Start-up O Wonder wants to turn ICQ into the center of a universal voicemail system.
The Palo Alto, California-based company has launched Fone427, an 800-number voicemail service that gives ICQ users a free voicemail box.
ICQ is a popular Internet messaging service owned by America Online.
"It's working toward a telephone number of the future," said Alex Blok, CEO of O Wonder. Fone427 was created as a joint venture with Creative Teleservices of Pleasanton, California.
"It manages to let somebody give out one bit of contact information and say 'reach me with this,'" said Blok.
Callers who want to leave a message for a Fone427 subscriber dial an 800-number and enter the recipient's ICQ number. After hearing the person's greeting, callers can leave a voice message.
The message is then delivered to the ICQ user's email address in the form of a compressed audio file. It is also available to the user by an 800-number.
Although it is free to leave messages, Fone427 subscriptions cost $4.95 per month.
"We've made it possible for someone to get a voicemail message in their email -- and by phone," Blok said.
Unified, universal messaging services are not new. Business services such as Jfax do the same and more. But Blok said Fone427 is the first to target consumers, and it's less sophisticated than Jfax.
"Young people with ICQ accounts don't use fax," said Blok. The service will likely take on more complex features, such as group messaging, in the future, he said.
The system delivers voicemail files in PureVoice, a Qualcomm telephone technology used in cell phones optimized for voice compression. On 7 June, the company will roll out RealAudio support to widen the service's compatibility.
A one-minute PureVoice file is about 70 kilobytes in size. Such a file takes 15 to 30 seconds to download over a 56-Kbps modem connection, Blok said.
Fone427 subscribers can also send voice messages to other ICQ users who aren't Fone427 subscribers.
