoint Communications’ CallDigits service. This service offers a private number from more than 1,200 US markets that can ring to any number in the US or Canada and can be set to ring to a landline PSTN connection, cell phone or VoIP number.

By taking CallDigits to the next level, Ring-To Number allows consumers to connect on MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle, Friendster, Tagged, Blogspot, dating site and online auction portals such as Craigslist or eBay.

WebPoint plans to launch the Ring-To Number widget as a free service that utilizes shortcode and is targeted to popular users who may receive phone queries via their social networking pages.

WebPoint also offers premium services intended for personal use: $4.99/month for a local number of choice, covering 1,200 markets and includes 200 minutes of forwarding, or $9.99/month for a local number and unlimited forwarding minutes.

"There is no service that comes close to Ring-To Number's functionality - no other company in our space has the capability to deliver millions of phone numbers instantly at no cost to our users," said Phan.

"Other services attempting to compete with Ring-to Number are not as user friendly and force the consumer to jump through hoops to connect a call. Our service is intended as it was designed -- simple to use."

The Ring-To widget also offers even more value by allowing social networking and related sites to build their own custom voice product. Using the Ring-To developer's toolkit, partner sites are provided the ability to build their own voice widget.

"Our technology can be extended to other complementary services such as print and online classified ads, directory services and job placement. We see many extensions of our technology and tight integration with complementary sites and services," added Phan.

WebPoint Communications has done well to provide a solution that is definitely needed in its market space. The company also went one step further by providing social networking and other sites the ability to customize their voice product. Such a move will help to facilitate strong co-branding, firmly establishing the company as a provider of choice for these sites.

The company will also find it in its best interest to help to promote the use of this service among end-users. Too often, these sites are used by individuals with no clue as to how to protect their identity or that they are even at risk. Ring-To Number provides a great service, but swift adoption is dependent upon consumers understanding why they need to use it.

So you're in a bar, totally connecting with a guy at the end of the room.  He eventually comes over, buys you a drink and you soon get to chatting.  At the end of the night, that awkward moment finally comes.  You want to see him again, but you don't know him from Adam.  Do you trust your instincts and exchange digits, or just take his number?  Decisions, decisions.  Enter Ring-to-Number.  A service designed to basically protect your identity. Exactly how does the service work?

When you sign up for a Ring-To number, we give you a way to let people call you directly without giving your actual phone number! Here's what happens:

1. You put the Ring-To widget on your homepage, social networking page, or any other web page.
2. The Ring-To widget displays an anonymous phone number with your own personal shortcode
3. Callers dial the anonymous phone number and shortcode, and the call rings on the phone of your choice
   

You can answer these phone calls on any phone in the continental U.S. and Canada, and your actual phone number is never revealed to the caller! If you choose a non-local number, the service is free.  A direct, local telephone number will set you back a mere $4.99 a month.  A small price to pay for peace of mind.

Ring-To-Number looks like an interesting service: Bear in mind that I haven't used the service.

It's fairly new. But it does look like it might have some useful application for local businesses.

There are two service levels. One is free and the other costs $4.99 per month. I'm not sure why they've priced it that way, but it's interesting.

If you do business over long distance or think you might attract customers from outside your local area then you can use the free service. You get an anonymous phone number to place on your website and site visitors can call you at any phone number you specify. It's essentially a phone transfer service utilizing Internet technology.

The second level of service is the paid one. You get a local phone number. I'm not sure why this one costs $5 and the other one is free. It seems like it would be the other way around. Nevertheless, that's the way it's priced. If you want a local anonymous phone number then you can have people in your local area call your anonymous number and ring to you anywhere. This looks like a great service to maintain your privacy.

I can see at least one practical use for this technology beyond the blindingly obvious. If you want to test your Internet marketing campaigns then you can set up more than one number - one for each website or online ad. You can promote one product or service in two different ways, assign each one of them an anonymous number and see how many people call based on those two ads. It's the old-fashioned split-testing model.

Ring-To-Number has a pretty good list of FAQs, but the one I didn't see was, “Can I have more than one number?” If this is a service you might be interested in then feel free to send them a message and ask.

While I can't say I have need for this, being a.) old and b.) happily married, Webpoint Communications ' new RingtoNumber service, launched Monday, may be of interest to the young 'uns out trolling Facebook for their next hookup.

While the personals ads in your local weekly often include a voice-mail number for a prospective beau/belle to leave a message, both RingtoNumber and the already-established Vumber will ring the call through to your phone via an anonymous proxy. Right now, I'd give the edge to the more-established Vumber, however. Here's why.

Here's the way anonymous or virtual numbers work: a caller dials the virtual number, possibly (415) 545-1345. That number then rings through to your actual number, which might be (919) 876-4534.

RingtoNumber seems like a cost-effective service; heck, the basic service is free. For that, you get a non-local number with a "shortcode" attached, that is keyed to your number. If you pay $4.99 a month, you'll get your own local number, with no shortcode and 200 minutes or forwarded calls. A $9.99 monthly plan includes unlimited forwarded minutes.

The advantage here is that you'll get a RingtoNumber widget to add to your MySpace, Facebook, or other Web page, which includes your number and shortcode, if you have one. With Vumber, you'll have to manually enter it. On the other hand, are you going to want to publish a phone number on your social-networking Web page? The only reason that Vumber seems more appealing is that RingtoNumber doesn't seem to solve that problem.

Right now, Vumber is offering a relatively comparable offer -- $9.95 buys you unlimited minutes and your own number, for a short time.

