WO2005057977A1

WO2005057977A1 - Method for establishing contact between two users through an intermediary

Info

Publication number: WO2005057977A1
Application number: PCT/GB2004/005163
Authority: WO
Inventors: Asim Bucuk
Original assignee: Mobile Phone Dating Limited
Priority date: 2003-12-12
Filing date: 2004-12-09
Publication date: 2005-06-23
Also published as: GB0328869D0; GB2409599A

Abstract

A method and system for operating a telephone intermediary service for facilitating communication between two or more users. Each user has a telephone with a unique subscriber number, and the intermediary service includes two or more communication nodes, each allocated a unique subscriber number. A communication from the telephone of a first user, including the subscriber number of the first user’s telephone, is received at one of said communication nodes. The service re-addresses and forwards the communication to the subscriber number of the telephone of a second or subsequent user, which is determined by the service based on the subscriber number of the first user and the subscriber number of the communication node at which the first user’s communication was received.

Description

METHOD FOR ESTABLISHING CONTACT BETWEEN TWO USERS THROUGH AN INTERMEDIARY

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to methods and systems for operating an intermediary communication service. More specifically it relates to methods and systems for providing a service that acts as an intermediary between two or more users of the service to enable them to communicate anonymously with one another and/or to introduce or match them to one another. The service is useful in acting as an intermediary between individuals looking to communicate with or 'meet' one another, but its application is not limited to this.

Background

Over the past decade, the Internet has grown rapidly as a channel of communication between individuals, for instance via 'email' or online 'chat' rooms. One area in which this ability to easily communicate with others has been utilised is in facilitating individuals meeting or 'dating' one another.

There are a multitude of dating/meeting web sites on the Internet to enable individuals to meet new people. A typical service of this type provided online will have a 'population' of registered users ('members'), each user having provided to the service a profile of themselves, sometimes along with a photograph, containing personal information (e.g. gender, sexuality, age, location, etc). The site operates to match members with compatible profiles, either automatically or in response to a request from a member. Details of matched profiles are sent to the respective members (e.g. by email or directly online), often accompanied by their photograph if they have provided one. On receipt of a profile, a member performing typically has an option to send an e- mail message or, if the member whose profile they have been sent is also online, to initiate an online conversation ('chat'). One example of such a service is "Match.com". The use of mobile (cellular) telephones as a channel for communication between individuals has also grown exponentially in recent years. The younger generations in particular have grown to be very prolific users of mobile telephones for voice communication and even more so for SMS (Short Message Service) 'text messaging' (The Mobile Data Association estimate that over 20 billion text messages sent across GSM networks per month). In the UK it is estimated that around 90% of the population have a mobile telephone compared with 50% having access to the Internet.

Unsurprisingly, operators of web sites such as match.com have looked to exploit this rapidly growing communication channel by extending their online offering to include some mobile phone based functionality. For instance, match.com provide such an extension to their service (matchmobile.com), which enables their members to receive details of matching profiles by SMS message to their mobile phone and to enter into an SMS dialogue with members whose profile they have been sent.

More recently, SMS text services have also been made available on digital landline telephone networks.

European patent application EP1229465 describes a dating service which, once a user has registered and submitted their profile to the service via a web site interface, enables all communication between the service and its users to be carried out via a mobile telephone interface using SMS messages. The limitations of the mobile telephone as a textual interface result, however, in the need to use overly complex textual commands and/or unique user names within the messages being exchanged, e.g. to identify the user to whom a message is being sent. This 'non-message' text detracts from the message content itself, makes the 'conversation' between users of the system appear more contrived and generally gives rise to a system that is not very user friendly. Typically, such systems also rely on another medium such as the Internet or electronic or paper documentation to provide instructions for use, including an explanation of the textual commands. The system also relies on a web interface to enter the user profiles in the first instance, and to make any amendments to those profiles.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention has as a general aim the provision of an intermediary service in which a user of the service can use a telephone (e.g. mobile / cellular or landline) to conduct all communication between the user of the service and the service itself and for communication with other users of the service. A more specific aim of the invention is to achieve this functionality without over reliance on the use of 'command' text or unique user names within the body of user communications. In this way, preferably also by making the telephone interface self-explanatory, the need for the use of other interfaces (e.g. Internet or offline documentation) for instructions or data entry can be avoided.

