"Cincinnati Bell subscribers have always been early adopters of advanced services, such as voicemail-to-text," says Mike Vanderwoude, general manager of Cincinnati Bell Wireless. "By partnering with Yap, we are taking Voice2Text to the next level with enhanced options including e-mail delivery of voicemail messages, a profanity filter, and online account management."
"We’ve reached a tipping point where computer-based voicemail transcription meets the quality expectations of subscribers," says Igor Jablokov, CEO at Yap. "By converting the audio into text, voicemail takes on a new dimension making it a near real-time communications medium more akin to email or SMS."
Yap automatically converts an incoming voicemail into text and then delivers the message to the customer via SMS text or e-mail. Transcriptions are automated to ensure fast and reliable delivery of transactions while keeping data private and secure. The service enhances productivity since a customer can reply to a voicemail without having to dial in and listen to a message. In addition, messages are more manageable since they can be stored, indexed or forwarded.
"Today’s mobile subscribers expect to interact with their voicemails as efficiently as they do when accessing other messaging services on the go." says Dr. Shiv Bakhshi, principal analyst and founder of Mobile Perspectives, a consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile communications industry. "By pushing voicemails to the edge device, carriers can also realize the potential savings associated with significantly reduced demand on centralized voicemail access and storage."
Voice2Text is available from Cincinnati Bell for $4.99 per month for 25 message conversions or $5.99 per month for unlimited conversions. Voice2Text allows customers to reply to messages by voice or text and keep a visual record of who called and what they said. For more information about Voice2Text, visit a Cincinnati Bell retail store or go to www.cincinnatibell.com/voice2text.
About Yap
Founded in 2006, Yap pioneered the world’s first fully automated voice-to-text platform for communications service providers. The Company’s award-winning speech recognition technologies provide the foundation for innovative applications such as voicemail-to-text, speech-enabled mobile messaging and voice search. Yap’s 100% machine-based approach gives its customers a cost-effective solution that is fast, scalable and secure. The Company is headquartered in Charlotte with offices in Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco, and is financed by SunBridge Partners and Harbert Venture Partners. For more information, please visit www.yapme.com
About Cincinnati Bell Inc.
With headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Bell (NYSE:CBB) provides integrated communications solutions - including local, long distance, data, Internet, wireless and entertainment services - that help keep residential and business customers connected with each other and with the world. In addition, businesses ranging in size from start-up to large enterprises turn to Cincinnati Bell for efficient, scalable office communications systems as well as complex information technology solutions including data center and managed services. Cincinnati Bell conducts its operations through three business segments : Wireline, Wireless, and Technology Solutions. For more information, visit www.cincinnatibell.com.
