Kirusa enables world's first exchange of Voice SMS messages across mobile networks and vendors

Historic Voice SMS Interoperability trial across Networks to Revolutionize Mobile Messaging

New Providence, New Jersey and Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, February 14, 2008; Kirusa, the world’s leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value added services, today announced that it has demonstrated the world's first exchange of Voice SMS messages between diverse carriers using different Voice SMS systems. This is the first ever demonstration of Voice SMS interoperability anywhere in the world. The trials were based on the technical specification developed by the GSM Association, the worldwide trade association for the mobile phone industry.

Ufone and Telenor Pakistan, with support from Kirusa and Mobile Arts, successfully exchanged Voice SMS messages between their networks. As part of the trial, when a Ufone subscriber sent a message to a Telenor Pakistan subscriber, the message went from the Kirusa Voice SMS solution in Ufone to the Mobile Arts solution in Telenor Pakistan. The Telenor Pakistan subscriber got an SMS from the Ufone subscriber, and listened and replied to the message with the same user interface and pricing as if the message had been sent by a Telenor Pakistan subscriber. The reply was sent back to the Kirusa Voice SMS solution in Ufone network. Kirusa and Mobile Arts developed the software that allowed this interoperability between Ufone and Telenor Pakistan.

Telenor Pakistan and Ufone Pakistan are set to launch the world’s first interoperable voice messaging, or voice SMS, services in 2008 following successful voice messaging trials towards the end of last year.

The GSMA initiative allows mobile subscribers to receive and reply to Voice SMS messages from their contacts using an easy and consistent user interface, irrespective of the mobile carrier of the sender. The vendors would need to adhere to the GSMA standard to provide the interoperability, which is expected to help augment potential revenues to mobile carriers.

"Ufone is very pleased to be a part of the world’s first trial for developing new operator inter-working specifications," said Ali Ikram, Head of VAS, Ufone. "We believe in maintaining a strong focus on innovation and high quality of service, and the interoperability of Voice SMS helps us provide a better service to our subscribers. Kirusa has provided tremendous support to help achieve this significant milestone in a short timeframe."

Mr. Inder Singh, Senior Vice President, Lehman, said, “Over the last couple of years it has become quite apparent to the mobile community that seamless connectivity across networks is the key to increasing usage of mobile applications. The Voice SMS interoperability initiative undertaken by GSMA portends a good future for Voice SMS as a pervasive form of mobile messaging and the support for interoperability in the solution from Kirusa means that it will be brought to market quickly."

Ewald Anderl, CTO, Kirusa, leads Kirusa’s standards strategy and activities. Speaking on the occasion, he stated, “I am delighted that Kirusa has enabled the world's first ever demonstration of Voice SMS interoperability. This represents a landmark development for Voice SMS, and a validation of Kirusa's vision of providing Voice SMS services to subscribers around the world.” He further added, “Interoperability between carriers will lead to increase usage and acceptability of Voice SMS worldwide. Kirusa is a firm believer in standards to help promote the interoperability.”

About Kirusa

Kirusa is the world’s leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of value added Mobile services that provide the freedom of multimodality. Kirusa’s solutions include the hugely successful KV.SMS™, the world’s most advanced “Voice SMS” solution, which allows mobile subscribers to send and reply to SMS messages with voice, and works on all handsets and on all networks. The Voice SMS solution offers the industry’s most intuitive user interface, with features such as Direct Listen™ for direct access and reply to messages, Speed Codes™ for quickly sending messages using codes, group messaging, Mobile number portability, interconnect, and international Voice SMS. KV.SMS can be deployed in a matter of weeks, and its fast user adoption has led to explosive revenue growth for Kirusa's subscribers. KV.SMS is built on Kirusa’s patented and 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, enables subscribers 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 Abu Dhabi, UAE; with a research and development facility in Bangalore, India. ‘Kirusa Voice SMS,’ ‘Direct Listen,’ and ‘Speed Codes’ are trademarks of Kirusa, Inc. For more information, please visit www.kirusa.com.

Media Contact

Anju T Makin
Alchemy Corporate Communications
Tel: +91 98101 70135
anju_makin@alchemycc.com

© 2001-2008 Kirusa, Inc.