eVoice is a telecommunications service owned by j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:JCOM) that manages incoming and outgoing calls using a virtual phone number. The service was founded by Wendell Brown and Craig Taro Gold in 1999 and re-launched in March 2010 with new features, targeting entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Applications
eVoice provides toll-free and local phone numbers to subscribers in the United States and Canada.The phone number is chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes. Based on how the user then configures the service, the user can then answer calls placed to the eVoice number on devices/phones owned by the subscriber. Users must have an established phone service in the United States or Canada to answer incoming calls.
A virtual phone number allows subscribers to remain accessible regardless of location.A competitor to eVoice is Google Voice.eVoice provides 24x7 live customer support and email support for users.
Local telephone numbers assigned by eVoice are not portable to another provider,despite FCC policy that clients of interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers are entitled to keep an existing phone number.
History
eVoice was founded in 1999 by Wendell Brown and Craig Taro Gold.Based at that time in Menlo Park, CA., eVoice was the world's first large-scale, Internet-enabled voicemail system.Brown's patented techniques, such as voicemail-to-email, visual voicemail, enhanced caller ID,were innovations later deployed by Google Voice and Apple. eVoice supplied voicemail solutions to MCI and AT&T, as well as web portals and VoIP providers including Qwest, Snowball, and Dialpad.
eVoice was acquired by AOL Time-Warner in July 2001 and merged into AOLbyPhone. Before the acquisition, eVoice raised more than $50 million in funding from idealab!, BlueRun Ventures (formerly Nokia Ventures), Oak Investment Partners, and Worldview Technology Partners.
On June 15, 2004, the eVoice brand name and internet domain were acquired by j2 Global (NASDAQ:JCOM).j2 Global, Inc. is a cloud services company that offers voice, email, online fax, and online backup services. In 2011, Ziff Davis gave eVoice a favourable review in its publication PC Magazine; j2 Global owns both Ziff-Davis and eVoice.
