News, Kirusa, Ufone, Voice SMS, Pakistan: Ufone, one of the leading mobile carriers in Pakistan, has launched the Awaz SMS service based upon the pioneering Voice SMS technology from Kirusa, the world's leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value added services.

Ufone subscribers across Pakistan can now send personalized Awaz SMS messages to friends, family and colleagues across mobile networks in Pakistan. The Awaz SMS service is available nationwide to all Ufones's prepaid and postpaid subscribers. To deliver the Voice SMS solution to Ufone, Kirusa has deployed Voice SMS application and multimodal platform, integrated with HP open call media platform in the Ufone network in Islamabad.

Kirusa's Voice SMS technology allows its clients to offer the ultimate seamless Voice SMS experience to their mobile subscribers. The service provides a user the facility to send SMS messages without the hassle of typing a message on mobile phone keypads; instead a user is simply required to dial 9399-94 followed by the recipient's phone number, and records a short message of 30 seconds, in the language of his/her choice. A Ufone subscriber will get a network call that will take him to his Voice SMS. If the recipient is on another network he/she will get an SMS message from the sender, and can directly dial a predefined number in the message to access the recorded message. After listening to the message, Ufone subscribers can reply to an Awaz SMS by voice, or by text, and can also forward the message if they like. He/she can also dial *0* to retrieve new messages, and *1* to retrieve old messages. The user also has the option to schedule the Awaz SMS for sending the message at a later predefined time. A subscriber on another network also has an option to reply to an Awaz SMS sent by a Ufone subscriber. A number of other enhanced features are also available.

Ufone subscribers will pay PKR 0.75 (USD 0.018) to send an Awaz SMS. They will be able to listen to the message free of charge for the first time, and will pay PKR 0.50 (USD 0.012) per minute for subsequent listens.

"We have always believed in maintaining a strong focus on high quality of service and providing innovative solutions to add value to the lives of our subscribers. We believe that Awaz SMS will be just the right market initiative to fulfill the need of the masses. We are happy that we worked with Kirusa to bring this service to the market mainly because of their proactive stance and industry leading technology platforms," said Asher Yaqoob, CMO, Ufone.

"Awaz SMS will have tremendous appeal to youth along with servicing the messaging needs of the low literacy market segment. It will have all the colors of emotion and will allow our subscribers to give a personalized touch when they communicate," said Mr Ali Ikram, Head of VAS, Ufone Pakistan.

"Our customers can be confident in our ability to help them deliver a world class service today and in the future," said Kirusa CEO, Inderpal Singh Mumick. He added, "We are pleased to work with Ufone to bring the Voice SMS service to their mobile subscribers in Pakistan and we congratulate Ufone on the launch of the Voice SMS service."

• More info: www.kirusa.com