Comunicano

MOBIVOX AND UNYK PARTNER TO BRING VOICE-ACTIVATED MOBILE SERVICES TO GROWING, 10-MILLION-PLUS GLOBAL AUDIENCE

• Unyk to Offer Its Users Innovative Telephony Services by Deploying Mobivox/PL
• Unyk Address Books Now Accessed and Activated by Voice From Any Phone

MONTRÉAL–Oct. 7, 2008—Mobivox, the leading provider of voice-activated mobile VoIP services, today announced a partnership with Unyk, creators of the global Internet-based “intelligent address book.” With its deployment of Mobivox|PL, Unyk will offer its rapidly growing, 10-million user base the ability to navigate their address books, place low-cost calls around the world and use other advanced Mobivox voice-activated telephony services from any phone.

Unyk, a Montréal-based company, manages more than 480 million individual contacts for its global users. It automatically keeps its users’ multiple contact books synchronized through one centralized database stored in the network cloud. Whenever a user makes a change to his or her own contact details through Unyk.com, the service automatically and seamlessly updates all of the contacts’ cloud-based address books. With the MOBIVOX|PL deployment, those cloud-based contacts immediately become “portable memory” and are accessible by voice from any phone, at any time, on any network around the world.

In partnering with Mobivox, Unyk leverages its investment in its user relationships by offering voice and advanced IP telephony services under its own brand, with its own look, feel and customer relationship management. The Unyk.com intelligent address book now operates in six languages and has particularly strong up-take in Spanish- and French-speaking markets to date.

“Introducing a voice interface to the address book tracks closely with our objectives to offer full mobility and customized services to our users,” said Sebastien Brault, CEO and founder of UNYK.com. “You’ll be able to access your Unyk address book no matter where you are, and to take advantage of the communications services we can offer in partnership with Mobivox.” 

Mobivox President and CEO Peter Diedrich noted: “We are delighted with the opportunity to bring MOBIVOX|PL to a new partner with a growing online audience of users. The Unyk partnership makes another great proof point for MOBIVOX|PL in several ways. First, it attests to our platform’s scalability and robustness, by addressing close to half a billion user end points in a growing and diverse customer base. It also speaks to the flexibility and simplicity MOBIVOX|PL offers partners to quickly deploy services that can reach their international audiences,” he continued. “We present every facet of our value-added mobile services offering to Unyk’s users, but with the advantage of delivering them in Unyk users’ languages, with Unyk’s own marketing voice and brand personality.”

A measured beta release of Unyk’s voice-activated mobile services will become available in November, with worldwide general availability slated for January 2009.

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About Mobivox
Mobivox provides its partners and customers with innovative, voice-activated access to a host of Mobile VoIP services and applications, including world-wide calling, group communication and voice-to-text services. No complex PIN numbers or software downloads are required. Its voice-activated mobile services platform, MOBIVOX|PL, seamlessly combines an optimized voice user interface, rich 'in-the-cloud' contact storage, and a comprehensive, network-agnostic telephony infrastructure. Carriers and communities alike rebrand and resell these services as a way to quickly differentiate their offerings and leverage existing investments in contact or customer databases and proprietary networks.
 
The company is privately held and headquartered in Montréal. For more information, please visit http://blog.mobivoxpl.com and www.mobivox.com.

About Unyk
Based in Montréal and privately held, Unyk is the creator of UNYK.com, a smart address book that updates itself automatically. Each person fills out his personal and professional contact information on his profile on Unyk.com. Then, he imports all the information contained in all his address books (Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc.), and controls who has access to what information. Finally, when a user changes address or phone numbers, that information is automatically updated in all his contacts’ address books, and vice-versa. Launched in September 2005 and available in six different languages, the web site already counts 10 million users and 3 million unique visitors each month. More information on the company available at: www.UNYK.com.

MOBIVOX UNVEILS VOICE-ACTIVATED MOBILE SERVICES PLATFORM FOR CARRIER AND COMMUNITY MARKETS

MOBIVOX|PL Enables Incumbent Carriers and Large Communities To Quickly Monetize Resources with Market-Proven, Value-added Services

MONTRÉAL–September 24, 2008—Mobivox, the mobile VoIP services innovator that lowered the price and lessened the pain of international phone calling by connecting its subscribers to whomever they asked for by name, today announced MOBIVOX|PL, a voice-activated mobile services platform. MOBIVOX|PL is now available to the service-provider and online-community markets. 

