Press Releases

Halloo Communications Introduces Hosted Phone Services for Small Business

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—[March 30, 2004]—

Halloo Communications^® today announced the general availability of its Halloo.Biz small business phone service. Designed around the telecom needs of small and growing businesses who want enterprise-class phone features without the associated price tag, the Halloo.Biz phone service adds sophisticated features such as multiple voice mailboxes, auto-attendants, and flexible call forwarding and screening features to a business’ existing wire-line and wireless phone services.

“Our customers are looking to give their business a ‘Fortune-500’ image with a phone service which provides features typically associated with dedicated PBX equipment,” explains Principal Architect, Harry Hart. “They want to provide better support and information to their customers, handle inbound calls with a smaller staff, and save money on expensive phone equipment. For less than what the local telco charges for simple voicemail, we deliver ‘big-company’ features like auto-attendant routing to pre-recorded messages and multiple extensions with individual mailboxes, toll-free (800) numbers, and smart find-me/follow-me call routing. Our customers want the ease and immediacy of a web-hosted service. Signing up for and using business phone service is now as quick and painless as signing up for online email.”

“Simplicity is key for our customers. They want a solution which works with their existing cellular and fixed phones, doesn’t require complicated training, and gives them the flexilibility to add features and extensions as they grow.” In addition, Hart emphasizes that the entire system can be administered from a web browser, and users have the option of controlling their extensions by phone.

With service plans starting as low as $9.95 monthly for a single user, or $24.95 for an Office plan with 5 mailboxes and extensions, the Halloo.Biz service is priced to be within the budget of even the smallest business. Standard features in every Halloo plan include web-accessible voicemail (monitor, listen, forward, save), online account administration, IM (instant message) notification of incoming calls, and IM re-routing of incoming calls. Businesses may upgrade their plans as their needs grow, or select from optional add-ons, such as additional direct-dial phone numbers, or additional audio storage capacity.

Halloo Communications, Inc. is privately held, and headquartered in South San Francisco, CA. Founded in 2002, Halloo is building a next-generation communications platform, to deliver integrated, value-added services combining the best of voice, web and IM. For more information, visit www.halloo.com.

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