British Telecom Has A Second Life-To-Real Life Call Service. But Do You Want It?

Following the footsteps of Vodafone, UK telecom giant BT has AvaTalk, another service for communicating from within Second Life to someone's mobile phone. (Via Digital Urban, here's a video of it in action.)   

If I'm reading the site right, however, AvaTalk recently ended a trial period, but updates are promised. Which gives us time to ponder, is this something you'd actually find useful?  As opposed to another metaverse bridging channel like Skype, Twitter, or even SLim?

The site's visuals sort of position AvaTalk as A Hip Device For Young Singles On The Go.  In my opinion, however, the most compelling application of this technology, is political dissent: An anonymous communication channel from within repressive countries.  Unfortunately, that's mostly out of the question:  according to BT's service FAQ, you can't use AvaTalk to call numbers in, say, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, or Sudan, among many nations with lots of people with important things to say and lots of authorities who'd punish them if they tried. 

That off the table, what other applications can you imagine for it?

Image: www.btavatalk.com.  Hat tip:  Digital Urban.

Comments

[Bettina Tizzy]

This is one event I am deeply sorry to have missed.