Unless the context dictates otherwise "intermediary service" as used above and in the following is intended to refer to any service intended to facilitate communication (for instance of a social nature) between individuals, an individual and an organisation such as a business or between two organisations (e.g. businesses). The communication may, but need not necessarily be conducted with the aim of arranging a face to face meeting between the individuals or representatives of the organisations. The communication may, for example, additionally or alternatively be conducted for the purpose of facilitating the sale and/or purchase of goods and/or services or more generally the exchange of information.

Unless the context dictates otherwise, "message" as used above and in the following is intended to include, but is not necessarily limited to, streams of data sent and received.

Unless the context dictates otherwise "mobile telephone" or "cellular telephone" as used above and in the following is intended to refer to any communication device that transmits and receives messages (voice, text, video or otherwise) via a cellular radio network.

Unless the context dictates otherwise "landline telephone" as used above and in the following is intended to refer to any communication device that transmits and receives messages (voice, text, video or otherwise) via an exchange-based telecommunications network.

Unless the context dictates otherwise "telephone" as used above and in the following is intended to refer to either a mobile or landline telephone and any communication device or application identified by a unique subscriber number.

The "users" of the service may be individuals or other services, applications, computers, devices or automated machines or the like.

In preferred embodiments, the messages are in a format other than WAP, HTML and DHTML. Most preferably they are a voice, SMS, MMS or Video format.

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a method for operating a telephone intermediary service for facilitating communication between two or more users, each user having a telephone with a unique subscriber number, and the intermediary service comprising two or more communication nodes, each being allocated a unique subscriber number, the method comprising: receiving at one of said communication nodes a communication from the telephone of a first user, the communication including the subscriber number of the first user's telephone; and the service re-addressing and forwarding the communication to the subscriber number of the telephone of a second user; the subscriber number of the second user being determined by the service based on the subscriber number of the first user and the subscriber number of the communication node at which the first user's communication was received.

In another aspect the invention provides a telephone intermediary system for facilitating communication between two or more users, each user having a telephone with a unique subscriber number, the system comprising: two or more communication nodes, each having a unique subscriber number; routing means for re-addressing and forwarding to the subscriber number of the telephone of a second user a communication received at one of said communication nodes from a first user; the communication from the first user including the subscriber number of the first user's telephone and the routing means determining the subscriber number of the second user based on the subscriber number of the first user and the subscriber number of the communication node at which the first user's message was received.

In use, all the first user need do to communicate with the second user is to e.g. text or call the subscriber number for the communication node in the same way that they would text or call the subscriber number of the second user's telephone if they knew it. Similarly, the second user can communicate with the first user by calling or texting the subscriber number of a communication node configured to route communications from them to the subscriber number of the first user.

In this way, two or more users can continue a conversation with one another (e.g. through exchange of SMS text messages) in a natural manner, without the need to include command text and/or a unique user name in the messages they are exchanging. The anonymity of the users is, however, maintained (in the sense that they do not know the subscriber numbers of one another's telephones).

Each user's telephone may be either a mobile telephone or a landline telephone or some other device having a unique subscriber number.

The unique subscriber numbers of the telephones and the communication nodes will typically be Long Numbers (e.g. an International unique phone number, current examples of which include Mobile Station Integrated Services Digital Network (MSISDN) numbers) or Premium Rate numbers such as Short Codes (unique to a particular phone network operator).

In preferred embodiments of the invention it is envisaged that the communications between the users will be by SMS (text) message or MMS (multimedia) message. The invention is not limited to these forms of communication however. The service may allow, for example, for voice or video communication between users, either in real time ('live') or by users leaving recorded voice and/or video messages for later retrieval by the intended recipient. In the case of live voice or video communication calls can be diverted directly to the intended recipient.

