Warid Telecom launches Kirusa Voice SMS service
in Pakistan
"Talky" Voice SMS Service enables Warid subscribers
to send SMS messages with their voice
Monday, February 26, 2007: New Providence, New Jersey
- Warid Telecom, the fastest growing mobile operator
in Pakistan, today launched the “Talky” Voice SMS
service based upon the pioneering “Voice SMS” technology
from Kirusa, a leading mobile value added services provider based
in New Jersey, USA.
Warid Telecom mobile subscribers across Pakistan are now able
to send personalized Talky Voice SMS messages to friends, family
and colleagues across mobile networks. The Voice SMS service is
available nationwide, to all of Warid’s prepaid and postpaid
subscribers, on all mobile handsets, as of the first day of launch.
To support the launch, Kirusa has deployed and integrated the
Kirusa Voice SMS platform, bundled with the HP OpenCall Media
Platform, into Warid Telecom’s nationwide mobile network.
Kirusa’s Voice SMS technology allows its clients to offer
the ultimate seamless Voice SMS experience to their mobile subscribers.
The Voice SMS service allows a user to leave a voice message without
having the phone ring (RingFree MessagingSM). The recipient is
not disturbed, and can pick up the message at his leisure. The
service also provides for sending SMS messages without the pain
of typing the messages on small mobile keypads. A user simply
dials “*” followed by the recipient’s phone
number, and speaks a short message, in the language of his choice.
The recipient gets an SMS message, and can dial *0* or a long
number to retrieve the voice message. The recipient can also reply,
forward, save, or delete the Voice SMS message. Several other
enhanced features are available and will be deployed shortly.
Warid Telecom subscribers will pay PKR 0.60 to send a Talky
Voice SMS message. They will be able to listen to the message
free of charge for the first time, and will pay PKR 0.60 for subsequent
listens. International messages are priced at a premium.
Warid Telecom plans to have a nationwide campaign for launching
the Talky Voice SMS with large scale advertising and promotional
activities featuring Ms. Anushe, a famous MTV compere.
Hamid Farooq, CEO of Warid Telecom Pakistan, said, “Warid
Telecom is committed to provide the most cost effective and innovative
value added services to our subscribers. The convenience of sending
a Talky Voice SMS without the need to type or disturb the recipients,
at less than the cost of a voice call, will make the Talky Voice
SMS an extremely popular mode of communication, and further extend
our lead in the Pakistan market”. He further added, “We
were impressed with the industry leading capabilities, scalability,
and robustness of the Kirusa Voice SMS solution. The knowledge
and experience of Kirusa’s team coupled with the superiority
of their Voice SMS solution made the decision of selecting Kirusa
very easy for us.”
Kashif Raheem, Sr. Manager Products & Services Warid Telecom
Pakistan said, “The Talky Voice SMS has tremendous appeal
amongst several segments of our subscriber base. A Talky Voice
SMS conveys more impact, emotion, personality, intent and honesty
than a “Text” SMS can ever hope to achieve. Starting
with person to person “Talkies” today, we expect several
new services and applications built over time leveraging the emotional
touch of a Talky Voice SMS, and we are working with Kirusa to
bring these to the market.”
Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Mitch Grosky, OpenCall
Regional Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at HP, commented “Kirusa
is an award winning partner of HP. The successful integration
of the HP OpenCall Media Platform with the Kirusa Voice SMS solution
has now been proven at several customer deployments, as we continually
work with Kirusa to further extend our leadership in the Voice
SMS domain.”
“We congratulate Warid Telecom on the launch of the Talky
Voice SMS service”, said Dr. Inderpal Singh Mumick, Founder
and CEO, Kirusa. He continued “We are very confident that
the simple and easy to use Talky Voice SMS will help Warid subscribers
adopt it in a big way.”
About Warid Telecom
Warid Telecom is owned by the Abu Dhabi Group, led by His Highness
Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan. The Abu Dhabi Group has other
successful investments in Pakistan, namely Bank Alfalah, United
Bank Limited, Taavun & Wateen Telecom, Raseen and the new
rollout of mobile networks in Bangladesh, Republic of Congo and
Uganda. The Abu Dhabi Group also has other international investments
in the finance, hospitality, property, oil exploration and supplies,
and automobile-related industries. Warid Telecom is the fastest
growing and third largest GSM mobile company in Pakistan with
over 7 million subscribers in the short span of less than two
years of operations. For more information about the company, please
visit www.waridtel.com.
About Kirusa's Voice SMS solution - KV.SMS
KV.SMS™ enables mobile users to send SMS messages with
voice and reply to SMS messages with voice. The solution is based
on Kirusa's patent pending technology, and works on all handsets
and networks. KV.SMS features the industry's most intuitive user
interface as well as many traffic-stimulating features, such as
direct access and reply to messages, international Voice SMS,
MMS integration, voice information services, and interconnection
between mobile network operators. KV.SMS can be deployed in a
matter of weeks, and its fast user adoption has led to explosive
revenue growth for Kirusa's customers. ‘Kirusa Voice SMS’
is a trademark of Kirusa, Inc.
About Kirusa
Kirusa is an industry leader and globally recognized provider
of mobile value added services that leverage the freedom of multimodality.
Kirusa’s solutions include the hugely successful KV.SMS™,
the world’s most advanced “Voice SMS” solution,
which allows mobile users to send and reply to SMS messages with
voice, and works on all handsets and on all networks. The Voice
SMS solution, invented by Kirusa in 2003, offers the industry’s
most intuitive user interface, with features such as direct access
and reply to messages, group messaging, mobile number portability,
interconnect, and international Voice SMS. KV.SMS is built on
Kirusa’s patent pending technology and its highly reliable
and scalable multimodal platform. The platform’s ability
to manage and synchronize data and voice interactions, plus its
integration with IMS and 3G standards, enable customers to cost
effectively deploy additional revenue-generating services such
as messaging, search, information, and entertainment applications.
Kirusa’s solutions are deployed worldwide and used by millions
of mobile subscribers. Headquartered in New Jersey and led by
an experienced team of wireless telecom executives and technologists,
Kirusa has sales offices in Paris, France; Delhi, India; and Hong
Kong, China; with a research and development facility in Bangalore,
India. For more information, please visit www.kirusa.com.
Media Contact
Anju T Makin
Alchemy Corporate Communications
Tel: +91-98101 70135
anju_makin@alchemycc.com
© 2001-2007 Kirusa, Inc.