LEXINGTON, Mass.-Wildfire Communications Inc. announced Orange plc Group has launched the Wildfire virtual personal assistant in the United Kingdom.In conjunction with the launch, Orange said it will conduct a $15.5 million marketing campaign to promote the service, featuring 60-second ads airing before all screenings of “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” which recently opened in the country.
Orange said Wildfire service is central to its vision of offering a voice portal to customers. The company is charging a one-time activation fee of about $15, with no monthly fee. Customers will pay normal Orange Answer Phone voice-mail rates to all calls to Wildfire, and outgoing calls using the service will be charged at normal service plan rates, the company said.
Wildfire is a virtual assistant service using voice recognition and text-to-speech technology allowing users to interact with the system using voice commands. The UK version of the system features an English accent. This marks Wildfire’s presence in a third country. The service also was launched in Canada and the United States.