Users are preferably required to register with the service in order to send and receive communications. Registration may be effected by communication with one of the communication nodes of the service, for instance via an exchange of SMS text messages between the user's telephone (e.g. mobile telephone) and the communication node or by using a voice recognition system to populate the profile. During the registration process a user will typically be requested to provide personal information (e.g. name, age, gender, etc.) and other information relevant to the particular application to which the service is being put. For example, in the case of a 'dating'/'meeting' application a user might be asked to provide information about the characteristics of the partner they are looking for (e.g. gender, age, etc). In a system for matching sellers and buyers, a user would be asked to provide details of the goods or services they are offering or seeking. The service stores this data for each registered user as a user profile.

It is also preferred that a user can amend their profile stored by the service subsequent to initially registering. This may be achieved, for example, by a subsequent exchange of communications (e.g. SMS text messages) with one of the communication nodes.

It is particularly preferred that each registered user is assigned an 'operator' communication node (with a specific subscriber number), which is reserved for all of this administrative communication. This operator node is not then used by the user for communication with other users. The communication node allocated as operator node for one user need not be the same communication node allocated as operator node for other users, but it may be convenient for this to be the case.

The communication node via which a new user first makes contact with the service (and which may therefore be allocated as that user's operator node) may be determined by the source through which the user was introduced to the service. For instance, the service may be advertised by a number of different entities (for instance in different magazines, on different television channels, etc), each of which could promote the service with reference to a different initial subscriber number (associated with different communication nodes) that the new user should call or text in order to register with the service. In this way the source of the new user can be easily identified, which in turn may be useful to judge the effectiveness of particular promotional campaigns or to reward a promoter in accordance with the number of new users that they drive to the service.

In a similar way to existing web based services, the stored user profiles can be used by the service to automatically match users with common interests - e.g. users with compatible profiles in a 'dating' application or a buyer with a seller in other applications. Alternatively, a user may use the service to search manually for a match.

When a match is found one or both of the matched users are preferably notified, for example by an SMS text message sent from the service to the users' telephones (e.g. mobile telephones), inviting the users to initiate a discussion (e.g. via SMS) through the service. The SMS message may also include details from the matched user's profile (e.g. personal details or details of a product or service that they are offering for sale or wish to purchase).

In preferred embodiments, either when a match is made, when the invitation to initiate a discussion is sent, or when a user indicates that they want to enter into a discussion, the service allocates the subscriber number of one of the communication nodes to one of the users for them to use to send communications to the matched user. Similarly, the matched user can be allocated the subscriber number of one of the communication nodes (either the same node or a different node) to use to send communications to the other user. The two users can then continue to converse with one another using these allocated subscriber numbers, the service acting to forward messages received at the respective communication nodes to the subscriber numbers of the users telephones.

This allocation of subscriber numbers can be specific to a particular user. That is to say, two different users having separate discussions with the same third user need not necessarily be allocated the same subscriber number to be used to send communications to the third user. This is because the routing of the communications to the third user is determined based not only on the subscriber number of the communication node at which the communication is received, but also on the subscriber number of the mobile phone of the user who has sent the communication. A user may be notified of the allocated subscriber number by receipt of a communication (e.g. SMS text message) from that number (i.e. sent to the user's telephone (e.g. mobile telephone) from the service and formatted to appear to have been sent from the communication node to which the allocated subscriber number is assigned - e.g. in an SMS message, the allocated subscriber number would be inserted in the 'From' field in the message header). In this way, the user can simply reply to the communication without having to enter the number into their telephone.

Alternatively, a user may be notified of the allocated subscriber number for a particular matched user by including that number in a communication (e.g. SMS text message body) sent from the service, for instance from the user's operator node where present. The number may be included in the initial invitation or in a subsequent communication sent either once the user has indicated a desire to converse with the matched user or once the matched user has subsequently agreed to enter into a discussion.

