Comverse Announces Fun Dial, Offering Personalized Ringback Tones Designed to Stimulate Carrier Revenue.Business Editors WOODBURY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 2003 Comverse, a unit of Comverse Technology Comverse Technology, Inc. (Pink Sheets: CMVT) is an American Technology company located in Woodbury, New York, which develops and markets telecommunications software. Founded in 1982, the company focuses on providing services to third party telecommunication service providers. , Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : CMVT CMVT Converse Technology ), and the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communications services, today announced the availability of its newest entertainment application - Fun Dial - which allows callers to hear customizable music, sound effects, or personal or promotional messages, instead of standard ringback, busy and call waiting tones. Fun Dial makes using the phone more fun. Instead of hearing standard no answer, busy, and call waiting tones, subscribers will be able to allow callers to hear a variety of music, sounds, personal or promotional messages or other entertaining content. Subscribers will also be able to personalize and select the content that they will hear when they make an outgoing call. Selected content can be predefined once, updated periodically, or uploaded according to a personalized schedule. Fun Dial lets subscribers select specific content for different callers or groups of callers. Subscribers can treat friends who call to a new joke, spouses to a favorite song, and business contacts and other callers to a professional message, according to the caller's CLI (1) (Call Level Interface) A database programming interface from the SQL Access Group (SAG), an SQL membership organization. SAG's CLI is an attempt to standardize the SQL language for database access. (Caller Line Identification). Subscribers expecting an important call from a business associate can record a designated greeting. Businesses can record a customized promotional message for callers to hear while waiting to be connected. Fun Dial makes waiting for the phone to be answered a more valuable and entertaining experience. Like the popular and profitable ringtone The audible sound made by a telephone to announce that a call is coming in. The traditional ringtone was in the 440-480 Hz range, but as cellphone usage grew, it became obvious that ringtone differentiation would become important. services offered by carriers, Fun Dial addresses the desire for entertainment and personalization, providing another creative way for people to express themselves. The service is network-based so it can work with any handset, old or new - giving it mass market reach. Simple subscriber self-provisioning by SMS (1) (Storage Management System) Software used to routinely back up and archive files. See HSM. (2) (Systems Management Server) Systems management software from Microsoft that runs on Windows NT Server. , Interactive Voice Response (IVR (Interactive Voice Response) An automated telephone information system that speaks to the caller with a combination of fixed voice menus and data extracted from databases in real time. ) or Web interface, makes it easy for subscribers to change their Fun Dial content as often as they like. Fun Dial, which can be provided as an end-to-end solution and integrated with a carrier's Intelligent Network (IN), allows service providers to further leverage their existing investment in Comverse products and voice ports. Fun Dial provides service providers with comprehensive real-time statistics and reporting capabilities along with content management services, including full royalty tracking and management to enable smooth and reliable service operation. Robust and scalable, Fun Dial is based on the Comverse carrier-grade platform, which offers full redundancy and high availability. The modular design and high scalability provides service providers with the ability to increase the capacity to thousands of telephony ports. Fun Dial supports a large variety of SS7, ISUP (ISDN User Part) See SS7. , TUP (Telephone User Part) See SS7. and other protocols, including most country variants. When integrating with the IN network, support of INAP (Intelligent Network Application Part) An IN (Intelligent Network) protocol used in a European SS7 network to query databases for a variety of functions not related to call setup and tear down. INAP uses the ASN.1 standard for defining message content. See SS7 and ASN.1. and CAMEL is also available. "We believe that Fun Dial has the potential to become a sought-after service as subscribers enjoy the novel experience of personalizing their ringback and other tones. The fun is contagious -- when callers hear a subscriber's Fun Dial tones, we think they'll want to have them too," said Benny Einhorn, Chief Marketing Officer of Comverse. "Service Providers can leverage their Comverse voicemail systems, along with their customers' desire for entertainment services, to provide a low cost service, designed to increase revenue." About Comverse Comverse, a unit of Comverse Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: CMVT), is the world's leading provider of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communications services. More than 400 wireless and wireline telecommunications network operators, in more than 100 countries, have selected Comverse's enhanced services systems and software, which enable the provision of revenue-generating value-added services. These include call answering with one-touch call return, short messaging services, IP-based unified messaging (voice, fax, and email in a single mailbox), 2.5G/3G multimedia messaging (MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) An enhanced transmission service that enables graphics, video clips and sound files to be transmitted via cellphones. Developed as part of the 3GPP project, MMS phones are generally backward compatible with SMS and EMS. ), instant communications, wireless information and entertainment services, voice-controlled dialing, messaging and browsing, prepaid wireless services, and additional personal communication services (communications) Personal Communication Services - (PCS) Telecommunications services that bundle voice communications, numeric and text messaging, voice-mail and various other features into one device, service contract and bill. PCS are carried over cellular links, most often digital. . Other Comverse Technology business units include: Verint Systems, a leading provider of analytic solutions for communications interception, digital video security and surveillance, and enterprise business intelligence; and Ulticom, a leading provider of service enabling network software for wireless, wireline, and Internet communications. Comverse Technology is an S&P 500 and NASDAQ-100 Index company. For additional information, visit the Comverse web site at http://www.comverse.com. All product and company names mentioned herein may be registered trademarks or trademarks of Comverse or the respective referenced company(s). Note: This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurances that forward-looking statements will be achieved, and actual results could differ materially from forecasts and estimates. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: changes in the demand for the company's products; changes in capital spending capital spending Spending for long-term assets such as factories, equipment, machinery, and buildings that permits the production of more goods and services in future years. among the company's current and prospective customers; the risks associated with the sale of large, complex, high capacity systems and with new product introductions as well as the uncertainty of customer acceptance of these new or enhanced products from either the company or its competition; risks associated with rapidly changing technology and the ability of the company to introduce new products on a timely and cost-effective basis; risks associated with changes in the competitive or regulatory environment in which the company operates; risks associated with significant foreign operations and international sales and investment activities, including fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, interest rates, and valuations of public and private equity; the volatility of macroeconomic mac·ro·ec·o·nom·ics n. (used with a sing. verb) The study of the overall aspects and workings of a national economy, such as income, output, and the interrelationship among diverse economic sectors. and industry conditions and the international marketplace; risks associated with the company's ability to retain existing personnel and recruit and retain qualified personnel; and other risks described in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risks and uncertainties, as well as others, are discussed in greater detail in the filings of the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. and its subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. . These documents are available through the company, or through the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval system (EDGAR Edgar or Eadgar (both: ĕd`gər), 943?–975, king of the English (959–75), son of Edmund, king of Wessex. In 957 the Mercians and Northumbrians rebelled against Edgar's brother Edwy and chose Edgar as their king. ) at www.sec.gov. The company makes no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances after the date any such statement is made. |
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