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Philips and Celforce Launch Gujarat’s Primary Voice Portal
URL(s): www.speech.philips.com/telephony
Completing First Nationwide Deployment of Philips’ Speech Technology
GUJARAT, India and AACHEN, Germany, September 26, 2002 - Philips and Celforce, a Hutchison affiliate and the largest cellular services provider in the Indian state of Gujarat, announce today the launch of Voice Recognition, a speech-enabled voice portal, for Gujarat. The voice portal uses SpeechPearl, the world’s leading speech recognition and understanding software for telephony systems developed by Philips Speech Processing, a business unit of Philips Electronics and a leading supplier of speech recognition technology and business solutions.
Gujarat’s voice portal is the continuation of a series of voice portal services of Hutch (the unified brand name of Hutchinson) in India featuring state-of-the-art speech recognition technology from Philips. With the launch of Gujarat’s new voice portal, Hutch now offers its more than one million mobile customers in India access to a wide range of information and entertainment services by mobile phone and navigable just by voice. Other areas where this service has been deployed include Delhi, Kolkatta, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai and Karnataka.
The Celforce Voice Recognition service provides callers with the latest updates on news, stocks and shares, and sports, as well as entertainment including movies and even horoscopes. Celforce’s customers need only dial 333 from their mobile phones and state their choice. The system recognizes the caller’s voice commands and immediately responds with the requested information. Callers can choose to skip from one service to the other just by saying what they want. The intelligent system recognizes the commands and responses accordingly. By saying "help" the caller receives assistance on navigation instantly. The service is also personalized, meaning that once the caller chooses to hear the news in a certain language or asks for the horoscope according to his or her zodiac sign, the system will remember it each time the caller calls.
Philips’ popular SpeechPearl speech recognition engine was deployed for the Voice Recognition voice portals in co-operation with India’s Computer Telephony Private Limited (CTPL), a system integrator and a Philips’ partner. SpeechPearl’s natural language understanding technology enables callers to speak naturally in their own words without special training, commands or instructions, just like speaking with a real human agent. The system is designed to understand voices, dialects and accents from all over India.
Commenting on the deployment of SpeechPearl, Sanjoy Mukerji, COO, Celforce, said, “The launch of the innovative speech-enabled voice portals is in line with our policy of offering innovative services and demonstrates to our customers that it is really possible to speak your request for information into your mobile, and get your answers! Philips’ unique technology enables our customers to enjoy service access in the most convenient way. With the ease of entry and use of Voice Recognition our subscribers can enjoy fast and efficient access to a range of information and entertainment services by simply speaking naturally.”
"SpeechPearl’s ability to understand not only Indian English but also words from the respective local languages specially meets the requirements of voice portals in India,” said Ruud van Vessem, Chief Operating Officer, Philips Speech Processing/Telephony Solutions. “Our technology enables Celforce’s Voice Recognition service to be extremely user-friendly, allowing people to speak their own language or dialect. It is imperative that a caller can talk to the system in a very natural way.”
Speech recognition technology from Philips is already well accepted in India. The company has successfully deployed its SpeechMania platform in JuzzFone, a speech-enabled portal deployed in Tamil Nadu. Philips Speech Processing has been active in the field of speech recognition technology for more than 20 years with installations in Europe, North and South America and the Asia-Pacific region, and has obtained a significant number of patents. Additionally, Philips is recognized as having pioneered true language understanding with open grammars which allows callers to speak naturally to the system.
About Philips
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $28.2 billion (EUR 32.3 billion) in 2001. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, color picture tubes for televisions and monitors, and one-chip TV products. Its 184,000 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges.
About Celforce
Celforce, the largest cellular service provider in Gujarat, has the widest network covering the length and breadth of the state. It offers innovative and reliable services that deliver value and a personalized user experience. As the market leader, Celforce combines the cutting-edge global expertise of Hutchison Telecom with a deep local understanding of customer needs. Celforce today connects more than 160 cities and 2600 villages and continues to expand its superior network and services to reach out to customers across Gujarat. Celforce is an integral part of Hutchison cellular operations in India, along with Orange in Mumbai, Command in Kolkata; and Hutch in Delhi, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Hutchison is the country's largest roaming operator, with a more extensive network in India and around the world than any other operator. Hutchison is part of the Hong Kong based multinational conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Limited, a Fortune 500 company, and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its operations span 36 countries across the Asia Pacific region, Europe and the Americas. Hutchison affiliates jointly account for the largest number of cellular subscribers in India numbering over 1.4 million.
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