A user may be sent multiple invitations to converse with other matched users. This may be done within a single communication identifying multiple matched users or by sending the user multiple communications each identifying a single matched user for example. The user to whom the invitation is sent is allocated a different communication node subscriber number for each matched user.

To avoid over loading a user with a large number of matching profiles, and to account for the fact that there will likely be a finite number of communication nodes available to each user, the service may be configured to limit the number of invitations sent to a user and/or the number of ongoing discussions the user is partaking in (an Ongoing discussion' in this context need not be a continuous exchange of communications, but may simply mean that communication node subscriber numbers are still allocated to the discussion such that the users can send one another communications as and when they choose). The service can be configured, for example, such that once a user's limit has been reached, they must reject one or more pending invitations or terminate one or more ongoing discussions before the service will send them further invitations and/or permit them to initiate new discussions.

Additionally or alternatively, the system can be configured such that invitations expire after a predetermined period of time. Once an invitation has expired, a new invitation can be sent. For example, invitations may expire on a daily or weekly basis; a user being sent a new invitation or batch of invitations every day or week.

Similarly, ongoing discussions might expire after a predetermined period of time and/or after a predetermined number of communications sent and/or received.

A computer system implementing the various aspects of the invention set out above, may comprise a number of server components, which may be combined in a single server application or may be distributed between multiple applications. Similarly the server components may be physically located at a single server device or distributed amongst multiple server devices. The system may also include local or distributed data storage.

The invention also provides computer software (which may comprise a single or multiple components), which when installed and run on a computer system (which may comprise a single device or multiple local and/or distributed devices) causes the system to operate in accordance with one or more aspects of the invention set out above.

Brief Description of the Drawing

The invention is described below, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 schematically illustrates a system incorporating an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 illustrates the process by which the system of figure 1 operates;

Figure 3 illustrates the process by which the system configures a new channel of communication between two users;

Figure 4 illustrates the process by which the system subsequently enables communication between two users; and

Figure 5 illustrates, schematically, a table used by the system to store the configurations of channels of communication set up between users.

Description of an Embodiment

Referring to figure 1 , an embodiment of the invention will be described using the example of a telephone dating service in which the communication is conducted using SMS text messages and MMS picture messages. The invention is not, however, limited to this application nor to these specific forms of communication.

The dating service runs on a secure server ('MPD Secure Server') connected to one or more SMSC (Short Message Service Centre) and/or MMSC (Multi-Media Service Centre) servers to interface the server to a conventional wireless telecommunications network (for example, but not limited to, a GSM network). Multiple users can interact with the service by using their mobile phones as discussed in more detail further below. In other embodiments landline SMS enabled telephone or 3G networks can be used either as an alternative to or in addition to 2.5G mobile networks. More generally, users can interact with services according to preferred embodiments of the invention with any device that is identified by a unique subscriber number and which is SMS enabled.

The entity providing and managing the dating service can access the secure server and the data and applications running on it via a conventional secure Internet connection. Other entities such as those promoting the service or otherwise having some interest in the service may also be allowed Internet access to specific applications or data on the secure server.

As with known online dating services, users register with the service and provide the service with personal information (name, contact details, gender, sexuality, etc) to build their profile, which is stored at the secure server (or in a secure database accessible by the server). Each user also provides the service with data defining the characteristics of the partner they would like to 'date' (gender, age, etc). The users might also provide the service with one or more photographs. Unlike existing dating services, as explained below, all of this information is provided to the dating service via the user's telephone (e.g. their mobile telephone). Textual data can be provided by SMS or MMS message. Photographs can be sent as MMS messages.

Turning to figure 2 and exemplary mode of operation of the service will be described.

The first step is for a user to register with the service. The registration process is initiated by the user sending an SMS text message to a unique telephone number (e.g. a Long Number such as an MSISDN number - i.e. a mobile telephone number) that they have obtained e.g. from an advertisement for the service in a magazine.