As the engine of the Mobivox consumer service, MOBIVOX|PL has been market tested by hundreds of thousands of users calling from worldwide voice networks, and speaking in multiple languages. Offering packaged, value-added, voice-activated services, it benefits carriers and large communities looking for ways to differentiate their services, or shift revenue models away from the sinking, commoditized market of calling minutes. 

Mobivox’s founders include some of the earliest developers in the field of speech recognition, bringing with them a particular focus on voice-activated services for users in mobile environments. A product of that expertise, MOBIVOX|PL successfully recognizes spoken contact names out of uploaded or manually entered contact databases. End users have simply to say “Call John Thompson” or “Call the marketing group” from any mobile device or fixed-line phone.

Network-agnostic, the platform then either delivers the one-to-one or one-to-many call over Mobivox’s own network, or hands the call and routing information to the partner network for it to terminate.

A mobile user’s portable memory; a network-agnostic service

“Today, we are laying out a compelling voice-activated mobile services platform and technology that builds on our innovative, proven service offering:  an optimized voice user interface that supports multiple languages; an always-available, hosted address book that serves as a mobile user’s ‘portable memory’; and a network-agnostic VoIP infrastructure for service creation that also includes, at the option of our partners, billing, fraud management and quality-based, least-cost call routing,” said Peter Diedrich, president and CEO of Mobivox.

"MOBIVOX|PL is truly distinctive through the sum of these parts. Early partner validation has already demonstrated its unique value proposition for service providers looking to grow and profit from the mobile telephony market.”

A voice-activated prototype application can be deployed for partners in a matter of weeks. The platform can deliver voice-activated services for any kind of voice carrier, running any kind of network, and to any end-user telephony device, wired or wireless. To date, among other services, the platform delivers easy-to-use voice-activated dialing and call control, group calling and voice-to-SMS and voice-to-email messaging.

JAJAH, the popular VoIP service provider, selected MOBIVOX|PL this past August to power JAJAH Concierge, a JAJAH-branded, voice-activated suite of services.

“We are delighted to offer JAJAH customers a new premium service developed on Mobivox’s voice application platform,” said Trevor Healy, JAJAH CEO. “It bolts Mobivox’s core strength in voice interface and effortless calling to our strength in managed services.”

To online communities such as social and business networking sites, which have no network of their own but typically do have stores of contact information, MOBIVOX|PL represents an opportunity to monetize the investment in their user relationships by offering own-brand voice services.

Going beyond minutes

“In launching this platform, Mobivox presents a way for carriers to leverage their existing resources,” said Jon Arnold, independent VoIP analyst and principal, Jon Arnold & Associates, “without adding any capital expense or—equally important—appreciable user effort. There is no need, for example, for subscribers to ‘train’ recognizers to their individual voices, as we’ve seen with other voice-dial roll-outs. Subscribers merely register the names and numbers of their contacts—if the information isn’t already uploaded—and speak their names to call them. Compared with all the numbers you’d need to make international calls, in particular, this is a great convenience—as well as a cost saving.”

MOBIVOX|PL is available to partners globally today. More information on the platform and the partner offer, from service creation to deployment, is available at http://blog.mobivoxpl.com.

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About Mobivox

Mobivox provides its partners and customers with innovative, voice-activated access to a host of Mobile VoIP services and applications, including world-wide calling, group communication and voice-to-text services.  No complex PIN numbers or software downloads are required. Its voice-activated mobile services platform, MOBIVOX|PL, seamlessly combines an optimized voice user interface, rich 'in-the-cloud' contact storage, and a comprehensive, network-agnostic telephony infrastructure. Carriers and communities alike rebrand and resell these services as a way to quickly differentiate their offerings and leverage existing investments in contact or customer databases and proprietary networks. The company is privately held and headquartered in Montréal.

MOBIVOX CEO ON SQUAWK BOX

Peter Diedrich, new CEO at MOBIVOX, stopped by Squaw Box today to chat with Alec Saunders. Among the highlights of the podcast are Diedrich’s comments on what attracted him to MOBIVOX, with its voice-driven services that makes it possible to connect with family and friends around the world from any phone. He also provided insight into recent pricing changes and talked about partnering opportunities with the company.

