London, UK-based Mobix’s 2buzz allows users to arrange and carry out a conference call with colleagues in less than five minutes using a simple smart phone application linked to the organizer’s contact list and SMS text messaging function.

This sends an SMS message to each of the participants giving details of a one-time conference number that can be accessed from any phone, fixed or mobile, at the normal cross-network tariff for each caller’s service provider.

A more convoluted method is also available for basic handsets with numbers entered manually separated by spaces. However, the process is still much simpler than traditional methods of setting up conference calls that involve using a conferencing service provider, setting up bridges and sending out pass codes. These factors, Mobix believes, have limited the potential of audio conferencing to date.

We want to create a niche for audio conferencing where it’s an impulse both for business and personal calls, Tim Walford, sales and marketing director for Mobix, told ComputerWire. 2buzz allows people to make quick and instant conference calls when they need them. It’s very mobile-centric.

Mobix said the UK’s MNOs have been slow to see the revenue-earning potential for audio conferencing on their networks. However, it expects this could change if the independent launch of 2buzz is a success. In the meantime, Mobix will take a cut of the call charges for each user in conference.

None of the operators believe audio conferencing even has a chance of working so we’ve decided to launch anyway, said Walford.

The company hopes 2buzz can benefit from the viral, word-of mouth usage explosion that SMS text messaging has experienced in recent years. It also believes the service could put the brakes on early efforts to establish push-to-talk services in the UK, such as Orange’s service built around the PalmOne Treo 600 smart phone.

The advantages of 2buzz over push-to-talk are that we’re device- and network-agnostic, said Peter Courtney, managing director of Mobix. Push-to-talk is very limited for corporate users [at the moment]. The time to set up the call means that by the time they’ve used it, most users will never use it again.

Courtney accepted, however, that future versions of P2T based on IP and enabled by session initiation protocol clients on handsets could change that, and he said Mobix hopes to be well placed when that happens.

Potential users of 2buzz who own smart phones are invited to send a text message to a Mobix messaging service that will return a message with a web link to a small client application specific to the requesting device. Mobix is not charging for the application, which it said is important in encouraging take-up of 2buzz.

Client software is available for most extant smart phones and cellular PDAs, including those based on Symbian OS, Palm OS, and Windows Mobile. Mobix said it has a version working for Research In Motion’s implementation of mobile Java for BlackBerry. The company said versions for basic Java-enabled handsets were difficult to write due to the concentration of most handset makers on Java as a gaming platform. However, it said a version should be available in the next few months.