The telephone number used to register is one of several (e.g. 5 or 10 or 15 or more) assigned to the SMSC server. One of these numbers (the one provided to the user in the advertisement) may be reserved exclusively as an 'operator' number for registering all new users and/or performing other administrative functions. Alternatively, several of the numbers may serve this operator function, in which case different numbers can be included in different advertisements, enabling the source of a new user to be identified.

Once a new user initiates the registration process, the service sends them a series of SMS messages seeking the information required to build that user's profile and to establish the criteria on which to select potential matches for the new user within the existing users of the service. The user replies to each one, also by SMS, and the replies are stored at the secure server to build the user's entry in the service's database.

As part of the registration process, the new user is also given the opportunity to provide a photograph to be associated with their profile. The photograph can be sent to the secure server using an MMS message.

Once registered, the user's profile forms part of the population of profiles that is searched to find potential matches ('dates') for other users of the system.

The user can choose at this point in the process to simply wait for another user to find them and strike up a discussion via an exchange of SMS messages (in the manner described further below). Alternatively, the user can pay for premium services (payment being made via conventional mechanisms for Premium Rate charging and charged to their existing telephone account (e.g. mobile telephone account) or directly to a credit/debit card if they submit the necessary information to facilitate this). This choice is made by replying to an SMS sent from their operator number at the SMSC server. If the user declines the premium service option, they can elect it later through a further exchange of SMS messages with the service.

If they elect to accept the premium rate services, the corresponding fee is charged and they are given access to the premium services for a limited duration (measured either in time or in number of SMS messages sent and/or received to/from the service).

In this example there are two premium services to which the user is given access. The first is the ability to introduce new users to the service in exchange for a commission (which may be a monetary value e.g. credited to their telephone account, or may be further free access to the premium rate services for instance). If they wish to use this service they send a predetermined format of SMS text message to their allocated operator number, including their friends telephone number. The service then sends their friend an SMS invitation to join the service and if this is accepted, the commission is paid to the existing user that referred them.

The second premium service provided is that the dating service actively searches for other users with profiles that match the criteria specified by the premium rate user. This can be achieved using existing applications that perform this function within e.g. web-based dating services.

When a match is found, the premium rate user is sent an SMS or MMS message containing the matched user's profile and, if possible, their photograph. This message may be sent to the user configured to appear to come from the operator number or from one of the other node telephone numbers (i.e. with the operator or other node telephone number inserted in "From" field in the message header).

The premium rate user can then choose to initiate an SMS 'conversation' with the matched user or reject them in order to receive the profile of another potential 'date' ('rejection' may be a positive act or may simply be as a result of inaction allowing the invitation to contact the matched user to expire). The number of profiles sent to a user is metered so that they are not overloaded. They may for instance be sent one a day or five a week. The service may also place a limit on the number of matched users a user is allowed to converse with at any one time.

When the user's premium service period expires, they are once again given the option of simply waiting for another user to contact them or they can pay for a new premium rate service period. Alternatively, a premium rate user may be charged on a regular, ongoing basis (e.g. daily, weekly or monthly) until such time as they unsubscribe from the premium service (and return to a simple 'waiting' mode).

When a matching user is found, when a premium rate user initially indicates a desire to converse with them, or some time between these two events, the service must set up a channel of communication between the users that enable the premium rate user to send messages anonymously to the matched user and vice versa. The process by which the service does this is described with reference to figure 3. In this example, the communication channel is set up when the matched user is first identified. In the figure the nomenclature "1^st user" refers to the premium rate user and "2^nd user" is the potential match.

Parameters defining the configuration of open channels of communication between users (i.e. channels that are reserved for communication between two users whether or not they are actively communicating) are stored by the service in a data table ("Node Comm Table"), which is illustrated in figure 5. As can be seen from this table, each communication channel is uniquely defined by a combination of: NodeNo (the telephone number of the node allocated to the 1^st user for communication with the 2^nd user); Userl No (the 1^st user's telephone number); User2No (the 2^nd user's telephone number); and Date/time (an expiry date/time for the channel). Where the communication is two-way, the same channel (i.e. same node / line in the table) can be used for directing communications from the 2^nd user to the 1^st user. Alternatively, a second communication channel can be defined for communications sent from the 2^nd user to the 1^st user.

