Swisscom Mobile makes Second Life love in a phone box

At the IIR Web 2.0 conference in Berlin one of the most innovative services showcased within a virtual space was from, believe it or not, Swisscom.

Swisscom Second Life Phone Box

Swisscom has set up public telephone booths within Second Life. Virtual copies are available, meaning that new ones can be set up on anywhere on the social network’s island to help monetise it. The phone booth doesn’t cost any money, but service providers can charge for the services Second Lifers use in there and the adverts they place on its walls.

So users can send SMS from Second Life to “real life” phones with their real identity or anonymously. The SMS is paid for at standard rates, although Swisscom didn’t charge for the first 50,000 sent after the scheme started last summer.

Within the phone box there are advertisements. They are controlled and managed by Swisscom, but targeted according to the theme of the island or the identity of the Second Life consumer. This means that they are often relevant or based on the island’s theme, which attracted the visitor in the first place, and this boosts the click-through rate. However, this is not just a CPC model, Swisscom is paid by advertisers to appear in the phone booth.
In the true spirit of social networking, placards can also to put up in the booths so that friends or family can send each other messages.

All in all the service is ingenious. It’s managed under a younger, fresher brand called the Starfruit Community, although it is wholly owned by Swisscom. The phone booth is a vital part of the operator’s convergence strategy, which Swisscom does not believe starts or ends with online, mobile and TV, but with the integration of social networking and user generated mobile content.

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