The new market for voice paging services has a rather dubious history of failed service rollouts, but companies like ReadyCom Inc.-which last week announced its first market launch-are not ready to give up on it quite yet.
The company is not a carrier, but rather the technology provider behind the RVS voice paging platform, a store-and-forward voice paging system that can be added to cellular networks. The platform allows users to send voice messages back and forth over a cellular network without requiring a direct connection, allowing a cheaper solution that takes up less capacity.
Carriers interested in offering the voice solution either buy or lease the RVS platform and pay ReadyCom a licensing fee on a per-subscriber basis. The company also develops the software for the device used with the system, the ReadyCom Responder, made by Maxon Corp.
“We’re really just a technology provider,” said John Voorhees, director of marketing for ReadyCom.
The difference is central to the issue facing the voice paging industry today. Voice paging services recently have been offered by paging carriers that built networks based on Motorola Inc.’s InFLEXion technology. First, Paging Network Inc. tried it with VoiceNow, which attracted just more than 2,000 subscribers. Then Conxus Communications Inc. gave it a shot with Pocketalk, but the company recently declared bankruptcy.
However, Voorhees said those failures stem not from the nature of the voice paging market, but rather because the carriers implementing those services had financing and execution problems.
“I think the idea itself was good, but the execution was just expensive,” Voorhees said. “The cost of the InFLEXion network was pretty significant. Conxus was faced with the task of building out an entire network … The kind of capital outlay needed to build an InFLEXion network is very large and difficult to recoup quickly.”
Analysts tend to agree. That’s why many are looking for other voice paging technology providers like ReadyCom and OmniVoice Technologies Inc. to present a less expensive solution that enhances existing networks.
“The huge advantage of our technology is that it can use existing networks. You don’t have to build out a network,” Voorhees said. “We’re looking to add value to what the service carrier already does.”
He said the RVS platform can function on analog and digital voice networks, but the Responder device is only available in analog today. Digital Responder devices are expected to be available by early next year.
Just last week, ReadyCom announced the first cellular carrier to make the service commercially available to subscribers-CTT Startel, a cellular carrier in Chile, branding the service and device as Movivox.
Voorhees said ReadyCom also has pending deals with several other Latin American carriers, as well as with Cellulares Telefonica-a subsidiary of GTE International in Puerto Rico-and expects to announce a U.S. carrier offering the service soon.
“Our dual focus is on South and Central America and the United States,” Voorhees said.
In Latin America, cellular carriers are targeting the high-tier user. The ReadyCom technology would allow carriers to target lower and middle tier customers on their networks as well.
“They immediately saw the potential for it as a lower- to medium-cost service,” Voorhees said. “Wireless demand is huge there and carriers are looking for ways to maximize the usage of their networks. This is attractive to them because it is an effective use of their network capacity.”
However, carriers are more cautious in the United States, he said.
“Carriers are slower to take advantage of budding market opportunities like this,” he said, also pointing to unified messaging services like Wildfire and Portico. “Carriers are getting 20-percent growth annually doing what they’re doing now. Why would they want to do anything different?”
But Voorhees said he believes this will change once cellular growth begins to slow down. “I definitely thing we’re at the right place at the right time, because carriers are starting to feel the pain,” he said.
Another key difference between the ReadyCom service and the InFLEXion services is that the Responder is a two-way voice device, on which users can initiate voice messages and send them, as well as receive.
“One-way voice messaging is sort of like half a product. Paging and messaging in general is shifting to two way,” he said. “We’re offering more of what counts as a hybrid product that a single-use product.”
Analysts looking at the Conxus system suggested the market for voice paging as a stand-alone product has not yet materialized, suggesting instead voice paging be more of a complementary product to existing voice-mail systems. Voorhees said ReadyCom agrees, pointing to several initiatives to meet this requirement. Primarily, ReadyCom’s efforts are aimed at voice-mail extension.
“That’s something we’ve done our own development with,” he said. The company is working with Nortel Network’s voice-mail platform to automatically forward all messages from it to the Responder. He said the company also is in discussions with other voice-mail service and platform providers for similar applications.
Additionally, ReadyCom is considering adding its technology to cellular phones, so phone users can get store-and-forward voice messages on their handsets, eliminating the need to carry around an extra device.
“We’ve had interest from most major handset manufacturers for that very thing,” Voorhees said. “The interest is there to incorporate our store-and-forward technology into a full-featured phone.”
Such a device would allow users to check and receive voice mail without having to make a phone call into the system, reducing their minutes of use.
Voorhees said one carrier has considered including the Responder device and service to its highest-tier cellular service free of charge as a family messaging tool and customer-retention device.
There is very little ReadyCom will not consider, Voorhees said, including adding the technology to personal digital assistants and digital cameras.
“We’re not closing off any areas,” he said. “We see this as a being a huge opportunity to be integrated with all sorts of technologies.”