As seen in figure 3, the first step once the service has identified the 2^nd user as a match for the 1^st user is a check to establish whether there is an existing open channel of communication between them. If there is, the system simply updates the date/time value of the respective entry in the Node Comm Table, extending the period of time before expiry of the communication channel (in the example by 1 week). A message (SMS text message in this example) is sent to the 1^st user's telephone including the NodeNo in the 'From' field of the message header enabling the 1^st user to continue communicating with the 2^nd user by replying directly to this message (or to one received earlier from the 2^nd user, via the service). If there is no existing open channel of communication between the two users, the service selects the first number from a list of possible service node telephone numbers (NodeNos). It then checks to see if this NodeNo is already allocated to the 1^st user for any open communication channel that is still current (i.e. where the date/time value is still in the future). If the selected NodeNo is not currently allocated to the 1^st user or it is allocated but expired (i.e. the date/time value is past), the service proceeds to make the same checks in relation to the 2^nd user. That is, the service checks to see if the selected NodeNo is already allocated to the 2^nd user for any open communication channel that has not expired. If the selected NodeNo is free for both users (i.e. not already allocated to and current for either the 1^st or 2^nd user), an entry is made in the Node Comm Table including this NodeNo, the 1^st and 2^nd user numbers (Userl No and User2No), and an expiry date/time, set one week ahead in this example.

A message (SMS text message in this example) is then sent to the 1^st user's telephone including the NodeNo in the 'From' field of the message header enabling the 1^st user to initiate communication with the 2^nd user by replying directly to this message.

If the selected NodeNo is already allocated to the 1^st or 2^nd user, the service selects the next NodeNo from a list of possible numbers and repeats the step described immediately above to determine whether the newly selected NodeNo is available for use for communication between the 1^st and 2^nd users. If it is not, these steps are repeated again until NodeNo available to the 1^st and 2^nd user is found or until the list of possible NodeNos is exhausted.

If the list of possible NodeNos is exhausted, it is not then possible for the service to make an entry in the Node Comm Table for the newly matched 2^nd user and no new communication channel is established. In these circumstances, the 1^st (or 2^nd) user and/or a service administrator can be sent a report indicating that the service is at capacity for the 1^st (or 2^nd) user. The user could respond to this message, for example, by electing to terminate some of their existing open communication channels. Additionally or alternatively, the service administrator may react to the message by reducing the number or frequency of profiles matched for the 1^st (or 2^nd) user or by making more nodes (and associated NodeNos) available to the 1^st (or 2^nd) user.

Once a channel of communication between two users is established, they can converse with one another (e.g. by SMS text messages) as if they were communicating directly, whilst maintaining their anonymity until such time as they choose to reveal their true telephone number to the other user.

As illustrated in figure 4, when the first user sends a message to the service NodeNo associated with a particular 2^nd user that they are communicating, the service identifies the Node Comm Table entry containing the 1^st user's telephone number (which can be obtained from the SMS message header) and the NodeNo to which the message has been sent. The service then updates the date/time value in this table entry by setting it, in this example, one month ahead, pushing the potential expiry of this now active communication channel further into the future.

The service then extracts the 2^nd user's telephone number from the table entry and inserts it into the 'To' field of the SMS (replacing the NodeNo) and replaces the 1^st user's telephone number in the 'From' field with the NodeNo. The message is then forwarded on to the 2^nd user.

Similarly, if the 2^nd user replies to the 1^st user's message, it will be sent to the NodeNo (because this is the number in the 'From' field of the header of the message that they received), which can be used along with the 2^nd user's telephone number (which will populate the 'From' field of the reply they send) to identify the respective table entry. The expiry date/time of the table entry can be updated and the 1^st user's telephone number extracted from the table and used to forward the message to them in the same manner as described above. At any time a user can send an SMS request to the operator number to stop the service and de-register.

