Airtel launches speech recognition based service

The service, 'One Number, One Voice', launched in partnership with Nuance Communications, can be accessed by airtel mobile users in India by dialling 54321. The speech recognition service on the offer includes Hello Tunes, airtel Radio, News, Sports, and Jokes among others, the company said in a statement. Customers will be charged Rs 2 per minute for the service.

The service currently supports English, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam and will be rolled out in other languages subsequently. "As we join hands with Nuance Communications for the launch of our 'One Number, One Voice' service. We look forward to leveraging their expertise towards delivering an improved 'search and discover content' experience for airtel mobile customers across India," Chief Marketing Officer at Bharti airtel Shireesh Joshi said.

'One Number, One Voice' is available for airtel customers across Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Kerala, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh. The service is intuitive enough to distinguish between regular callers and first-time callers, offering a customised caller experience wherein novice callers get more hand-holding whereas frequent callers are offered short-cuts, the statement added.

"We are experiencing an unprecedented demand for voice services, as they provide consumers with a fast and intuitive way to access a broad range of content," said Michael Thompson, senior vice president and general manager, mobile division, Nuance Communications.