IBasis, SpeechWorks Set Deal to Integrate
Speech Recognition With Internet Calling
By SHARON CLEARY
WSJ.COM
IBasis Inc., an Internet-telephony service provider, and SpeechWorks International Inc , a voice-interface software maker, announced an agreement to integrate speech recognition into iBasis's Internet-calling network.
The announcement marks a new convergence of telephony over the Internet, Web content and, eventually, Web-based commerce. As a result of the agreement, speech-driven services, such as flight information or a voice-automated corporate intranet, could be available to customers of telephone systems that use the new applications on iBasis's network.
These applications should also mean more revenue for the Burlington, Mass., company, which expects that callers will spend more minutes -- and thus more money -- on its global network. It is "a way for consumers to make calls that take up more network time," says Ofer Gneezy, iBasis's president and chief executive officer. This also translates to revenue for the telecommunications carriers. IBasis sells Internet-telephony minutes wholesale to these carriers.
By partnering with iBasis, Boston-based SpeechWorks gets a new network over which to deliver its voice-enabled Web service, which is currently available only over traditional telephone systems.
"Speech is here and we can deploy it," says Steve Chambers, SpeechWorks vice president of marketing, "and the Internet-protocol network can do things that a circuit-switched network can't -- and at a lower cost." He adds that the agreement "represents the potential of applications to drive network consumption."
The companies didn't disclose any financial information about the agreement.
IBasis, founded in 1996, is best known as a Cisco Systems Inc. partner. The company has had a relationship with the San Jose, Calif., Internet-switching-equipment maker since 1997, but enriched its involvement in early 1999 when it announced Cisco would power iBasis's network with its packet-switching routers.
IBasis also has agreements with Hewlett-Packard Co.; Software.com, now merged with Phone.com Inc. as OpenWave Inc.; and has a contract to handle international calls for China Mobile Ltd., which routes voice and fax traffic to more than 46 million users.
IBasis's deal with SpeechWorks illustrates the growing power of "packet-switched" technologies, which break digital data such as an e-mail message, the sound of a voice or a video clip into chunks of binary code. The chunks are then sent to the intended recipient over the best path in Internet time and the packets are reassembled in order at the destination.
A circuit-switched network sends all the data on a single dedicated path, which is essentially slower because the path is shared by everyone using it. Such a network is also less adaptable to new technology. For instance, to add a now-ubiquitous service such as voice mail to the circuit-switched network, every end point and central office that switches and terminates phone calls had to be outfitted with hardware and software that accommodated the new service.
Internet-telephony providers and the carriers that use their technology just have to add software to application servers, and a new feature such as voice mail is ready to roll. This appeals to users and carriers that want to save money.
What does this mean for the future? Eventually, callers will "navigate from one phone number to another using Internet protocol," Mr. Chambers says, "...and a phone number will begin to resemble a URL," or Web address. This suggests that a series of separately placed phone calls may one day become a thing of the past, as Internet protocol can enable more-seamless transfers. |