MOBIVOX NAMES PETER DIEDRICH AS ITS NEW CEO

Joins Board of Directors in Company Providing International Calling from Any Phone

MONTRÉAL—June 16, 2008—MOBIVOX, which makes it possible to connect with family and friends around the world from any phone, today announced the appointment of Peter Diedrich as Chief Executive Officer.   

Diedrich, 44, was also appointed to the board of directors of MOBIVOX. He succeeds Stéphane Marceau, who left the company early this year.   

Diedrich has more than 20 years of operations experience in technology and telecommunications, management consulting and venture capital.   

He comes to MOBIVOX after serving since 2006 as president and CEO of TBayTel, the largest independently owned full-service telecommunications carrier in Canada, where he developed a new strategic growth blueprint and led turnarounds in financial and operational performance.   

Diedrich has also held key leadership positions at a number of high-profile firms, including Bell-Northern Research, Nortel Networks, McKinsey & Company, Bell Canada Enterprises, RBC Royal Bank Financial Group and Skypoint Capital.   

He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Carleton University and a master of science in management from the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

He is a member of Professional Engineers of Ontario. 

MOBIVOX is a privately held company whose investors include: IDG Ventures Boston, IDG Venture Investment China, IDG Ventures Vietnam, Brightspark and Skypoint. 

MOBIVOX enables voice-activated calls from any phone to more than 40 countries. Registered MOBIVOX members can make free and inexpensive high-quality calls around the world by simply saying the name of the person they want to reach. 

MOBIVOX is simple to use—no need for a calling card, PIN number, computer or complex download. Just a call to a local number connects you instantly with friends, family and colleagues. For more information, please visit http://www.mobivox.com.

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Contacts:
Sue Huss, for Mobivox
+1 619 379-4396
bizpr@mobivox.com   

MOBIVOX LAUNCHES ITS SERVICE IN MANDARIN CHINESE

Mandarin Speakers at Home and Abroad Can Now Easily Reach Each Other For Free or at Low Cost Per Minute From Any Phone

MONTRÉAL–May 13, 2008—MOBIVOX, the international calling service that connects family, friends, business associates and Skype contacts around the world for free from any phone, announced today the launch of a Mandarin Chinese version of its acclaimed voice user interface and Web site. The newly localized service will bring Mandarin speakers a simple-to-use Web site for initial registration, and an easily understood interactive voice response (IVR) application that recognizes callers and asks for the desired number to reach, all in their native language.   

Mandarin-speaking users in over 40 countries need only call their local MOBIVOX access number to reach the IVR and enter the number they want to call.  They can also enter the name of a registered contact using the phone’s keypad, if they have previously entered the name on their Mobivox registration site. Chinese-written names can be entered through Pinyin.

Registered users in China, where there is currently no local access number, can also benefit from free or low-cost calling by using MOBIVOX’s SMS or Web Call Back features. Users will first receive a call from MOBIVOX, which will then connect their call to the contact or number of their choice.
 
Registration to MOBIVOX is free. Calls between registered MOBIVOX members are also free to more than 40 countries, and calls to non-members start at 1.9 cents per minute. 

“I’ve tried many phone services over the years—various calling plans, phone cards, and Internet calls,” said Lin Li, a state government employee from the Sacramento area who emigrated from China in 1993. “But I just tried MOBIVOX recently, and found it the best by far. I am impressed with its convenience, voice quality and extremely low cost. Now I can call my mom in China whenever and wherever I want, using my home phone or cell phone. Even better, if we’re both registered with MOBIVOX, the call is totally free. I am going to tell my friends to try it!”

MOBIVOX worked closely with Welocalize, a globalization firm based in Frederick, Md., for the English-to-Chinese translation and localization of the service.

According to Darren Yaphe, director of marketing at MOBIVOX, China is one of the four most popular destinations for MOBIVOX callers, along with Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. “China exchanges huge volumes of telecom traffic with widely dispersed émigré communities and individuals,” he said. “Considering the spread of these populations and the reach of our network, we knew we’d lower costs for the greatest number of people by making Mandarin Chinese the first language to be added to our English-language interface.” 

