Dialing by voice

Qwest offers voice portal access via its wireless service The voice portal business might be young, but with endorsements from America Online, Lycos and with last week's announcement by Qwest Wireless, it is on its way to becoming an alternative mode for accessing wireless data.

By leveraging BeVocal's applications and hosting technology, Qwest delivers a voice browsing capability that gives customers access to business locator services and personalized information about news, sports, traffic, stocks and weather.

This gives users access applications they typically want while on the go, said Peter Mannetti, president of Qwest Wireless. "It is a great vehicle for a large number of people to use wireless data," he said. "The fact we have a talking Internet will [attract] new subscribers not familiar with the wireless Web."

The relationship comes at a good time for BeVocal. By working with Qwest Wireless on its voice portal, the voice infrastructure software provider is beginning to fulfill its recently announced push into the telecommunications provider space. The company expanded its product line to provide telecom carriers and other companies with a range of voice infrastructure software, applications and services.

Recent activity by AOL and Lycos has increased investor and analyst attention to the voice portal space. While faster download speeds and improved interfaces to phones, which could increase wireless data usage, will be available in the near future, voice activation offers an immediate solution to the difficult-to-use interfaces and bandwidth limitations that are problematic today.

"Qwest is using voice as a way for customers to get information and as a user interface," said Jim Andrew, a vice president of Adventis, formerly Renaissance Strategy. "The problem with the convergence of data and wireless means there is no [suitable] user interface. Voice recognition like this is not so much a killer app as it is a killer interface."

Using voice is a logical step, Mannetti said. "Voice is the way we interface. It can generate answers quickly, and because devices do not lend themselves to accessing data on the go, there is good potential for it," he said. "An ease-of-use interface is important."

Utilizing Qwest's data-centric, Internet background gives the carrier a strong position in the wireless data space, Mannetti said. "Qwest has been making a significant investment in wireless, and we think we will double our subscribers in the coming year," he said.

Qwest Wireless will not be the only carrier with a voice portal solution; this is just the first generation of the new convergence of voice and data interfaces, Andrew said."This is one of several ways we will fill in the technological speed bumps and make mobile wireless answer anything for anyone," he said.

To use the service, subscribers first dial superscript *www or superscript *999, depending on the function in which they are interested. They then are prompted to use their voice to navigate different types of Web content or command the system to dial a phone number.

Unlike some other offerings, the time between the first and second step will not be filled with any advertising, according to Mannetti. This means the service will not be free.

However, after running a series of tests before launching the service, Qwest Wireless determined that most customers are willing to pay a nominal fee with the guarantee that there would be no advertising, Mannetti said. "We are not wasting our customers' plan minutes on advertising," he said.

The service will cost $4.95 per month, with BeVocal sharing a portion of the fee. Currently, the carrier is offering it free to its customers through the end of January. The service is available in the former U S West Wireless territory, which includes eight Western and Midwestern states.