I’ve covered Fonolo in previous articles since 2008, last year they were one of Time Magazine’s top 50 websites of 2009, in the same league as Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc.

If you need to call your bank, airline, operator, car rental agency, travel service, or one of those many other companies that waste your time by making you wait on the phone.  Fonolo does all the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) navigation and waiting for you, then once connected to an agent calls you back.

They now have an iPhone app, here’s the announcement on their site, and below I show the UI (User Interface).  Its an obvious service for operators to provide – call mediation between enterprise and their customers – yet they have not.  For enterprises, connecting with customers is important, hence why they have 800 numbers.  But customers’ time is much more important than a call which is generally at zero incremental charge given today’s phone plans.  Fonolo intelligently connects enterprises to their customers, in a way that helps respect the customer’s time and ensures more accurate call center navigation.

This service bypasses the operator from providing value in connecting enterprises and customers.  This is a core value proposition of operators, yet they have missed the boat in delivering value around their core product.  They can be forgiven for struggling with handset centric games and content, its a fragmented business where they lack control.  But in the core voice product no such excuses apply, this is a clear signal to the industry that unless things change soon and fast operators are heading towards commoditized pipes.