Road warriors are discovering that there is a new and better way to get voicemail on their mobile devices: By reading it, rather than listening it.

As such, service providers are starting to roll out visual voicemail bundled with their service offerings. Visual voicemail is a new type of service that automatically transcribes voicemail messages and converts them into text so they can be read on a mobile device’s screen. With visual voicemail, you no longer have to struggle to dial-in to your company voicemail system and take the time to listen to all your messages – instead, you can see the messages you received – from whom and at what time – via an email-like browser. You can then scan or read each email, which is typically a lot faster than listening to them.

The problem with voicemail is that it can be slow and cumbersome to dial in and play through all the messages. As we all know, some messages are more important than others – but in regular voicemail there’s no way to re-order, or “prioritize” messages based on importance.

With visual voicemail, however, you can see each message left via a visual interface on your mobile device. What’s more, you can read transcriptions of all your voicemail messages on your device’s screen, which in turn enables you to skim the messages to more quickly determine which ones need immediate attention. What’s more, you can quickly find the one part of a message which has the most urgency and/or relevance, without having to listen to the entire voicemail over and over again.

This new technology has become highly desirable among business travelers. According to a survey of 1,700 mobile phone users in the United States and Canada commissioned by Comverse (News - Alert), which provides service delivery platforms for triple- and quad-play service providers, 81 percent are interested in using visual voicemail.

“The message from consumers in North America is loud and clear: When it comes to retrieving voicemail on mobile phones, it’s sometimes inconvenient to dial in,” a press release from Comverse states. “Instead, voicemail should arrive in an email-like inbox on a handset’s screen, where users can see who called and then click and listen to messages.”

But when it comes to visual voicemail, the market is still wide open: Not many providers have yet rolled out this capability to their subscribers.

According to the survey, 68 percent of users would consider purchasing visual voicemail if their mobile provider offered it, and nearly 40 percent would use voicemail more often. In both cases, carriers would have the opportunity to generate more revenues.

“The survey confirms a strong consumer preference for visual voicemail and suggests that it significantly enhances the entire mobile phone experience,” said Gonzalo Zavala, associate director for independent market research firm Synovate, which conducted the survey for Comverse.

Sixty percent of survey respondents said not having to dial in to get voicemail was a top advantage of visual voicemail systems. Fifty-four percent said the ability to see all messages at a glance, together with such key message details as the caller’s identity, time of call, and length of message, was a key advantage -- and 45 percent said the ability handle messages in any order was a top benefit. Fifty percent of respondents said the simplicity of the service -- the fact that it requires one click to retrieve messages – was a top reason for purchasing it.

 

“Visual voicemail is well on its way to becoming the standard for next-generation voicemail around the globe, and this research shows how its mass market appeal would benefit both users and carriers,” said John Bunyan, Comverse’s chief marketing officer, in the release. “Comverse has more visual voicemail deployments around the world than any other provider, and we are working with carriers and the leading handset manufacturers to bring visual voicemail to even more markets.”

 

Visual Voicemail is offered as part of Comverse’s Voice HUB, a single platform for multiple voice-related services, such as next-generation voicemail, ringback tones and call completion. Operators can reap cost savings from the Voice HUB’s unified platform because it reuses major components and takes advantage of centralized operation, maintenance and provisioning.

 

Comverse will be demonstrating its Comverse HUB Visual Voicemail offering at CTIA Wireless 2009 in Las Vegas. For more information, visit www.comverse.com.