The Mandarin interface will also enable the use of many MOBIVOX voice-driven services, including free conference calling, said Yaphe. “Mandarin-speaking members in Vancouver, New York, London, Malaysia and Shanghai will find it incredibly easy and inexpensive to all meet together over MOBIVOX.”

A Mandarin version of this release can be obtained here: http://comunicano.typepad.com/bam/2008/05/mobivox-launche.html.

About MOBIVOX 

MOBIVOX is an international calling service that makes it possible to call friends, family, business associates and Skype contacts around the world for free from any phone. Calls between members are free to more than 40 destinations and all other calls to non-MOBIVOX members start at 1.9 cents per minute.

MOBIVOX is headquartered in Montréal with a satellite office in Boston. For more information, visit www.MOBIVOX.com.

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MOBIVOX 将推出中文服务 (Mandarin translation of release)

A Mandarin translation of the press release is available as a PDF file here:Download finalmobivox_chineseivr_mandarin_pdf.pdf.

还可根据请求提供本新闻稿的 Microsoft Word 格式. sue.huss@comunicano.com.

MOBIVOX VISITS ALEC SAUNDERS' SQUAWK BOX

Comunicano clients seem to be getting Alec Saunders' ear lately. Most recently, Darren Yaphe of MOBIVOX was a guest on Squawk Box: http://saunderslog.com/2008/04/04/squawk-box-april-4-guest-darren-yaphe-of-mobivox/. MOBIVOX is an international calling service that makes it possible to call friends and family around the world for free or very inexpensively, and from any phone.

MOBIVOX’S “SEND MESSAGE” ENABLES VOICE-DRIVEN, HANDS-FREE TEXTING FROM ANY PHONE

New MOBIVOX Feature Converts Voice to E-mail and Short Messages (SMS)

MONTRÉAL—March 31, 2008–MOBIVOX, the international calling service that connects family and friends around the world for free from any phone, announced today the launch of a new “hands-free” messaging service called “Send Message.”

MOBIVOX’s Send Message feature eliminates the need to type on tiny mobile phone keypads. It also allows users to send text messages (SMS) from their home or office phones. The service has been designed for a variety of everyday situations in which texting or calling may not be practical, including:

Sending hands-free text messages and emails while driving;

Issuing personal reminders when a phone is accessible, but typing or writing is not feasible;

Leaving messages without having to engage in conversation.

How Send Message Works

To use the Send Message feature, members simply dial a MOBIVOX local access number and say, “send message.” Non-members can register for free at www.mobivox.com and immediately begin using the service.

Upon calling MOBIVOX, the user says the contact’s name and tells MOBIVOX to send him or her a text message or e-mail. The user then records a short message, which MOBIVOX transcribes to text and delivers within minutes to the contact’s e-mail address or mobile phone number. MOBIVOX charges 49 cents for each message sent.

“Send Message is useful anywhere, but especially in those communities that have already mandated using only hands-free devices while driving,” said Darren Yaphe, director of marketing for MOBIVOX.

To curb the alarming rise in road fatalities linked to mobile phone usage, several U.S. states and municipalities as well as some Canadian provinces already require mobile phone users to use hands-free kits while driving. In addition, legislation is presently pending in some locations to ban text messaging altogether while driving. But because it is hand-free, MOBIVOX's Send Message service is safe to use in these situations.

Send Message joins other MOBIVOX voice-driven features, including Dial-by Name and Create-a-Contact, providing members with additional reasons to use MOBIVOX’s robust platform while saving money on their long distance and international calls to more than 40 countries around the world.

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About MOBIVOX 

MOBIVOX is an international calling service that makes it possible to call friends and family around the world for free from any phone. Calls between members are free to more than 40 destinations and all other calls to non-MOBIVOX members start at 1.9 cents per minute.

MOBIVOX is headquartered in Montréal with a satellite office in Boston. For more information, visit www.mobivox.com.

