Sprint may be solidly in 3rd place in the US carrier market, and they may be totally down in the Pacific Northwest currently, but they certainly have some of the most innovative cell phone services. They were the first to offer full integration for Google Voice, and now they’re offering a way to ditch the phone number almost completely. The service, called StarStarMe, allows Sprint subscribers to be contacted through a word instead of a mobile phone number. So if your name is Bryan and you got that handle, someone could dial **BRYAN (**27926) and reach your phone.
The service is exclusive to Sprint subscribers at the moment, but other phones can call the StarStarMe handle. It will cost $2.99 per handle, and one phone number can have two handles–perhaps one for business and one for pleasure. There’s a Android app that give the user some additional functionality and there will be an iOS soon. There are a few issues, though: who has problems remembering a phone number nowadays? We’ve all got these apps called “contacts” in our phones. Also, it could be even more confusing to tell somebody about a new protocol than to just simply give them your number. It only works for voice calls at the moment–you won’t be able to text a StarStarMe handle. Plus, all the good (“OG”) handles will be gone soon.
If you’re a Sprint subscriber, you can sign up for a StarStarMe handle here. Better hurry, especially if your name is something like “John.”
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