The bewildering welter of wireless carrier service plans has led to the birth of BillShrink, a new free service that recommends the best mobile usage plan for consumers.

Consumers can visit the site at http://www.billshrink.com and enter the anytime minutes they use each month, along with their average mobile phone bill and ZIP code. They click on a button and are presented personalized recommendations on the ideal plan for them and the savings that can accrue by switching. The service covers plans from AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and Sprint. Here's a conversation that Mobile Marketer's Mickey Alam Khan had with Photobucket.com veteran and BillShrink CEO Peter Pham:

Target user for BillShrink?
BillShrink aims to be the consumer's personal advisor for managing everyday services such as cell phone plans and credit cards.

For these services, which often lead to consumer frustration and complicated bills, BillShrink automatically monitors the market's millions of continuously changing product combinations, as well as each person's individual usage behavior.

BillShrink then matches the up-to-date product information and terms against current usage patterns to deliver simple, apples-to-apples comparisons and personalized, actionable money-saving recommendations.

Why the need?
The concept of BillShrink came to cofounder Schwark Satyavolu when he and his wife tried to compare rates when she needed to switch off their personal family cell phone plan to a new employer's carrier.

By overloading consumers with data, it seemed companies -- from mobile to credit cards -- ensure that there's so much to analyze that it's too difficult for people to weigh all the options and make an informed choice.

A technologist with expertise in data analysis, Schwark realized he could leverage the Internet for data collection and use Web technology to quickly digest a lot more information and make better decisions than any human could.

The result is BillShrink, created to help people sift through the complexity built into everyday services and remove the confusion and frustration of making sure you pick the right one.

Web technology has finally evolved to a place where providers' data is available to consumers, allowing BillShrink to process millions of data points and distill them to a simple, personalized, actionable recommendation.

Beyond that, because rate plans and offers change frequently among the carriers and providers, BillShrink tracks promotional deals, expiration dates, early termination fees, call patterns and dozens of other data. It also constantly monitors your use patterns and will alert you when it finds a better plan for your needs.

How does it work?
BillShrink analyzes your cell phone usage, either as you report it, or if you prefer, directly from your wireless bill, examining how many minutes you use, who you call, how often you text, where you live, and dozens of other data points.

Your use rates are then compared against millions of plan combinations, according to a) how much a plan costs; and b) best call quality. Cost analysis examines how much you would pay on each plan, based on your own usage.

Those that support your usage with the lowest associated cost are rated highest. Call quality looks at different carriers' signal strength at the locations that matter most to you i.e. at home, at work, et cetera, and those that match best are ranked highest.

Finally, cost and coverage rankings are combined to deliver a highly-personalized recommendation.

Does something similar exist?
BillShrink is the only free online service that leverages Web technology to quickly provide people with a personalized recommendation on the very best deals for their own usage pattern, provides easy to understand comparisons between different offers and automatically updates people as plans change and better deals come up.

BillShrink is able to provide more specific and more highly personalized detail on rate plans than even the carriers.

Web native technology analyzes data that not only looks at minutes and data plans, but also look at add-ons and can compare coverage at home, at work, and on the route from one to the other, so it can reduce dropped calls and patchy service in a unique and unbiased way.

While other companies try to assist you in choosing the best rate plan, each requires more from you than BillShrink does. You either need to know the minute details of your own cell phone usage, have to pay a fee, or have to be willing to invest time in sorting through options. BillShrink automates it all, stepping in as a personal advisor.

Where are mobile phone plans going next?
Cellular companies are being put to task by new legislation that requires more transparency and flexibility.

The industry should evolve towards simplistic plans and customer service in order to address consumer's needs and remain competitive with Web-based communication alternatives. But given carrier track records, it will take many years.

What's your monetization and marketing plan?
While all of BillShrink's recommendations are completely unbiased and ranked by the technology, BillShrink earns a referral fee if you switch to a new plan based on its recommendation.

Marketing efforts will focus on brand awareness. The benefits speak for themselves, so word-of-mouth will be BillShrink's most effective growth tool.

Upcoming launches?
After a year in development and significant private testing, BillShrink has released the beta of its free online service for cell phone users.

In the near future, BillShrink will introduce services for evaluating and monitoring rate plans from other complex products such as credit cards and others.

Partnerships?
BillShrink is currently working with the four major cellular service providers -- AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint -- to identify the best plans and options for each BillShrink user.

What challenge are you addressing?
BillShrink believes that by providing consumers all available information and personalized recommendations about the best rate plans for their own life, in an easy-to-understand, unbiased way, we will empower people to do more with their money.

BillShrink will quickly move beyond cell phone plans to provide people with transparency and personalized rate plan recommendations in other industries where the pain of trying to change plans is most acute, starting with credit cards and extending from there.