Contact:
Sue Huss
+1 619-379-4396
sue.huss@comunicano.com or bizpr@mobivox.com

MOBIVOX BRINGS PUSH-BUTTON CALLING CAPABILITIES TO E-MAILS, BLOGS AND WEB SITES

“Call Me” Button Acts Like a Toll-Free Number While Keeping Your Phone Number Private

MONTRÉAL–March 19, 2008—Reinforcing its commitment to making international calling easier, MOBIVOX announced today the launch of its new “Call Me” button.

MOBIVOX members simply place the Call Me button into their e-mail signatures or onto social network profiles, blogs, auction sites and other Web pages, enabling them to receive calls from around the world, while keeping their phone numbers private.

“Call Me enables members to keep in contact no matter where they are or what they’re doing,” said Nitzan Shaer, COO of MOBIVOX. “The Call Me button is one of many features that we are developing to make the service more versatile. Our goal is to make free, or low cost, international calling easier and more accessible through a wide range of communications tools—not only mobile phones, but also social media, e-mail and other Web sites where information is exchanged.

How Call Me Works

When the Call Me button is clicked, a Call Me page appears containing an online form to initiate the call to the Mobivox member. The Call Me button then seamlessly connects the call after the Mobivox member has been identified as being available. The Call Me button also acts like a toll-free number for the call initiator. This benefits the Mobivox members by providing them with an inexpensive and manageable method for their contacts to reach them at a fraction of the cost of a typical toll-free number service.   

Not only does the Call Me button keep the member’s phone number hidden, but members can also configure the button to direct calls to an alternate number. Shaer explains, “When I am in Boston, I configure my button to call me at the office, whereas when I am traveling, I can direct it to my mobile phone. It essentially follows me wherever I am.” The button can also be configured to restrict certain calls and can be activated or deactivated at will.

For more information, or to get your own Call Me button, visit www.mobivox.com.

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About Mobivox

MOBIVOX is an international calling service that makes it possible to call friends and family around the world for free from any phone. Calls between members are free to more than 40 destinations and all other calls to non-MOBIVOX members start at 1.9 cents per minute.

MOBIVOX is headquartered in Montréal with a satellite office in Boston. For more information, visit www.mobivox.com.

Contacts:
Sue Huss
+1 619-379-4396
bizpr@mobivox.com

MOBIVOX LAUNCHES ‘SAY IT AND SAVE IT’ FEATURE

Advanced Voice Recognition Lets Mobivox Users Add Contacts By Simply Speaking Their Names

MONTRÉAL–March 13, 2008—MOBIVOX, the international calling service that connects family and friends around the world for free from any phone, announced today the launch of a new feature that makes calling by voice even easier. Create a Contact enables MOBIVOX users to add contacts to their online contact book in their own voice, by simply speaking the information over any telephone.

Nitzan Shaer, COO of MOBIVOX, said, "MOBIVOX already simplifies international calling, by enabling users to dial by voice and place free calls to anywhere in the world. Today, we are excited to take this service a step further, making it even easier to add to the list of people you can call—simply by speaking their names.”
 
Previously, after MOBIVOX members registered for free at www.mobivox.com, they uploaded or typed in their contacts names and numbers. While they can continue to use that method, the new voice-driven process makes it easy to add new contacts, from any phone, anywhere.

MOBIVOX’s advanced speech-recognition technology hears the spoken name of a contact and instantly connects the caller to contacts anywhere in the world.

According to Shaer, “This new feature will dramatically improve the speech recognition accuracy, and is especially useful for those with multi-cultural backgrounds and non-English contact names. These are precisely the people who use MOBIVOX the most to keep in touch with their home country and loved ones far away.”

MOBIVOX has also built intelligence into its voice-recognition system that identifies a frequently dialed number that does not exist in the contact list. The automated attendant then prompts the caller to create a contact. This is especially helpful to users who travel extensively and don’t have their address books readily accessible.

Shaer will discuss these and other methods used by his company to optimize speech recognition accuracy at the Emerging Communications (eComm) Conference 2008 in Mountain View, Calif., on Wed., March 12.

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About Mobivox

MOBIVOX is an international calling service that makes it possible to call friends and family around the world for free from any phone. Calls between members are free to more than 40 destinations. For all other calls, MOBIVOX offers extremely low rates starting at 1.9 cents per minute.

CONTACT:
Sue Huss
Comunicano, Inc.
Sue.huss@comunicano.com
+1 619-379-4396