Telefonica Mexico Launches ‘Movistar Voice To Text’ with SpinVox

MEXICO CITY & NEW YORK-(Business Wire)-September 29, 2009 - Telefonica Mexico today announced the launch of its ‘Movistar Voice to Text’ service, which automatically converts voice messages into text. Telefonica Mexico’s mobile subscribers will now receive their converted voicemail messages as an SMS or an email, making it the first mobile operator to offer such a service in the Mexican marketplace.

“The service converts the messages recorded on your voicemail box into text and delivers them directly to your mobile phone as an SMS, allowing you to read your voicemails immediately, rather than having to dial into voicemail to hear them. It is a fundamental change to the way that we’ve been communicating,” says Fabian Bifaretti, managing director, Telefonica Mexico.

“Telefonica Mexico is a catalyst of change, bringing the benefits and advantages of ‘Movistar Voice to Text’ to market, where it will be valued as much by our subscribers as it is by the carriers themselves,” adds Bifaretti.

Once the message has been read, it is possible with just one click to return the call, send a reply immediately via SMS or to keep the message, simplifying communications when compared with traditional voicemail.

The service is being provided by SpinVox, the leader in Voice-to-Content services™, with which Telefonica has signed a global deal. SpinVox is the only speech to text service in the world available in six languages - Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, German, and Italian.

SpinVox has developed its Voice Message Conversion System^TM (VMCS) so that it can convert to text the different phonetic variants of Spanish spoken in Mexico and in Latin America. VMCS is able to adapt through a continuous live-learning process which continually adds words and different pronunciations. Thanks to its learning ability, VMCS contains more than two billion words and phrases derived from the equivalent of 72 years of audio training – making it the world’s largest corpus of spoken language.

At the heart of SpinVox is its ground-breaking Voice Message Conversion System™ (VMCS), which works by combining state-of-the-art speech technologies with a live-learning language process to assure quality of conversion. SpinVox VMCS primarily uses speech technologies to convert speech into text, but if it is not able to complete the conversion because words or phrases are indistinct, it can ask a human agent for help, guiding them to the parts of the messages that need their assistance to ensure that each message is accurately converted and actively learns from the process itself.

VMCS ensures that all messages are completely anonymised and contain no user data. By employing the same high level of security protocols implemented globally by major banking services, the system guarantees users’ confidentiality.

Movistar Mexico is one of 13 Telefonica companies launching the SpinVox-powered voicemail to text service in Latin America. The service is rolling-out across Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and Brazil, as well as Mexico. The agreement will result in more than 125 million Telefonica International subscribers having access to SpinVox voice to text conversion services by the end of 2009.

“The contract signed with SpinVox confirms Telefonica Mexico’s undisputed leadership in bringing mobile innovation to this country,” comments Cecilia Vega, director of marketing for consumers and SMEs, Telefonica Mexico. “Movistar Voice-to Text is an example of Telefonica’s commitment to developing technologies by bringing world-class services from the most technologically advanced countries to Mexico.”

About Telefonica Mexico

Telefónica México is a leading innovator in telecommunications products and services, with all its operations unified under the Movistar brand in 13 countries. Since its arrival in Mexico, Movistar has focused on launching the best communications solutions for pre-pay, contract and business users. Telefónica México currently has 16.2 million subscribers.

About SpinVox

SpinVox® is the world's largest privately-held speech technology company, providing the only voice to text messaging services which are used daily by millions of people and whose user base has grown over twenty-fold in the past 12 months.

SpinVox is currently protected by 18 patents issued and 71 patents pending worldwide. SpinVox has converged the two most natural forms of communication - voice and text - to create the fastest-growing form of messaging: Voice-to-Content™.

SpinVox services are available directly on www.spinvox.com and through leading carriers and through new media, Unified Communications and other service providers globally.

Implemented as a carrier-class hosted network feature, SpinVox has proven it can easily create value from everyday user behavior using voice and deliver rapid and easy implementation of low input, sustained high reward services.

At the heart of SpinVox is its ground-breaking Voice Message Conversion System™ (VMCS), which works by combining state-of-the-art speech technologies with a live-learning language process to assure quality of conversion. SpinVox VMCS primarily uses speech technologies to convert speech into text, but if it is not able to complete the conversion, it can ask a human agent for help to ensure that the message is accurately converted and actively learns from the process itself. This has resulted in VMCS currently having a corpus of over two billion words and phrases.

Developed by the Cambridge, UK- based SpinVox Advanced Speech Group; VMCS now serves users across five continents in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian.

SpinVox is now live with Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Sasktel, Rogers Wireless, Telus, Telstra, Vodacom South Africa, Vodafone Spain and with Movistar in Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and Panama. SpinVox is also available on Skype and Livejournal.

To grow the voice-to-text marketplace further, SpinVox announced the launch of its API programme at the beginning of 2009, enabling developers to register at http://create.spinvox.com/. Since then, more than 700 developers have become SpinVox API program members and live services enabled by SpinVox, such as Ipadio, 0800TXTMUM and QuickVoice Pro have been launched. SpinVox API is available in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese.

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