Comverse Reports High User Satisfaction For Voice Controlled Voice Mail Service At Italian Mobile Operator Blu.Business/High Tech Editors WOODBURY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2002 End Users Deem Voice Activated Service A Natural Fit Because of Convenience And Ease Of Use 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:CMVT CMVT Converse Technology ), and the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communications services, today announced the results of market research on its Voice Controlled Voice Mail (VCVM VCVM Voice Controlled Voice Mail ) service deployed at mobile operator Blu S.p.A. of Italy. The VCVM service, which enables users to control their voicemail with spoken commands, earned high marks from Blu's mobile subscribers. Since its launch, BLU has offered voice-control as the default voicemail interface to all subscribers versus the traditional keypad control. The research study conducted by the Italian research firm Novaction, evaluated end-user satisfaction with VCVM service. Over 200 face-to-face interviews were conducted with Blu's end users, who were randomly selected from a list of BLU voicemail users. Among the most significant results revealed by end users was that over 88% of respondents rated their level of overall satisfaction as "very good". 40% of the respondents said that using the voice-activated service actually increased their voicemail usage due to the service's convenience, ease of use and speed. Supportive comments on the service included "simple", "convenient" and "relevant" to them. Antonio Mosca, Mobile Integrated Services In computer networking, IntServ or integrated services is an architecture that specifies the elements to guarantee quality of service (QoS) on networks. IntServ can for example be used to allow video and sound to reach the receiver without interruption. Director at Blu S.p.A., said, "The research confirms our long-held belief that the voice-controlled messaging service is of great value to our customers. This innovative service helps us differentiate ourselves, build customer loyalty and increase airtime in the competitive Italian mobile marketplace. Anticipating the competition and recognizing the success of voice-controlled services, Blu launched other services accessible through voice commands such as Blu Dedica and Blu Connecto." Zeev Bregman, Chief Executive Officer of Comverse said, "The success of this voice-controlled voicemail deployment is a testimony to the advantages of speech-driven enhanced services, as ease of use and convenience are key factors in driving acceptance and, in turn, revenue. For many service providers, VCVM can be viewed as a first step to full-blown voice portal An interactive voice response (IVR) front end to a data retrieval system. This does not differ in core technology from traditional IVR; rather, the difference is in the application presented. Where old-style IVR was mostly a routing application (press 1 for sales, 2 for service, etc. services for the mass markets, which can include voice-activated dialing, voice-controlled email, and voice browsing." About Blu S.p.A. BLU S.p.A. is the new mobile operator in Italy. The company has been formed by both leading Italian and international investors with the following shareholders: Autostrade (32%), British Telecommunications (29%), Edizioni Holding (9%), Distacom (9%), Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA is an Italian banking firm. Founded in 1913 as Istituto di Credito per la Cooperazione, it was nationalized in 1929. It was re-privatized and listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in 1998, before being acquired by French banking group BNP Paribas (7%), Gruppo Caltagirone (7%) and Italgas (7%). Thanks to this synergy and to the contribution of systems and technology suppliers, a new offer of innovative and high quality services will soon be available for Italian customers. BLU is deploying its network to offer easy-to-use innovative basic and interactive services, promoting the image of an information society free from technological barriers. The technological challenge of BLU and its suppliers resides in the deployment of a traditional GSM 1800 network and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) The first high-speed digital data service provided by cellular carriers that used the GSM technology. GPRS added a packet-switched channel to GSM, which uses dedicated, circuit-switched channels for voice conversations. network as well. 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 390 wireless and wireline telecommunications network A telecommunications network is a of telecommunications links and nodes arranged so that messages may be passed from one part of the network to another over multiple links and through various nodes. 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 including call answering with one-touch call return, short messaging See SMS. services, IP-based unified messaging Having access to e-mail, voice mail and faxes via a common computer application or by telephone. For example, unified messaging may send faxes and digitized voice mail to a mail server that turns them into e-mail attachments. (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. ), wireless instant messaging, wireless data and Internet-based 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 Inc., a leading provider of analytic software 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). |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion