Visafone launches Kirusa Voice SMS service in Nigeria

Introduces a user friendly Voice Messaging Option to Nigeria

Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Monday, February 16, 2009: Visafone Communications Limited, a wholly owned Nigerian Telecommunications Company, has launched Voice SMS across Nigeria. The Voice SMS solution has been sourced from Kirusa, the world’s leading provider of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value added services.

Voice SMS allows subscribers to send messages by voice, eliminating the need to type. Subscribers can communicate faster, with greater ease, and convey emotions as compared to limitations of text messages. Use of Voice SMS by mobile subscribers has spread rapidly across the globe.

Visafone subscribers need to dial ‘*’ followed by the mobile number and speak a short message for 30 seconds in the language of their choice. A recipient on Visafone network gets an SMS message from the sender, and can dial *0* to hear new voice messages. He can directly retrieve a specific message by dialing a DirectListen™ number in the message. He can also retrieve previously listened to voice messages by dialing *1*. A recipient on another mobile network will get an SMS message from the sender, which he can retrieve by directly dialing a DirectListen™ number in the message. Voice SMS messages can be replied to, forwarded, saved, or deleted. Visafone subscribers pay a price of 15 Naira (approximately US 10 cents) for on-net and 20 Naira (approximately US 14 cents) for off-net messaging to send the messages within Nigeria. First retrieval of a Voice SMS message is free. Subscribers are charged 0.15 Naira per second for subsequent retrievals.

Vinod Shah, COO of Visafone, said on the occasion, "We believe that Voice SMS has great potential in Nigeria. It has a broad appeal across segments. Young Visafone subscribers will find this service a great way to connect with friends. Older subscribers will find it appealing for its ease of use and customized services. This service will empower Nigerians at all literacy levels to send short messages that will convey meanings and feelings in the way the sender wants it interpreted. It will also address the issue of not knowing what to write in an SMS as spoken words are more expressive”. He further added “Kirusa offered us an unbeatable package - an industry leading and proven product with unmatched technological edge; perfect understanding of our business requirements. We found their ability to provide a strong International Voice SMS service a definite draw.”

Visafone’s Voice SMS service is available to all its prepaid and postpaid subscribers. To deliver the service, Kirusa has deployed its Voice SMS application, integrated with the Voxpilot Open Media Platform, in Visafone’s nationwide mobile network.

Speaking on the occasion, Taranjit Singh Batra, VP Sales of Kirusa said, “The Kirusa Voice SMS has proved successful in multilingual markets and we hope to replicate this success in Nigeria. We believe the availability of this service, its user-friendliness and flexibility will present a great attraction for the people of Nigeria.”

About Visafone

Visafone Communications Limited is a wholly owned Nigerian telecommunications company incorporated on June 20, 2007 following the acquisition of Cellcom. Visafone received its Unified Access Service license as a telecom operator from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on August 1, 2007.

Less than two months after its registration Visafone was announced the Approved Bidder for the 3 carriers in the 800 MHz spectrum put on auction by the NCC which allowed it roll out its mobile services (voice and broad band internet) across Nigeria.

Visafone commenced commercial operations on February 22 2008 by rolling out a 3G RevA CDMA network in Nigeria and has garnered a record breaking 2.5 million subscribers in just 10 months thus making it the fastest- growing mobile phone company in Nigeria.

For information about our product and services, please visit www.visafone.com.ng

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

Visafone
Toni Kan Onwordi
Head, Corporate Communications
Tel: +234 7025001102
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Kirusa
Navneet Anand
GreyMatters Communications
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