Talk2 en masse

Talk2 Technology today introduced a voice architecture which, according to the company, lets carriers launch additional voice applications, content and m-commerce service.

Aimed specifically at the carrier market, Talk2’s ViPrNET architecture is designed as an open application development platform that gives users a flexible personalized interface that can be used to retrieve messages and make and receive calls. Unlike many voice portals, though, Talk2’s system is designed for use with voice commands.

The Salt Lake City-based company decided early on that rather than competing with carriers, they would market the service as a complement.

“Network operators are going to be the real tycoons because they already have a bill in the customer’s hands,” said Kary Burns, vice president of market development.

The decision also was a little easier due to the lack of a killer application for voice that drive customers to the site. Instead, the company is offering what one would expect from a voice portal--secure, voice-enabled access to information like corporate e-mail, intranets and the Internet via phone.

The difference comes in scale, according to Burns.

Based on the initial tests, ViPrNe, which runs as a proprietary operating system on top of a Unix platform, can support tens of millions of users. Also key is the ability to pay for the network as the user base grows.

“The idea is that ViperNet is sort of like Corba, but it’s more optimized because it runs in regions so it’s a lot more scalable,” said Burns.