India Broadband Forum

Rameshjeee

Vodafone announces Voice SMS for its subscribers via Kirusa

One of the leading service providers of India, Vodafone Essar brings out a new way to reach out to your friends and family through Voice SMS. It has launched Voice SMS service across 16 circles in India. Vodafone has rolled out this service using the Voice SMS solution from Kirusa, the world’s leading provider of voice SMS. This service is available to prepaid and postpaid users for a fixed price of 75 paise per minute.

Fun and easy to use, this new service enables Vodafone subscribers to send Voice SMS messages to each other in their own voice, rather than by typing. Voice SMS is an enhanced mode of communication enriched with the sender's voice, language and emotions, and offers complete flexibility in retrievals.
Vodafone's Voice SMS service does not require any special handsets, or handset settings, for using this service.

To send a message, a Vodafone subscriber simply dials "*" and the mobile number of the person to whom he wishes to send the message, speaks for 30 seconds and disconnects. If the recipient is a Vodafone subscriber, he will receive a text SMS notification and can dial *0* to hear the Voice SMS. Old Voice SMS can be retrieved by dialing *1*. He also has the option of replying, forwarding, saving or deleting the Voice SMS messages. Subscribers who are not on Vodafone network will get a text SMS notification with an embedded DirectListen(TM) number which, when dialed, takes them to the message directly. The message recipient can select to reply after listening to the Voice SMS.

Vodafone subscribers will pay 75 paise per minute (approximately USD 0.01) to send a Voice SMS. Listening to the Voice SMS for the first time is free of charge. Subsequent retrieval of a Voice SMS is charged at 75 paise per minute. Replying to and forwarding a Voice SMS will also be charged at 75 paise.

Kirusa has deployed its Voice SMS application, integrated with HP Opencall Media Platform, in the Vodafone network across India.

On the other hand if the recipient is a non-Vodafone subscriber, he will get a text SMS notification with an embedded DirectListen number. The subscriber needs to dial this number and listen to the message. The message recipient can reply to the sender after listening to the Voice SMS.