MAP Telecom and Kirusa bring proven Voice SMS application to mobile carriers in the Middle East and North Africa

Monaco, and Edison, New Jersey – November 17, 2005. MAP Telecom, a leading IVR hosting company and application aggregator in the EMEA region, and Kirusa, the leading provider of Voice SMS application and multimodal solutions enabling mobile application delivery, announced a partnership to bring Kirusa’s Voice SMS application to mobile operators in the Middle East and North Africa. The strategic partnership, which combines MAP Telecom’s hosting and VoiceXML capability and Kirusa’s multimodal technology, allows for the delivery of complete solutions to carriers in the region.

With Kirusa’s Voice SMS application, a user can send an SMS message simply by dialing *, followed by the recipient’s phone number, without the pain of typing the message on a small mobile keypad. An SMS is delivered to the recipient, without having the phone ring (RingFree MessagingSM). The recipient is not disturbed, and can pick up the message at his leisure. The application also provides for users to reply to text SMS messages with voice. The Voice SMS application has proven to be immensely successful at several carriers, in terms of the number of users, number of voice SMS messages sent, and the amount of revenue generated. Among Kirusa’s satisfied customers is GrameenPhone, the market-leading operator in Bangladesh owned by Telenor, with more than five million subscribers.

“Following the recent overwhelming success of Kirusa’s Voice SMS service in Asia, I am confident that the application will prove equally useful in the geographies we are targeting” explains Dr. Michaela Heigl, Chief Commercial Officer of MAP Telecom. “Mobile phone users who do not know how to write or find typing into a keypad too cumbersome, are now able to send and reply to SMS messages by using their voice, at a low cost. For mobile carriers this service is a revenue generator, since it appeals to a much larger user base compared to traditional voicemail and text messaging applications.”

Damon Miller, Director of Business Development of Kirusa, adds “MAP Telecom has deep domain expertise in voice and messaging applications, and strong relationships with operators in the Middle East and North Africa. Through this partnership, we can bring this innovative and user-friendly voice SMS service to consumers in the Middle East and North Africa.”

About MAP Telecom
MAP Telecom, the unique voice hosting activity in Monaco, offers secure and cost-effective hosting of IVR applications in Europe , Middle East and Africa, on the public telephone network as well as over Skype. The online service creation environment Voxbuilder (www.voxbuilder.com) allows developers and application owners to build and manage multiple voice services on a VoiceXML 2.0 compliant platform, located in a secure and fully redundant hosting environment. The offering is completed by a range of solutions specifically aimed at developers. Customers of MAP Telecom include Skype, Ericsson, Assurland, ICQ, Cofiroute and VoiceObjects. For further information, please go to www.map-telecom.com.

About Kirusa
Kirusa, Inc. is a multimodal solutions company that has developed industry leading multimodal technology (with several patents pending) for the delivery of applications using multimodal interfaces. This next generation of wireless technology allows users to customize the presentation of information on wireless devices by either alternating, or simultaneously receiving information through visual and voice interfaces. Kirusa develops the unique Kirusa Voice SMS multimodal application, multimodal search applications, and supports third party developers of multimodal applications. Kirusa's customers include the worlds' leading telecom carriers and enterprises. Kirusa is headquartered in Edison, New Jersey and was founded by telecom and Internet industry veterans from AT&T, Lucent and Vodafone Airtouch. For more information about Kirusa please call its headquarters at +1 (732) 623-2118 or visit www.kirusa.com.

Media Contact:
Dr. Michaela Heigl, Map Telecom, Tel: +377 97 77 36 55, M.Heigl@map-telecom.com
Inderpal Singh Mumick, Kirusa Inc, +1 732 623-2118, mumick@kirusa.com

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