BPL brings Kirusa's Voice SMS to all BPL subscribers in Mumbai

BPL mobile subscribers can send SMS messages with voice to 150 million mobile subscribers in India.

World’s first deployment of Kirusa’s Direct Listen™ technology.

Friday, March 23, 2007: New Providence, New Jersey and Mumbai, India - BPL mobile, a leading mobile carrier operating in Mumbai, has launched a new Voice SMS service for its users in Mumbai today, that will enable BPL subscribers to send spoken SMS messages to any other mobile subscriber in India. For introducing their Voice SMS service, BPL has chosen Kirusa, a US based leading developer of value added mobile services to deploy the patented and patent pending ‘Kirusa Voice SMS Solution’.

The Kirusa Voice SMS service is available to all BPL prepaid and postpaid subscribers in Mumbai, as of the first day of launch. With this new service, any BPL subscriber can avail the option of sending an SMS message in their own voice. This is a multilingual service where subscribers can use any language to send Voice SMS messages. The unique and innovative Kirusa Voice SMS service allows a user to leave a voice message without having the phone ring (RingFreeMessaging™). By sending a message like this, the recipient does not get disturbed, and gets an option of listening to the message at his convenience.

A BPL user, simply dials * followed by the recipient’s phone number, and then speaks a short message, in the language of his choice. The recipient gets an SMS message and can retrieve the message by dialing a Direct Listen™ number embedded in the SMS message, which takes the recipient directly to the message of interest, without the need to navigate through multiple messages. A BPL subscriber can also dial *0* to retrieve new messages, and *1* to retrieve old messages. Moreover, the recipient can forward and reply the Voice SMS message like any other simple text message.

BPL subscribers will have to pay Rs 1/- to send, forward or reply to a Voice SMS message. They will be able to listen to the message free of charge for the first time, and will pay Re 1/- per minute for listening to the message again.

While launching the Voice SMS service, Mr. S. Subramaniam, CEO of BPL Mobile stated, "There is a lot of language diversity and literacy issues existing in our society. Kirusa’s Voice SMS service is an excellent way to extend SMS, which is just plain English text catering to educated users. BPL Mobile has always been in the forefront of adding new services for its subscribers. An important segment where we foresee a demand for Voice SMS is the youth community, as the Voice SMS is not just about sending a message, it is about sharing an emotion.”

While elaborating on why Kirusa has been chosen for introducing this service, Mr. Sunzay Passari, VP - VAS & Devices, BPL Mobile quoted, “It was important for us to choose the best solution for Voice SMS. Kirusa matches all the requirements that are needed for the Voice SMS solution. The company has established itself as the undisputed leader in Voice SMS across the world. Their patented technologies make the service very easy to use. Apart from being pioneers in this field, the other key attraction of Kirusa is the international interoperability and its multimodal platform”.

Kirusa has delivered and deployed the Kirusa multimodal platform, the HP OpenCall Media Platform, and the KV.SMS™ application in BPL’s data centre in India, and has integrated the solution into BPL’s wireless network. The platform used by Kirusa enables BPL to cost effectively deploy additional revenue generating services that seamlessly combine voice with text, graphics, and video to deliver dramatically enhanced end user mobile experiences.

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Mitch Grosky, OpenCall Regional Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at HP, commented said, “We are extremely glad to see Kirusa’s first deployment of Voice SMS in India go live on the HP OpenCall platform. The huge success enjoyed by Kirusa Voice SMS wherever it has been deployed is a testament to the focus Kirusa places on the ease of use of the service. Kirusa and HP are working together to bring further enhancements and value for our joint customers.”

While making comments on the occasion, Dr. Inderpal Singh Mumick, Founder and CEO of Kirusa, quoted, “We are pleased to partner with BPL Mobile to bring the Voice SMS service in Mumbai. Though SMS has emerged as an important tool, it remains out of reach of a large and growing class of users in India. Voice SMS will bridge this gap as it overcomes literacy and language issues. We envision Voice SMS to become a better messaging option vis-à-vis Text SMS.” 

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 patented (U.S. Patent 7,184,786) and patent pending technologies, 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 Listen™ for direct access and reply to messages, Speed Codes™ for quickly sending messages using codes, group messaging, voice information services, and international Voice SMS. 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’, ‘Direct Listen’, and ‘Speed Codes’ are trademarks of Kirusa, Inc.

About BPL Mobile

Having started its services in 1995, BPL Mobile currently operates in Mumbai, India. BPL Mobile serves over 1 million premium and high ARPU, happy and satisfied subscribers.

BPL Mobile recently became the only operator in the country to be voted India's best mobile service twice in the nationwide survey conducted, across GSM & CDMA Service providers, by Voice and Data Magazine in January, 2006. Another report by AC Nielsen-ORG Marg published in The Economic Times Brand Equity has also rated BPL Mobile amongst the top five admired and trusted telecom brands in the country.

For more information, please visit www.bplmobile.com

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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