friendly Voice SMS service nationwide. With this launch, all prepaid and postpaid subscribers of Uganda Telecom can send Voice SMS to any mobile subscriber in Uganda for a fixed price of 150 UGX (approximately US$0.08). The process to send Voice SMS is very simple, and both on-net and off-net subscribers (who are not on Uganda Telecom network) can listen and reply to the Voice SMS messages sent by a Uganda Telecom subscriber. This enhanced Voice SMS solution has been made available by Kirusa, world's leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value-added services.

Uganda Telecom subscribers can now communicate faster, more easily and with emotion, without needing to type in text messages, fixing typos etc. To compose a Voice SMS, a Uganda Telecom subscriber just presses '*88' followed by the number of the person to whom he wishes to send the message, speaks for 30 seconds and disconnects. The recipient is alerted with a normal SMS beep, gets a text SMS notification and can retrieve the Voice SMS by clicking on a DirectListen™ link embedded in notification. A subscriber has the option to hear new and old Voice SMS, and can reply and forward messages. An added advantage here is that the recipients who are not on Uganda Telecom's network can also listen and reply to the Voice SMS sent to them.

To make the service available to its subscribers, Uganda telecom has incorporated Kirusa Voice SMS service integrated with the NMS Vision Server media platform into its mobile network.

Uganda Telecom subscribers will be charged 150 UGX (approximately US$0.08) to send a Voice SMS. Listening to a Voice SMS for the first time is free of charge. For listening to old messages Uganda Telecom subscribers will be charged 50 UGX (approximately US$0.03) per message. For replying to a Voice SMS, a Uganda Telecom subscriber pays a nominal charge of 150UGX.

Hans Paulsen, Chief Commercial Officer of Uganda Telecom said, "With this launch, we aim to introduce the world's best Voice SMS offering to our subscribers. I am confident that Ugandans will find this mode of communication much simpler to use. Compared to standard text SMS, Voice SMS is a more exciting way to deliver short messages as it eliminates the arduous typing and presents convenience of sending out a message to a friend or loved one. The launch of Voice SMS is part of our strategy to introduce user friendly, reliable and cost effective communication medium to Ugandans." He further added, "We were impressed with the ease that Kirusa demonstrated during Voice SMS implementation in our network. We chose Kirusa for its proven capabilities with deployments across the globe."

Inderpal Singh Mumick, CEO of Kirusa said, "We are pleased to have teamed with Uganda Telecom to bring the Voice SMS service to market, the first in East Africa." He further added, "Voice SMS is more than just a value added service. It has been adopted by millions of mobile users in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and has evolved into a core messaging product for carriers across the globe, delivering increasingly robust ARPUs. With added applications complementing Kirusa Voice SMS, there is a huge marketing and advertising potential for Voice SMS in the African market."

About Uganda Telecom

Uganda telecom provides voice and data communication solutions that include fixed telephony, mobile telephony, ISP and data communications. Uganda telecom launched the Next Generation Network that delivers all voice, data and even video services over one network over IP. Uganda telecom has the largest fixed line network and is also the largest ISP in the country with the only 3G network in Uganda, offering video telephony, high speed internet, video and audio streaming, live television and MMS. Uganda telecom also provides BlackBerry® services.

About Kirusa

Kirusa is a world leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value added services. Kirusa's solutions include the hugely successful KV.SMS™, an advanced "Voice SMS" solution that has been selected by more than twenty five carriers around the world. The Voice SMS solution allows mobile subscribers to send and reply to SMS messages with voice. Kirusa's solution works on all handsets and on all networks, and offers a most intuitive user interface, with features such as DirectListen™ for direct access and reply to messages, Speed Codes™ for quickly sending messages, group messaging, mobile number portability, background music, interconnection, international Voice SMS. KV.SMS can be deployed in a matter of weeks. Kirusa offers an exchange service for interconnection of Voice SMS messages between carriers, and is pioneering a suite of applications that touch mobile users through voice. Kirusa has partnered with Qualcomm to deliver a Brew client for sending and receiving Voice SMS messages. Kirusa solutions are built on Kirusa's patented and patent pending technology and its reliable and scalable multimodal platform.

Headquartered in New Jersey and led by an experienced team of wireless telecom executives and technologists, Kirusa has sales offices in three continents, with research and development facilities in New Delhi and in Bangalore, India.
 

Information Source:    Marketwire

Image of Inderpal Singh Mumick, courtesy of Kirusa website