Unified Messaging Delivers 'Three for One'

Imagine the value to your subscribers of being able to use a wireless handset to quickly visually scan and randomly select their messages, whether voice, e-mail or fax. That's the broad market appeal of unified messaging, which allows lightweight, mobile handsets to bring together voice, e-mail and fax messages in a single mailbox.

With features such as LCD screens and built-in Internet connectivity, many of today's wireless phones can be configured to work with voice mail and unified messaging service to make these services easier to use, faster and more powerful. The idea is to integrate the best features of the phones (screen, mobile and always connected to network) with the best features of a network-based messaging platform (highly reliable, accessible from anywhere, high capacity and upgradable).

All of this rides on a backbone telecommunications network that is increasingly data capable. As a result, you are changing the mailbox from an abstract entity "out in the network somewhere," which the subscriber has to dial into and actively navigate through, to a service that resides on the wireless handset and always presents a current, detailed snapshot of the mailbox contents.

Why Voice Mail? With its convenience for subscribers and profitability potential for mobile service providers, voice messaging is a key value-added service. In addition, messaging services such as fax, short-message service and wireless e-mail all offer unique benefits when combined with mobility and a user-friendly interface.

With numerous new technologies and applications emerging among wireless providers, you can bet that the most popular applications among subscribers -- and thus the most lucrative features for you, the carrier -- will be those that are easiest to use and conveniently provide the information that is most important to your customers.

Although voice mail has proved to be the most popular value-added service for wireless subscribers, the telecommunications world is not standing still. Efforts are under way to improve the visual interface to mobile phones, as demonstrated by some of the newer designs from leading terminal vendors. These vendors are relying more heavily on graphical user interface (GUI)/softkey capable terminals to make new services more user-friendly and powerful.

With the advent of smart phones, as well as network-based messaging platforms that offer the ability to store voice, fax, and e-mail messages on a single unified mailbox in the telephone network, the range of services you can offer to subscribers is increasing dramatically.

A unified messaging solution provides a single network-based access point from which to manage all information and message types using a variety of access devices. (See Figure 1.) You can broaden the scope of unified messaging through the use of speech-recognition technology, including voice-activated dialing and voice-activated voice mail, and text-to-speech translation of e-mail messages as well as text-to-fax printing of e-mail messages from a handset or computer terminal. Although wireless service offerings have included voice mail for a number of years, the only way subscribers could interact with the voice-mail system was through voice user interface (VUI) -- voice prompts and key presses that enabled them to navigate through menus and find and play back mailbox messages.

Although VUI has been highly useful and is implemented ubiquitously across cellular networks for voice mail, great value exists in providing a visual interface for the next generation of unified message capabilities. Figure 2 shows some sample screens from the GUI to the unified mailbox. This particular interface uses a Samsung phone with Unwired Planet micro-browser technology installed.

Characteristics of GUI for messaging include: * Faster processing of information presented visually * "Always-current" mailbox screen on the phone * Random access to specific messages based on header information * Increased awareness and easier activation of secondary mailbox features such as notification options and group mailing lists.

The User Experience With GUI, the screen on the wireless phone features an "always current" mailbox display. This means the display always includes the latest message information. The display looks similar to an e-mail program in which headers are shown for each message.

In the case of voice mail, for example, you can display calling number or calling name information as well as message priority, length, media type and a time stamp for each message. This detailed information on the screen allows the subscriber to go directly to the desired message using the selection choices provided. Additionally, the subscriber can choose the auto-call-back feature to return a call to the message sender.

Because of the presence of an "always current" screen, the subscriber now perceives the mailbox to be "on the phone" rather than at the end of a phone connection. This makes checking voice mail as simple as glancing at the phone screen for a few seconds to determine whether to listen to new messages. This is a lot easier than today's systems, which require calling in and navigating through prompts to determine the nature of the messages.

How it Works Several components work together to deliver unified messaging service. (See Figure 3.)

1. A unified messaging platform in your network, providing messaging services (voice, fax and e-mail) with connectivity to the Internet and telecommunications networks.

2. A wireless handset with connectivity to the Internet and micro-browser capability. The micro-browser-enabled device allows the subscriber to view information pulled from an Internet web site on demand, or to have information automatically pushed to the handset based on an event trigger, such as a new message arriving or an urgent fax being deposited in the mailbox.

3. A gateway, such as Unwired Planet's UP.Link, which provides the interworking between the specifics of the wireless network and the Internet. Solutions for CDPD now are commercially deployed. Solutions for CDMA, TDMA, GSM, and PDC networks are under development.

What's in It for Me? Attracting and retaining wireless customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace is critical. As a network operator providing wireless services and voice mail today, you have a number of opportunities to improve your competitive position by deploying applications that leverage new handset and network capabilities. Offering new messaging services to differentiate your offerings is crucial.

Your investment in incremental technology add-ons might include messaging platform upgrades, wireless data upgrades and new handset introductions. As a result, you can recognize incremental revenue from increased airtime usage and monthly service fees because of the higher perceived value and usefulness of the messaging services. This, in turn, raises the bar for phones, networks and value-added services by making a visual interface to a unified mailbox a standard requirement for digital mobile networks.

Any of today's wireless phones have graphical user interface (GUI) capabilities, which allow advanced features such as voice mail and e-mail notification and access. The next generation of handsets -- frequently referred to as smart phones -- will allow carriers to go a step beyond current services, offering faxing and other advanced features at the handset level.

The smart phone segment of the wireless market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 98%, resulting in a forecast of 20 million smart phones sold through 2001.