Dial a Name Instead of a Number with Sprint's StarStar Me

Sprint, along with Zoove, today began offering a new service called StarStar Me, a service that allows users to replace their mobile phone number with their own name, preceded by two asterisks. But despite the likely problems that will be produced from the use of StarStar Me, it also opens up some significant opportunity thanks to a note of flexibility in the term "name".

StarStar Me's use of the term "name", you see, just doesn't encompass given names. It's also being used to allow for nicknames or a "unique word". When the word in question is selected, users can then simply use that name along with the asterisks to make a call to that person. For instance, if, say, George W. Bush were to get involved with this, he might well have elected to use a common nickname attributed to him based on his middle initial, and gone with **DUBYA. Conversely, if **GEORGE were available, he could use that instead, as would be **BUSH43.


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Users can pick any name or word, as long as it's between five and nine characters in length--in the above example, **BUSH wouldn't work, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of regulation in terms of using certain less savory words, either--and can sign up for the service either by calling **ME on their mobile devices, or by going to Sprint's StarStar Me website to check the availability of the keyword or phrase of the user's choice. Users pay $2.99 a month for the privilege, and can have two StarStar Me numbers per mobile number. Additionally, Sprint is also making available a special StarStar Me app at no charge, currently available on Android devices with the iPhone to follow later, in which users can manage the likely large array of StarStar Me numbers they'll come in contact with.

While the potential for vanity phone numbers is an impressive one on the surface, the idea of getting this involved in marketing is an interesting one in itself. Assume, for instance, a pizza shop by the unimaginative name of Joe's Pizza. In this case, Joe--or whoever owns Joe's Pizza--could simply sign up for a **JOESPIZZA account and have his mobile number be his restaurant's name. No more trying to get people to remember a phone number; just tell them to call **JOESPIZZA and order a special for delivery. Blogs, websites, social media...the possibilities here are surprisingly numerous.

StarStar Me has the potential to change the marketing landscape as we know it; instead of memorable phone numbers, people will instead work toward creating memorable names that can be readily converted to StarStar Me numbers. Some businesses may even change their names accordingly to get them to fit into the StarStar Me mold. While StarStar Me will only be available on Sprint for the early going, it's a fair bet that this feature will expand outward, and potentially do some very interesting things to business from there.