Data Connection previews VoiceNet - voice access to the internet/intranet.

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 1997--Data Connection Limited (DCL) today previewed technology - codenamed VoiceNet - which provides voice access to the Internet and Intranets from standard or mobile phones. Users can dial into a VoiceNet server and follow Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menus to get access to email, WWW content, "Natural Voice" content, call forwarding, or faxbacks.

"There's a wealth of information out there - but at the moment you can only get to it from a PC" said John Lazar, the Director of Data Connection's Collaborative Business Unit. "VoiceNet gets you out onto the Internet from home, on the road, from your hotel, wherever. I use it all the time when I'm out of the office and my family use it to check out movie listings, music events, sports - the possibilities are endless."

For each type of content, VoiceNet acquires the content from the network, applies a series of sophisticated content-sensitive filters ("agents") to massage the content into a suitable format (e.g. strip off email headers, process HTML tags etc. and add IVR tags) and drives the speech synthesis engine, so that the user can listen to the content in a natural manner.

Email may be delivered to the user's normal corporate mailbox, to the VoiceNet server (in the case where the user does not have a mailbox) or to a service provider mailbox. VoiceNet provides a standard IVR/voicemail menu allowing users to read, save, delete and reply (by selecting from a configurable set of standard responses) their email. A key point here, is that unlike competitive technologies, where the voice-enabling of email is tightly coupled to a particular email server product, VoiceNet uses standard protocols (SMTP, MAPI, POP3) and can access email on virtually all leading email servers.

For WWW content, users would typically start at a standard HTML page (similar to Yahoo) which provides a menu of choices. By following the VoiceNet provided IVR choices, the user can navigate out into a wealth of content available on other WWW sites (e.g. restaurant listings, stock prices, theatre guides and other detailed textual information). VoiceNet supports enhanced "Natural Voice" content, where real voice files may referenced from pages for higher quality voice playback of relatively static or particularly high value information. VoiceNet also supports navigation aids such as bookmarks, transient help pages, type ahead and standard key sequences for text and page navigation.

Call forwarding allows telephone calls to the VoiceNet server to be routed on to another ordinary telephone. From the user's perspective connecting to another telephone is as easy as navigating to another page of information. For example while listening to details of a restaurant in the local neighborhood a user might press 1 to call through to the restaurant (perhaps to make a reservation or query the menu) or press 2 to listen to details of other restaurants in the area.

For faxback, VoiceNet sends a fax of the current email or WWW page on request to a user defined fax number. The fax transmission proceeds in the background, allowing the user to carry on using VoiceNet in the meantime.

A VoiceNet server consists of the VoiceNet running on a group of connected Windows/NT systems, each with a series of DSP cards incorporating suitable speech synthesis software. Distributing VoiceNet over multiple processors enables a higher number of concurrent calls, and increased fault tolerance. VoiceNet also includes an array of security, operator, administrative and billing features.

VoiceNet uses third-party speech synthesis engines and telephony hardware. Currently, Data Connection is using the Centigram and Lernout and Hauspie speech engines. However, speech synthesis technology is maturing fast, and customers may wish to use other (perhaps their own proprietary) speech engines - so the VoiceNet component architecture makes it easy to swap in other speech synthesis code.

Data Connection sees the initial market for VoiceNet as telcos, ISPs, and information providers. In all three markets VoiceNet can generate call traffic or provide value-added services. This generates revenue directly (by charging subscribers in the traditional manner) or indirectly by increasing subscriber take-up and/or reducing subscriber churn.

As an example consider an information provider which makes some (or all) of its information available over the Internet. VoiceNet can make this information available to ordinary phone users with virtually no hit to the provider's existing information publishing process. This greatly increases the target market for the information provider (which was previously limited to computer-based or other specialist users). And it represents a value added service to existing subscribers who can now access their most important information when they are away from their computer/browser.

Data Connection Limited

Data Connection Limited (DCL) is the leading independent developer and supplier of Data Conferencing, Messaging, Directory, SNA and ATM portable software products, with customers including Hewlett-Packard, IBM Corp, Lotus, Microsoft, and large end-users such as banks, governments and airlines. Data Connection is headquartered in London UK, with US offices in Virginia. It was founded in 1981 and is privately held. During each of the past 15 years its profits have exceeded 20% of revenue. Last year, sales were approximately $21M, of which over 80% were in the US.

CONTACT: Data Connection Limited

Tony Downes: PR Director

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URL: http://www.datcon.co.uk