Claims

1. A method for operating a telephone intermediary service for facilitating communication between two or more users, each user having a telephone with a unique subscriber number, and the intermediary service comprising two or more communication nodes, each being allocated a unique subscriber number, the method comprising: receiving at one of said communication nodes a communication from the telephone of a first user, the communication including the subscriber number of the first user's telephone; and addressing and forwarding the communication to the subscriber number of the telephone of a second user; the subscriber number of the second user being determined by the service based on the subscriber number of the first user and the subscriber number of the communication node at which the first user's communication was received.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the unique subscriber numbers of the users' telephones are Long Numbers.

3. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the unique subscriber numbers of one or more of the communication nodes are Long Numbers.

4. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the unique subscriber numbers of one or more of the communication nodes are Short Codes.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the communication is an SMS message or MMS message.

6. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the communication is a voice or video communication.

7. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein users are required to register with the service in order to send and receive communications.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein registration is effected by communication with one of the communication nodes of the service.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein registration is effected via an exchange of SMS and/or MMS messages between a user's telephone and the communication node and/or by using a voice recognition system.

10. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein each user is assigned an operator communication node with a specific unique subscriber number, which is reserved for administrative communication.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the communication node via which a user registers with the service is assigned as their operator node.

12. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the communication node via which a new user first makes contact with the service is determined by the source through which the user was introduced to the service.

13. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the service allocates the subscriber number of one of the communication nodes to a user for them to use to send communications to another user.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the user is notified by the service of the allocated subscriber number by receipt of a communication sent to the user's telephone from the service and formatted to appear to have been sent from the communication node to which the allocated subscriber number is assigned.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the notification is by SMS message or MMS message.

16. A telephone intermediary system for facilitating communication between two or more users, each user having a telephone with a unique subscriber number, the system comprising: two or more communication nodes, each having a unique subscriber number; routing means for addressing and forwarding to the subscriber number of the telephone of a second user a communication received at one of said communication nodes from a first user; the communication from the first user including the subscriber number of the first user's telephone and the routing means determining the subscriber number of the second user based on the subscriber number of the first user and the subscriber number of the communication node at which the first user's message was received.

17. A system according to claim 16, wherein the unique subscriber numbers of the users' telephones are Long Numbers.

18. A system according to claim 16 or claim 17, wherein the unique subscriber numbers of one or more of the communication nodes are Long Numbers.

19. A system according to claim 16 or claim 17, wherein the unique subscriber numbers of on or more of the communication nodes are Short Codes.

20. A system according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein the communication is an SMS message or MMS message.

21. A system according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein the communication is a voice or video communication.

22. A system according to any one of claims 16 to 21 , wherein users are required to register with the service in order to send and receive communications.

23. A system according to claim 22, wherein registration is effected by communication with one of the communication nodes of the service.

24. A system according to claim 23, wherein registration is effected via an exchange of SMS and/or MMS messages between a user's telephone and the communication node and/or by using a voice recognition system.

25. A system according to any one of claims 16 to 24, wherein each user is assigned an operator communication node with a specific unique subscriber number, which is reserved for administrative communication.

26. A system according to claim 25, wherein the communication node via which a user registers with the service is assigned as their operator node.

27. A system according to any one of claims 16 to 26, wherein the communication node via which a new user first makes contact with the service is determined by the source through which the user was introduced to the service.

28. A system according to any one of claims 16 to 27, wherein the service allocates the subscriber number of one of the communication nodes to a user for them to use to send communications to another user.

29. A system according to claim 28, wherein the user is notified by the service of the allocated subscriber number by receipt of a communication sent to the user's telephone from the service and formatted to appear to have been sent from the communication node to which the allocated subscriber number is assigned.

30. A system according to claim 29, wherein the notification is by SMS text message or MMS multimedia message.

31. Computer software which when installed and run on a computer system causes the system to operate in accordance with any one of claims 1 to 30.

32. Computer software according to claim 17 on a computer readable media.

33. A method substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

34. A system substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.