BeVocal, Sunnyvale, Calif., is taking its voice-activated software solutions and technology and making them available to wireless carriers, enabling those carriers to create and run voiceXML-based applications on their own networks.
The BeVocal Foundation Platform is built on an open, standards-based architecture that supports nodes for processing speech, running applications and developing new services. Nodes also are available that provide monitoring and reporting capabilities for deployed voice systems and software, and that integrate with back-end services for billing, provisioning and user profiles, among other services, the company said. At its core is the BeVocal operating system.
“We’ve taken that same hosting platform that we have in our data center and now we’ve made it a platform a carrier can use in their own network,” said Amol Joshi, co-founder and vice president of marketing for BeVocal.
Joshi said the company was driven to take the technology into the carrier marketplace by the types of voice-activated applications it saw as most beneficial and useful to wireless users, and the increased call volume those applications are expected to generate. Services such as voice portals, voice-activated messaging and automated directory assistance, all of which can lead to additional subscription fees and per-minute use, are supported by the BeVocal Foundation Platform.
The platform can run applications created by BeVocal or a third-party developer.
Joshi said one of its customers, Qwest Wireless, reports 50 percent of its new subscribers use voice-activated services at around $5 per month.
“Virtually all carriers will be deploying voice portal services within the next year. As call volumes increase, we see that carriers will want to move from hosted services to having it in their own network,” he said.
Joshi noted that the growing awareness and crackdown on driving and dialing also will spur carriers to make more voice-activated applications available to their customers.
BeVocal said it will license the Foundation Platform on a per-port basis. It is in deployment trials with select carriers.
