I hate texting. I mean I love the convenience of being able to send a message saying “I’ll be right there” or “running late” or “sorry about laughing at your Crocs, they look good, really.” I just hate typing on my Motorola Razor phone. Sure I could upgrade to one of those nicer phones with the well laid out keyboard, but I like to let me phones completely die before I buy a new one.. I do the same with cars and shoes.
Teleflip made life easy for me the past couple years. I’m chained to my laptop the way most people are chained to their cell phones now, so the fact that Teleflip allowed me to text people just by emailing their phone number @teleflip.com (310.555.1234@teleflip.com) made me a less frustrated member of the texting world. Sure there would be people that would see the email came from my email address and opt to text me back via my phone (why would you do that) but I would ignore those texts and instead try to classically condition all of my friends to “hit me up on my email.”
The the day came, Teleflip began letting me down. Starting last week, all of my email texts came back as undeliverable. I soldiered on, continuing to email my texts to everyone, only to find more bounced emails, usually several hours or even days later. Today I decided I’d have to check in with Teleflip to see what the deal is. I found this on SoCalTech.com
Report: Teleflip Goes Under
According to a report, Los Angeles-based Teleflip, which operates a service which connects your email to any SMS phone, has shut down its services. According to technology blog GigaOm, Teleflip sent an email to subscribers this week saying that the firm will close down services Friday. Teleflip was venture backed by GRP Partners, and had also received debt financing from Hercules Technology Growth Capital. Tony Davis, the firm’s CEO, did not respond to emails requesting comment, nor did the firm’s investors at GRP Partners. Teleflip was founded in 2004, but only received funding in September of 2006.
You will be missed Teleflip, if there’s some sort of ceremony with free drinks I will be there. Now, I must move on. Here are other ways to email a text message to someone:
| At&T/Cingular | number@cingularme.comnumber@mycingular.com
number@mycingular.net number@mobile.mycingular.com number@pate.cingular.com number@txt.att.net number@mobile.att.net |
| Bell Atlantic | number@message.bam.com |
| Bell South | number@sms.bellsouth.comnumber@wireless.bellsouth.com |
| Boost | number@myboostmobile.com |
| Cellular One | number@phone.cellone.netnumber@swmsg.com
number@paging.cellone-sf.com number@mobile.celloneusa.com number@cellularone.txtmsg.com number@cellularone.textmsg.com number@cell1.textmsg.com number@message.cellone-sf.com number@sbcemail.com |
| Comcast | number@comcastpcs.textmsg.com |
| Midwest Wireless | number@clearlydigital.com |
| Nextel | number@messaging.nextel.comnumber@page.nextel.com |
| Qwest | number@qwestmp.com |
| Sprint | number@messaging.sprintpcs.comnumber@sprintpaging.com |
| T-Mobile | number@tmomail.netnumber@voicestream.net |
| US Cellular | number@email.uscc.netnumber@uscc.textmsg.com |
| Verizon | number@vtext.com |
| Virgin | number@vmobl.comnumber@vxtras.com |
