SimulScribe brings consumer unified messaging to Canada

SimulScribe Inc. launched its voicemail-to-text solution today in Canada, bringing unified messaging to the Canadian masses. Available on 95% of Canadian wireline and wireless networks, the service allows consumers to have their voicemail converted to text and then sent to them either in an email or SMS, eliminating the need to check multiple voicemail boxes. Unlike competing services that only offer partial messages for mobile phones, deliver audio files to a single integrated voicemail box, or are carrier specific, New York-based SimulScribe delivers a fully transcribed voicemail regardless of the platform - home phone, work number or mobile - and is available to just about every Canadian consumer. James Siminoff, founder and CEO of SimulScribe, says voicemail as text is all you need as a unified offering. "It's really the full complete package because if you have all your voicemail boxes coming to SimulScribe...you don't need any other higher-level unified messaging or complex unified messaging services because everything is one mailbox, being converted to text sent to you," he tells Report on Wireless. Despite the full transcription abilities and multi-platform support, the service is available at reasonable rates. Unlimited usage is priced at $29.95 per month. A middle tier that includes 40 messages runs $9.95 per month with $0.25 per message overage charge. And then occasional users are charged $0.35 per message. These rates include a voicemail box, so consumers no longer need to subscribe to voicemial from their current telecom and wireless providers. Siminoff says that rates will remain about the same for Canadian users. Low rates are likely why the service is hugely popular south of the border. According to Siminoff, five months after launch the company had 10,000. It has since growth by 30% per month. The service promotes itself as a time saver for consumers. Rather than having to dial into voicemail when a call is missed, an email will allow the user to simply read the email. In the case of busy professionals, they can read missed calls during meetings and forward the message onto colleagues so appropriate action can start immediately rather than having to wait for the meeting to end. SimulScribe's introduction to Canada comes a day after Rogers Wireless launched its own voicemail-to-text service. The offering is, which is being powered by SpinVox, only works on Rogers' wireless network and Rogers Home Phone customers can't take advantage of the voicemail-to-text service. The carrier-agnostic nature of the service was a key tenet of SimulScribe's strategy, insisting that partnering with a carrier is not the only way to get a product launched. "We don't believe that's true," he says. "We believe very strongly in having a direct customer relationship with our end customers and offering them the best service." This direct customer relationship is unlikely to make Canadian carriers happy as the elimination of voicemail boxes, and the charges they carry, has a direct financial impact.

SimulScribe brings consumer unified messaging to Canada

News | December 12, 2007

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