Kirusa, the pioneer in Voice SMS technology and a mobile value added services provider based in New Jersey, USA, was recognized by the Stevens Institute of Technology and the New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC), as having one of the “Next Great Ideas” in Wireless evolution. The NJTC provides business support, networking opportunities, information, advocacy and recognition of technology companies and their leaders. A selection committee composed of NJTC members and Stevens faculty has awarded this honor to Kirusa for its pioneering idea in Voice SMS.

Speaking about conferring this recognition on Kirusa, Paul Frank, Vice President, NJTC said, “With ingenuity, the technical team at Kirusa developed a new way for people to communicate while on the move – the Voice SMS technology. Users can now communicate faster, more easily, with emotion, compared to sending text messages. Kirusa, by making it easy to communicate asynchronously with voice from a mobile, through Voice SMS, brings the power of mobile communication to a larger class of mobile users and contexts.”

He added, “New Jersey has been the center of innovation in telecommunications for over a century, and we applaud Kirusa for continuing that tradition.”

According to Audrey Curtis, Director of Telecom Management Center, Stevens Institute, "We strive to identify, train and encourage a business such as Kirusa, to commercialize promising technologies. We believe that acknowledging and recognizing companies that operate in this rapidly expanding and changing field will give them an impetus to offer even better technological solutions to their customers."

Talking about Kirusa, she added, "SMS, email, instant messaging, and VoIP were the initial milestones in the development of communication technology. Through Voice SMS, Kirusa has introduced a new messaging paradigm to the world.”

Kirusa’s first Voice SMS deployment was at GrameenPhone in Bangladesh. Kirusa deployed its innovative KV.SMS application to meet the needs of Bangladesh’s mobile users. The Voice SMS service has helped GrameenPhone grow its subscriber base and revenue, and to retain its leadership position in the market. Kirusa proved the success of Voice SMS as a messaging paradigm, and demonstrated its ability to replicate the initial success in multiple countries around the world.