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Coming Soon: In-Call Advertising

Say what?!? If you thought your phone calls were the last sanctity of life not encroached upon with advertising, you thought wrong. A number of companies are testing systems right now that will allow them to place advertisements in your phone calls. All I can do is shake my head in dismay.

Several MVNOs, including Blyk over in the U.K., already are offering free voice calls and SMS messages for those willing to view ads in SMS and MMS form. While this may be a fair trade-off for the short-of-cash, I can't imagine anyone wants their calls to be interrupted by an ad. Thankfully the services being tested aren't that intrusive ... yet.

In a recent article, Fortune takes a look at two companies called Jangl and Jajah (why both of them happen to start with "J" is beyond me).

Jajah operates on a principle that's sort of in-line with the view-for-services model being run by Blyk. Users have to opt in, and if they listen to a 15-second commercial they will earn credits toward their phone bill. I can sort of see the logic here. At least you have a choice in the matter, and you get something in return for your time.

Jangl's system is a bit harder to stomach. Basically, every time you dial a number you'll get a marketing pitch while you wait for the call to be connected. I don't know if this means your outgoing call is delayed for several seconds, or if instead of hearing a ringer you get a commercial. Either way, it makes me shiver with dread. We have to assume that emergency calls are placed directly and not interrupted in any way.

What's worse, a company called Pudding will actually listen in on your phone calls for certain key words and begin pitching you ads based on what you say during the call. If that's not too creepy, I don't know what is.

We can thank the wonderful world of IP and all that it enables for this new advertising avenue into our ears. Right now the only good news is that these systems are sill in testing phases and no carriers have picked them up for full-scale launch. If/when they do, it will be a sad day indeed.

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