TOKYO-As part of its effort to break through the stagnant pager market, Japanese pager maker Oi Electronic Co. Ltd. is developing a voice pager that can deliver voice, data and numeric data.
“The voice pager is one of the most important next-generation products,” said Ko Ishida, manager of business development for the company. “We would like to sell the product strategically in the world.”
With this new voice pager, a user can leave a voice message at a switch, and then the message is delivered to the terminal. The system compresses the analog voice message into digital packets and delivers it to the terminal, which decompresses the message so the user can listen to it.
The compression technology was developed by OmniVoice Technologies, a joint venture of the National Dispatch Center Inc. (NDC), which provides wireless gateway services for U.S. wireless operators, and Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (L&H), a world leader in speech technology, including speech compression, speech recognition, machine translation and text-to-speech conversion.
Licensing the compression technology from OmniVoice, Oi Electric will manufacture the voice pager, code named 3N1. It is called 3N1, or “three in one,” because the pager can deliver voice, text and numeric data from one terminal. With the 3N1, users can hear messages in the caller’s own voice and receive messages in numeric or text format. Each voice message is limited to 20 seconds; up to 30 messages can be stored on the terminal. The terminal operates with a standard AA battery and is the size of conventional alphanumeric pager.
The 3N1 is scheduled to be offered in the U.S. market next spring. Oi Electric has not decided yet whether it will provide the product under the brand name of Oi Electric or as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) under the name of another company.
Prior to marketing the product, OmniVoice conducted in the summer a series of field tests for 3N1 in the United States. Another series of tests is scheduled.
Ishida said if the company finds a market for the product in the United States, it will market the product in Japan as well. “If we confirm that the product can be manufactured in a large lot, and [has] technological efficiency and high marketability, then we will put the product into the Japanese market, too.”
Currently, the product is being developed at the firm’s Sendai R&D Center, Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture.
In Japan, the beeper market has been shrinking. The number of subscribers has been decreasing after it once exceeded 10 million in 1995. As of the end of August, there were only 5.5 million subscribers. To break the recent stagnant market, all beeper carriers are making an effort to explore new services. Voice message service may become a killer service for them.
Ishida admitted Oi Electronic is negotiating with some beeper carriers over the voice pager. However, the firm has not gotten a good response from them. “Because of (the) gloomy market, carriers are squeezing their investments,” he said.
Oi Electric, an affiliate of Mitsubishi Electric Co. Ltd., developed Japan’s first pager in 1963. Today it is selling its beepers around the world. According to Ishida, overseas sales account for 70 percent of total sales. The Mobile Communication Equipment segment, including beepers, occupies 40 percent to 50 percent of the firm’s revenues.
