Warid Telecom launches Kirusa Voice SMS service in Pakistan

"Talky" Voice SMS Service enables Warid subscribers to send SMS messages with their voice

Monday, February 26, 2007:  New Providence, New Jersey - Warid Telecom, the fastest growing mobile operator in Pakistan, today launched the “Talky” Voice SMS service based upon the pioneering “Voice SMS” technology from Kirusa, a leading mobile value added services provider based in New Jersey, USA.

Warid Telecom mobile subscribers across Pakistan are now able to send personalized Talky Voice SMS messages to friends, family and colleagues across mobile networks. The Voice SMS service is available nationwide, to all of Warid’s prepaid and postpaid subscribers, on all mobile handsets, as of the first day of launch. To support the launch, Kirusa has deployed and integrated the Kirusa Voice SMS platform, bundled with the HP OpenCall Media Platform, into Warid Telecom’s nationwide mobile network.

Kirusa’s Voice SMS technology allows its clients to offer the ultimate seamless Voice SMS experience to their mobile subscribers. The Voice SMS service allows a user to leave a voice message without having the phone ring (RingFree MessagingSM). The recipient is not disturbed, and can pick up the message at his leisure. The service also provides for sending SMS messages without the pain of typing the messages on small mobile keypads. A user simply dials “*” followed by the recipient’s phone number, and speaks a short message, in the language of his choice. The recipient gets an SMS message, and can dial *0* or a long number to retrieve the voice message. The recipient can also reply, forward, save, or delete the Voice SMS message. Several other enhanced features are available and will be deployed shortly.

Warid Telecom subscribers will pay PKR 0.60 to send a Talky Voice SMS message. They will be able to listen to the message free of charge for the first time, and will pay PKR 0.60 for subsequent listens. International messages are priced at a premium.

Warid Telecom plans to have a nationwide campaign for launching the Talky Voice SMS with large scale advertising and promotional activities featuring Ms. Anushe, a famous MTV compere.

Hamid Farooq, CEO of Warid Telecom Pakistan, said, “Warid Telecom is committed to provide the most cost effective and innovative value added services to our subscribers. The convenience of sending a Talky Voice SMS without the need to type or disturb the recipients, at less than the cost of a voice call, will make the Talky Voice SMS an extremely popular mode of communication, and further extend our lead in the Pakistan market”. He further added, “We were impressed with the industry leading capabilities, scalability, and robustness of the Kirusa Voice SMS solution. The knowledge and experience of Kirusa’s team coupled with the superiority of their Voice SMS solution made the decision of selecting Kirusa very easy for us.”

Kashif Raheem, Sr. Manager Products & Services Warid Telecom Pakistan said, “The Talky Voice SMS has tremendous appeal amongst several segments of our subscriber base. A Talky Voice SMS conveys more impact, emotion, personality, intent and honesty than a “Text” SMS can ever hope to achieve. Starting with person to person “Talkies” today, we expect several new services and applications built over time leveraging the emotional touch of a Talky Voice SMS, and we are working with Kirusa to bring these to the market.”

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Mitch Grosky, OpenCall Regional Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at HP, commented “Kirusa is an award winning partner of HP. The successful integration of the HP OpenCall Media Platform with the Kirusa Voice SMS solution has now been proven at several customer deployments, as we continually work with Kirusa to further extend our leadership in the Voice SMS domain.”

“We congratulate Warid Telecom on the launch of the Talky Voice SMS service”, said Dr. Inderpal Singh Mumick, Founder and CEO, Kirusa. He continued “We are very confident that the simple and easy to use Talky Voice SMS will help Warid subscribers adopt it in a big way.” 

About Warid Telecom

Warid Telecom is owned by the Abu Dhabi Group, led by His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan. The Abu Dhabi Group has other successful investments in Pakistan, namely Bank Alfalah, United Bank Limited, Taavun & Wateen Telecom, Raseen and the new rollout of mobile networks in Bangladesh, Republic of Congo and Uganda. The Abu Dhabi Group also has other international investments in the finance, hospitality, property, oil exploration and supplies, and automobile-related industries. Warid Telecom is the fastest growing and third largest GSM mobile company in Pakistan with over 7 million subscribers in the short span of less than two years of operations.

For more information about the company, please visit www.waridtel.com

About Kirusa's Voice SMS solution - KV.SMS

KV.SMS™ enables mobile users to send SMS messages with voice and reply to SMS messages with voice. The solution is based on Kirusa's patent pending technology, and works on all handsets and networks. KV.SMS features the industry's most intuitive user interface as well as many traffic-stimulating features, such as direct access and reply to messages, international Voice SMS, MMS integration, voice information services, and interconnection between mobile network operators. KV.SMS can be deployed in a matter of weeks, and its fast user adoption has led to explosive revenue growth for Kirusa's customers. ‘Kirusa Voice SMS’ is a trademark of Kirusa, Inc.

About Kirusa

Kirusa is one of the leading global developers of Mobile Social Media and Value Added Services enabling mobile subscribers to reach out to their family and friends. Kirusa’s solutions include the hugely successful Kirusa Voice SMS service, the world’s most advanced Voice SMS solution, used by over 30 carriers around the world. Kirusa has pioneered a suite of social media applications that facilitate mobile subscribers to interact through voice, including the Call-n-Tweet application which helps users update their Twitter status using voice. Kirusa provides an open platform with APIs to enable third parties to offer mobile applications services to mobile subscribers. Used by mobile subscribers millions of times daily, Kirusa solutions are built on its patented and patent pending technology and its highly reliable and scalable open multimodal platform. Kirusa has been recognized as one of top 100 technology companies by Silicon India, and one of top 25 emerging technology companies by Smart Techie magazine. Headquartered in New Jersey and led by an experienced team of wireless telecom executives and technologists, Kirusa has offices in three continents. ‘Kirusa Voice SMS,’ is a trademark of Kirusa, Inc.

For more information visit: www.kirusa.com.

Media Contacts

Kirusa
Navneet Anand
GreyMatters Communications
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