Vumber's advantage seems to be in its flexibility. The reason for signing up for a virtual number is to protect your privacy. The problem is that, even with a virtual number, a persistent caller has your number , and can reach you, 24/7, even if the call is automatically sent to voicemail, which both services offer. Vumber allows you to change your Vumber twice per month, for free, with a $1.95 per-change charge thereafter. You can also add an additional number for $2.95 per month. That allows you to actually rid yourself of the caller and not end up as a "ripped from the headlines" plot on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

RingToNumber is a company that offers two major services. The first is a phone number with an extension that will go to whatever number you would like it to, so you can give out a phone number, a way of contacting you, more freely without having to actually give out your phone number. Then there is also a widget that you can put on your website broadcasting your RingToNumber phone number. This number can work for many instances, you clearly wouldn't want to put your phone number on the web for many reasons, especially the social networking sites. With this service you can do it with much less risk. If you meet someone at a bar and you haven't known them long enough to be 100% sure that they aren't a lunatic, you can give them your anonymous number, if you have a classified ad in the paper, this would work well too. Since the service of having the anonymous number is currently free you can change your number if you would like by cancelling service and then signing up again.

In Their Own Words

"What's a Ring-To Number?"

It's an anonymous, virtual telephone number! Calls ring to any phone you want* or they go straight to voicemail - it's up to you.

"How does the widget work?"

The widget displays your Ring-To number on your MySpace or homepage. Now you can talk with online friends without giving out your personal phone number!"

Why It Might Be a Killer

This would be a great resource for those who want to talk more to people but are afraid because they don't want people to be able to call them anytime. Especially with today's social networking culture, people can get to know so much about people by logging onto these sites, it is important to maintain some sort of buffer. This is also a great idea for people who do online sales , through eBay for instance. If the user chooses so, they can make the number always go straight to voicemail and only return the ones that they want to.

Some Questions

Aside from the aforementioned voicemail loophole, the person that you give your temporary phone number still has the ability to call you which is somewhat inevitable, and if someone calls you too often you will still have to go through the hassle of changing your temporary number.

Visitors and Members of MySpace.com, Facebook, Friendster, Tagged, Blogspot, eBay, and Other Sites that take HTML Code Can Connect Anonymously and Safely Regardless of the Phone Platform

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--WebPoint Communications LLC, a next-generation communications service provider, today unveiled Ring-To Number, a new service to safeguard a person’s identity and privacy when interacting on social networks, auctions and online dating sites. This FREE widget provides a private channel of communication to receive phone calls without divulging the person’s actual number, address and location.

“In the emerging Web 2.0 generation of online users, privacy has become a premium for people that wish to connect and interact with others on social networks yet want to protect their personal information, especially their phone numbers,” said Kha Phan, president and CEO, WebPoint Communications, LLC. “Our new FREE and paid versions of the Ring-To Number service bridges this communications gap while simultaneously offering a safe haven for secure connections.”

The Ring-To Number service offers multiple uses. Craigslist and eBay buyers/sellers that need to communicate via phone can provide a Ring-To Number. People introduced to one another through an online dating site can utilize Ring-To Numbers to chat over the phone while protecting their identities. College/high school students on social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook can also use Ring-To Numbers. Bloggers can provide Ring-To Numbers to accept phone calls.

Ring-To Number is an extension of WebPoint Communications’ CallDigits service. CallDigits offers a private number from more than 1,200 US markets that can ring to any number in the US or Canada and can be set to ring to a landline PSTN connection, cell phone or VoIP number (Skype, SIP). The Ring-To Number widget takes CallDigits to the next level by allowing consumers to connect on MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle, Friendster, Tagged, Blogspot, dating sites and online auction portals such as Craigslist or eBay. For example, visitors to a MySpace page can see if the member is available by dialing the Ring-to number displayed on the widget. If the member is available, calls are routed to their personal phone while maintaining privacy. Ring-To Number displays the Caller ID. Members can choose to speak with the person or send the call to voicemail. An alert is also sent to their email inbox with the voicemail attached as an mp3 file.

The Ring-To Number widget will be launched as a free service that utilizes a shortcode and is targeted to popular users who may receive many phone queries via their social networking pages. WebPoint also offers premium services that are intended for personal use: $4.99/month for a local number of choice, covering 1,200 markets and includes 200 minutes of forwarding, or $9.99/month for a local number and unlimited forwarding minutes.

“There is no service that comes close to Ring-To Number’s functionality – no other company in our space has the capability to deliver millions of phone numbers instantly at no cost to our users,” said Phan. “Other services attempting to compete with Ring-to Number are not as user friendly and force the consumer to jump through hoops to connect a call. Our service is intended as it was designed -- simple to use.”

“Build it and They Will Come”

The Ring-To widget offers even more value by allowing social networking and related sites to build their own custom voice product. Utilizing the Ring-To developer’s toolkit, partner sites can build their own voice widget. “Our technology can be extended to other complementary services such as print and online classified ads, directory services and job placement. We see many extensions of our technology and tight integration with complementary sites and services,” added Phan.

About WebPoint Communications

WebPoint Communications LLC is a next-generation communications service provider specializing in enhanced communications. WebPoint products and services target the needs of the individuals and offer personalized communications services from Internet calling to SOHO solutions. With access to an expansive consortium of phone companies, WebPoint has millions of phone numbers in inventory that enables the company to create free innovative personalized services. WebPoint is dedicated to the continued pursuit of innovative services that extend the value and flexibility to its users. WebPoint is actively seeks partnership opportunities that enhance its service offering and expand its market reach. For more information, visit www.webpointcommunications.com.

© 2007 WebPoint Communications LLC. All other marks are the property of their respective owners