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Preferred Voice's Pilot Program for BusinessConnect(SM) Huge Success
90 Percent of Users Prefer New Voice Activated Service Versus Traditional
Directory Assistance
DALLAS, TX. (February 19, 2002)
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Preferred Voice, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: PFVI)
announced today that its pilot program for its new service BusinessConnect has
been completed and program participants have reported an extremely high level of
product acceptance and preference compared with traditional directory
assistance, "411". Preferred Voice's BusinessConnect is a new voice recognition
service that will offer wireless and wireline users the ability to be connected
to any business by simply speaking the business' name.
Preferred Voice
plans to deploy an expanded version of its BusinessConnectSM service this year
to its 46 carrier partners and introduce the service to other wireless and
wireline carriers across the U.S. in addition, the Company plans to offer
additional, yet-to-be announced, voice activated services through an expanded
BusinessConnect service platform. Further details will be announced at a later
date.
The program participants, who were surveyed by well-known
independent market research firm Schwan's Company of Minneapolis, MN reported
that 78 percent were "satisfied-extremely satisfied" with BusinessConnect's
functions and features and that 90 percent were "likely-extremely likely" to use
BusinessConnect as opposed to traditional directory assistance services.
The recently concluded two month pilot program was conducted with one of
Preferred Voice's carrier partners, Rural Cellular Corporation RCCC, a wireless
carrier based in Alexandria, Minnesota and with cooperation from leading
Internet trust service provider, Verisign, Inc. VRSN, of Mountain View,
California. Preferred Voice has developed its Voice Integrated Platform System
(VIP) on an industrial grade, fault-tolerant, Windows NT-based server, which
combines the company's proprietary software with the natural dialogue speech
recognition technology of Philips Speech Processing, a business unit of Royal
Philips Electronics PHG and a global leader in speech recognition technology.
Preferred Voice's BusinessConnect service allows callers to not only
speak the business' name to be connected, but will accept and process common
versions of the same business name. A caller can ask for "Dr. John Brown's
Office", "Dr. Brown's Office" or simply "Dr. Brown" and be connected to the
business listed. Callers' requests that cannot be automatically processed are
immediately forwarded to the telecom carrier's operator service provider (OSP)
for call completion. The data collected during this Pilot Program revealed that
BusinessConnect successfully processed 95 percent of the callers' requests
without the assistance of the carrier's OSP. These results indicate that the
carriers could significantly increase their profit margins on directory
assistance calls using the BusinessConnect platform.
According to G. Ray
Miller, Preferred Voice Chairman and CEO, "The results from this critical pilot
program validate the value and acceptance of this true alternative to
traditional directory assistance. The results also validate our decision to
partner with Philips Speech Processing to develop this unique voice recognition
service. Philips' years of real world experience in providing voice activated
directory assistance services around the world assisted greatly in our ability
to provide a quick and successful deployment."
"At Philips Speech
Processing, we believe that voice dialing represents the natural evolution of
how people will make all calls. Voice dialing is fast, convenient and especially
helpful given the diminutive keypads on today's mobile phones," said Frank
Caris, President and General Manager of Philips Speech Processing's telephony
division, North America. "As a pioneer in speech recognition technology, we're
delighted to see the proliferation and acceptance of innovative speech-driven
services such as Preferred Voices' BusinessConnect. We're very pleased to
partner with Preferred Voice, and we look forward to a lasting, productive
relationship."
About Preferred Voice
Based in Dallas, TX,
Preferred Voice, Inc. is a leading voice recognition technology company. Through
its Carrier Services Group, Preferred Voice markets its products and services to
wireless, ILEC and CLEC companies across the United States. These enhanced voice
services include Safety Talk voice activated dialing, voicemail navigation, VAC
voice accessed content, voice calling cards, BusinessConnectsm voice directory
assistance and EmmaPR voice telephone receptionist. Preferred Voice's Network
Services Group provides carrier connectivity, call management, provisioning and
service delivery solutions for carriers, voice portal providers, wireless
application providers and other enhanced features providers. Preferred Voice has
signed agreements with 46 telecom carriers. These telecom carriers serve more
than 5.5 million subscriber lines in 36 states. For more information please
visit www.preferredvoice.com.
About Philips Speech Processing
Philips Speech Processing, a business unit of Royal Philips Electronics,
is an industry-leading developer of speech recognition technology and is
recognized as the original innovator of Voice Dialing applications. With
numerous patents, Philips Speech Processing has led the industry in development
of technologically advanced speech recognition systems for the telephony
environment. It offers a wide variety of Voice Dialing applications including
Corporate Voice Dialing and Personal Voice Dialing via wireless carriers. Today,
Philips Speech Processing continues to build on its leadership position in Voice
Dialing and works with numerous 3rd party service providers in the efforts to
deploy speech-driven applications to a wide range of customers. Visit
www.speech.philips.com for more information.
SOURCE: Preferred Voice,
Inc.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Since all
statements about Preferred Voice's plans, estimates and expectations are based
on current projections that involve risks and uncertainties, and are subject to
change at any time, the company's actual results may differ materially from
expected results. Readers should consider these risks and uncertainties, which
are discussed in documents filed by Preferred Voice, Inc., with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. These documents identify important factors that could
cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in the
forward-looking statements. Preferred Voice, Inc. expressly disclaims any
obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Media Contact:
Joelle Mertzel
Murphy O'Brien Public Relations
(310)
453-2539
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