SabseBolo – free conference call service (from Sabeer Bhatia’s factory)

January 11, 2008

By sinha

Want to have a family chat and get your parents in Delhi, brother in Bangalore, sister in Chennai to join the same call? You have very limited options and Sabeer Bhatia’s new foray SabseBolo is attempting to solve this pain.

SabseBolo is a conference calling solution that enables more than one called party listen to or participate in the call

Once you sign up at SabseBolo, you will receive a confernce call ID, Dial-in-number and your pin. To start a Conference call, you and your participants should call +91-(0)22-3980-4444, enter the conference ID number followed by a # sign and then enter the 4 digit pin number followed by a # sign.
You will be connected to the other participants and you can begin talking right away!

The no. of participants has been limited to 6, for now. Good thing about the service is that it’s free, and if marketed well – it can actually turn out to be a super hit product (I do foresee family members, friends, SMBs using this service very very frequently)

Having said that, the biggest drawback of this service is that each participant needs to call up (and pay) for the airtime.

I am wondering whether a toll-free number will be a good deal, as it might lead to abuse (i.e. chat endlessly), but i am sure that will lead to quick and mass adoption.

Overall, the product is a neat idea – and I look forward to using it. What’s your take?

tags: sabsebolo, instacoll

Tags: instacoll, sabsebolo

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sameer singh on January 11, 2008 at 10:52 am

interesting stuff..are they targeting indian smallbiz? or is it going to be all consumer services?

i tried it..the quality wasn’t so great..but this is just the beginning

Rishi on January 11, 2008 at 11:17 am

As Sameer says, there might be a few small biz takers to this service, they should have local numbers (both landline and cell) to succeed, not sure if DoT will allow such a thing though..

Unmesh on January 11, 2008 at 1:46 pm

They should make it toll free and cover the cost by playing an advertisement jingle before connecting each person. Also, offer an optional paid feature that would allow the call to be archived, retrievable using the same pin. Aah – its so easy to throw out ideas

But overall, I think this is a great service.

Raseel on January 11, 2008 at 5:24 pm

Wait a minute !! Can’t you do this anyway on your landline phone. I remember using MTNL for a 3-way conference. And the other 2 can in-turn support a 3 way conference, thus adding to the chain.

Ashish on January 11, 2008 at 5:29 pm

@Raseel – its not about the no. of people who can join the conf call “rgt now”, i.e. in the initial days of the service.

It’s about building the scalable service – I agree that there are diff ways to have conf calls (and that’s why I mentioned “very limited options” in the post)…but can SMBs in India do the same? (lets talk abt non-IT SMBs for a change:)

@Unmesh – From what I know of toll free nos., there are certain govt. (and tech) restrictions. So for e.g. you can have a reliance-only toll free, but not free for all.. ANd as you said, its so easy to throw out ideas” [I am sure sabsebolo guys would have thought abt toll-free, then rejected the idea based on certain biz/tech considerations).

Raseel on January 12, 2008 at 2:34 am

@Ashish – You are right. Scalability can be their USP, but unless the number of participants goes up and this is inter-state (international . even), I don’t see how this will divert my attention from the service already provided by my Landline provider.

Kamal Thakur on January 12, 2008 at 3:11 am

http://www.bsnl.co.in/service/audiocnf.htm
… they are already doing it.
I didn’t know it earlier. Others will probably do the same. Sooner or later they come to know that this service is already there in their landline phone service. But I don’t know if they provide conferencing from different telecom network cells as well. If it is so.. they have added some value.
I don’t see any compulsion from user’s side to use this service.
Phone conversation is private[as long as you are being charged]. People may indulge in EXTRA chit-chat or conferencing thing only when its free and as said earlier by other fellaws hr … dats not probably possible.

Few occasions i feel i could use this service : once i complete my degree and wish to chat with friends in a conference. Now even thats a private matter. …
ammm…m so confused….

Kamal Thakur on January 12, 2008 at 3:24 am

One suggestion : Market site through social networks. Let people announce conferences , invite selected people(Already present connections – much more than usual first recall) and finally dat conference id delivered online.
To be users of SabseBolo will be active online as well. So why not exploit that. And through social networks people do things which they don’t do otherwise.
Then , I think other people will follow.
Couldn’t wait for others to post a comment. sry bout dat.

Ashish on January 12, 2008 at 9:35 am

@Kamal – Interesting find about BSNL. I didn’t kno about it either!!
and it’s not that anybody can join any conf calls. I am sure these guys have taken care of basic privacy etc.

CellStrat on January 12, 2008 at 8:46 pm

Indeed a good service. And ofcourse a toll free number will help but meanwhile if atleast all metro/ state capital numbers can be provided, it will help non-mumbai residents as well.

Deeps on January 12, 2008 at 11:54 pm

This is superb. The value proposition is – Get your own conference bridge. Today there are multiple options of conferencing, but none is easy. This one scores on ease. I got mine today in 2 minutes.

- deeps
http://www.chittr.com

Kamal Thakur on January 13, 2008 at 12:01 am

Haven’t used it. I would like to know if I will be charged for a local or std call by my telecom service provider for taking part in the conference. If it is so , they can have regional hierarchy to take on that barrier.
What is their revenue model?